Mystery Science Theater 3000 is geek cinema at its best. Smart, funny, and fast, it's packed with enough techie, science fiction, and trash culture references to keep even antisocial fan boys or grrrls giggling hard enough to forget their plastic penholders.
The premise of the show is achingly simple: lock some funny, clever characters in a theater, show them the worst movies you can find, and let them riff off what they see. It's what thousands of snotty Boomers and Gen-Xers do with their friends - only the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crews do it better. And there are bonuses, things you and your pals couldn't do at home - such as the insane inventions presented each week by original host and show creator Joel Hodgson. Or the demented characters such as Torgo, Steve Reeves (as a washed-up ex-Hercules), or a piano-tinkling lounge singer belting out love tunes to giant Japanese rubber monsters - all portrayed by the show's second host, Mike Nelson.
For those who've never seen the show or only caught its cut, syndicated version, you can now get the pure product. Rhino Home Video has released five uncut episodes: The Amazing Colossal Man, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, Cave Dwellers, Mitchell, and Pod People.
The titles are a mixed bag, probably owing more to what films would give video rights than to anything else. Mitchell, a '70s made-for-TV cop movie, is the weakest of the bunch. And while Cave Dwellers and Pod People are excruciatingly bad films, they inspire some classic ranting by Hodgson and the bots, Crow and Tom Servo. The Amazing Colossal Man and The Brain That Wouldn't Die, however, are exactly the kind of '50s sci-fi B flicks that Mystery Science Theater 3000 was created to mock.
Uncut, nice sound, nice picture transfer, and nice packaging. Oh, and seeing the shows this way, you don't have to sit through the (seemingly) dozens of commercials that break up the program on TV. Trust me, you won't miss them.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: US$19.95 each. Rhino Home Video: (800) 432 0020, +1 (310) 474 4778 ext. 6283.
STREET CRED
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