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Harsh Review of MST3K: The MovieA guy named Hemanth Kissoon runs a site called Filmulation.com. Admitting he had never ever heard of MST3K before (which tells me he is probably in England) he takes a look at the new Blu-Ray MST3K: The Movie. With zero context to support his viewing, he unsurprisingly hates it.
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Gramercy criminally under-promoted the movie, so I can’t imagine that many non fans showed up for it. I had to go fifty miles just to reach a theater showing it, and I’m in Southern California, hardly a place lacking in multiplexes.
The only major criticism I even recall after all these years were from people who hold This Island Earth in the same regard as Forbidden Planet. Usually the same crowd who didn’t like the premise of the show to begin with.
“whose only saving grace is the 74 minute runtime. Any longer, and the TV would’ve been switched off. ”
Somewhere, a former Gramercy executive got 12 twelve orgasms.
I used to really like MST3K: The Movie. But it seems over the years, as I see more and more really good episodes, I like the movie less and less. It has some good moments, but other times the riffing does seem pretty forced. Likely having to do with Gramercy making them do “standardized” comments or jokes, and few obscure references, even though I think there were still a few (did ANYBODY even remember John Sununu in 1995?).
My other main complaint, and it has to do with the running time, is how badly they chopped up This Island Earth. Good God this movie makes zero sense in this hacked-up format. So many plot threads dangling (such as why did Cal’s plane turn green, what was the deal with those beads?) left hanging. Watching the full, uncut version is so much better, and the movie is much better for it. It’d be great to see Cinematic Titanic or Rifftrax do another go at this film.
The reviewer is a mediocre writer at best. Who can take seriously someone who uses the word “thought-provoking” as part of their rating system? Anyone who uses the word though-provoking should be flunked out of Blog High…
He liked the Avengers. That about says it all.
@losingmydignity – Cannot agree with you more. I wrote for several years in the field of professional journalism (Tempo section @ The Cincinnati Enquirer). I was also an editor on my high school newspaper. In neither position would I have accepted this story. Very lazy review.
On a good note I’m glad to see Geocities is around or at least I can assume that from the horrific design of his “movie review page” that my eyes were just raped by.
@Brandon: If a Gramercy exec creamed his pants over that, one only needs to remind the fool that his studio produced not one, not two, but *three* movies in the ’90s that have found greater success on home video because those clowns couldn’t promote a movie worth a crap. (The other two films being Mallrats and The Big Lebowski.)
It’s okay to not like things
It’s okay, but don’t be a dick about it
It’s okay to not like things
Don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like
Let’s be honest – if the movie were an episode of the show, it would be one of the worst episodes.
The skits were awful – maybe not as painful as the later years with Pearl, but close. The riffing was bland and the movie was cut badly. It was pretty much a nonsensical movie to begin with (it starts off strong, but then the whole second part of the movie is just a trip to the planet and immediately back again. The only action are things falling and that guy in the rubber suit scaring the lady).
For anyone interested, I got a copy of the blu-ray in the mail yesterday from Amazon.com/uk and watched it. The picture is pretty good. Better than the dvd that came out. The host segments look great and the movie still had it’s b movie look to it. There are a few extras. There is a behind the scenes/making of the movie feature, the trailer and a slide show of behind the scenes photos. No cut scenes are included unfortunately. If you have a all regions player it is definitely worth getting.
#55 – And Mallrats was filmed at the mall only a few miles away from BBI! And the Coen brothers, directors of The Big L, were born a few miles to the north! COINCIDENCE? I think NOT! Gramercy had it out for Minnesota!
…No, wait, yeah, it probably was a coincidence.
Mr. B Timothy: Any way you could put that featurette on YoiTube?
I’ve gotten used to people not liking MST over the years. My wife and kids tell me to turn the show off constantly. I’m usually relegated to watching on a laptop or my iPod when I’m working around the house or on TV when everybody’s gone or asleep. I’m not pompous about humor or even terribly cerebral in my humor tastes, but the amount of moronic humor and the constant regurgitation of recycled jokes is getting ridiculous. It seems like the world’s changed entertainment-wise, judging from my kids and their friends. Actually, even some of my friends. Most of what I see people laugh at is one of these:
1. Either solid or gaseous “stuff” that comes out of various bodily orifices, and/or the smell coming of various bodily orifices.
2. The laugh-a-minute aftermath of blacking out while binge drinking.
3. Good-hearted idiots becoming wildly successful through either no effort at all or binge drinking.
4. People allowing themselves to be injured with no apparent repercussions as their friends laugh wildly at their pain.
5. Whatever moronic crap is on the way-overrated Family Guy. Ugh.
Some people don’t get it, and that’s OK; because the fact that someone who watches Jersey Shore or Jack Ass hates MST means I’m not quite as stupid as I thunk I was.
#45 – NO WAIT THAT WASN’T THE DAP DI…. (SNAP)
Oh well.
Such vitriol spewed out (here and in the review) against The Movie!
As I have said elsewhere and when, I was fortunate enough to see TM in its all-too-brief theatrical run here in Tucson in the lovely but sadly departed theater on Grant and Campbell. As a fan of the show, I loved TM then, and I still love it and watch it now. I agree that the skits are more miss than hit, and I admit to sometimes skipping past them, but then I tend to do that with regular episodes, too, and don’t consider it any great crime. They did cut This Island Earth a bit, but really people who have seen the whole movie, you CAN’T really argue that the WHOLE THING is significantly better or more coherent than the chopped version. All the garbage about Ruth pretending not to recognize Cal at first? It’s incomprehensible in the TM, but only SLIGHTLY LESS SO in the full version. Yes, Cal breaks more stuff in the full version, but he breaks plenty enough in the TM cut to make Servo’s jibe funny. Yes, they left Cal’s funniest line out of TM, but oh well, what are you going to do? It doesn’t add to or subtract from the continuity of the film. The basic flaws inherent in This Island Earth still inhere in the full version, which is why I got rid of my unMSTed copy. No need to have it when I have TM.
Oh, and #45, I hope you didn’t pay the Vol. 10 price for a copy of 10.2. Not that 10.2 ain’t good and all, but there IS a rarity/demand disparity there.
Shippers,
You missed #45’s point — he BOUGHT 10.2 and RECEIVED 10 (hence he has the Godzilla film). A surprise bonus.
A shipping mistake in your error is rare enough, but when it’s this one…
Here’s an old saying: Everyone likes what they like.
Let’s not forget the other Gramercy classic “Dazed And Confused”
And hello fellow Tucsonan MSTie @63 schippers. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the Catalina in time to see MST3K: The Movie.
I love MST3K This Island Earth, I even read the original novel, and liked it too! Making fun of something you like it’s like the icing on the cake.
I love MST3K the Movie and I also love This Island Earth, I even read the original novel, and liked it too! Making fun of something you like it’s like the icing on the cake. The people who love b-movies but hate Mst3k and the people who love Mst3k but hate the movies, sorry, but you are missing some damn good entertainemt.
Back to our amateur critic, I demand his punishment at the hands of none other than THE AMAZING RANDO!
As Crow would say “Dickweed”.
So, while those in the U.S. get the bulk of MST3K releases, those in the U.K. get MST3K-TM with extras unavailable over here. I guess there’s some sort of balance in that.
And I’ve liked the movie since I saw it at one of the two theaters it was playing at in N.Y.C. However, having also seen the live show when they riffed on the complete “This Island Earth”, I wish the running time had been longer. %$#@!&*^ Grammercy!
I give his blog merely a two word review: It stinks!
In defence of my countryman:
MST is big dumb and stupid. It’s also great fun and if you don’t like a gag or don’t get it(especially due to ‘cultural differences’)no need to worry another one will be along in a few seconds.
I’m sure a stuffy middle class ex-lawyer trying to promote cinema as ART wouldn’t enjoy MST3K.
As much as I like the movie it’s not the greatest experiment but it’s still fun (and dumb and stupid and all the other things I like about the show).
Right — and the Brits don’t do big, dumb and stupid, with lots of cultural differences that no one outside of the island get, right?
(Oh, wait — isn’t there some sort of thing called Monty Python? And the Goon Show? And… well, I guess we could just go on and on and on).
The guy’s just a stupid stuffed shirt that we are devoting WAY too much time on.
Brandon, if I can figure out how to do it I will put it on youtube and let you know. It isn’t a new doc, it’s an old one from when the movie came out but it was fun to see.
Hemanth! He provokes the ire of THE AMAZING RANDO!
It’s a good thing that his site doesn’t allow comments on it. If we posted 77 messages (and counting) on his site, he’d probably have a heart attack.
BTW, the Brits ARE big into pop culture references. I watch a lot of panel comedy shows from the UK, and shows like “8 Out Of 10 Cats”, “Nevermind The Buzzcocks”, and “Harry Hill’s TV Burps” are filled with them. Sure, there’s a lot of Brit-centric comedy in these shows, but they’re aware of American pop culture, too – much more than the average American’s awareness of UK pop culture.
#65 – HOLY GOD, is that what he was trying to say? How could anyone be so stupid as to charge 10.2 prices for 10???????!!?!?!
I like it very much.
#67 – Man, I loved that theater. It still fills me with sadness when I go to Bookman’s and see that place just rotting away.
Of course, what with the economy, you can give people directions around town here based on this or that abadoned property that’s just rotting away.
I read a few other reviews on that guys site- it seems he uses the amount of “F” like some would use a star? i still couldn’t see the correlation- and son needs to learn how to work a website, half of his reviews open in like an in page word document viewer- not like the mst3k one.
and i will throw in an obligatory reference to “THE DOGS MEAT!”
:-D
@#78: The guy had it listed on Amazon *as* 10.2, not at 10.2 prices. However you slice it, it was an epic FAIL for him, and a great stroke of luck for me.
This is off-topic, but where’s the RIP for Richard Lynch? It’s bound to be ubsolutely fussincating.
At least he didn’t say he hated it because of the famed “my friends and I could get drunk and do it” excuse. It really annoys me when haters ue that as a reason not to like MST3K.
I`ll have to admitt that MST The Movie is not my idea of a prime intro to the concept. It just does not offer enough or present the best riffing, in my estimation. I would have gone with a regular episode, ala` ‘Rocketship X-M’ or something, were I cherrypicking to hook someone or give `em something to ‘review’.
Still, I have to fault this guy`s reasoning if he is obviously aware of MST fandom, yet dismisses the concept and further examination of it based upon one off-putting experience. I realise that he is reviewing that sepecific DVD release, but he pointedly references that he has no desire to see any more, and that comes across to me as flawed logic.
If a carpenter stikes a nail and it proves faulty by bending, does he lose faith in ALL nails?
…True, MST just may not be his cuppa tea, but personally I would want to KNOW that I did not like something that has accrued that level of fan interest before I gave up on it. (altho I freely admitt that I would not watch ‘American Idol’ if it were declared a national passtime)
On a side-note; the guy`s complaints seem to echo some of the original call-in complaints from the early KTMA days, when some people ‘Just did not get it’
Hemanth Kissooooon… You are a maaaad maaan! I wanna party with you, cowboy. You and me together…? Forget it!
#81 – Wow, that’s like having Christmas presents two days in a row without having to have dinner with the family or anything unpleasant like that. Amazing.
I just noticed that on the Region 1 DVD, there’s a French dub of the movie. “This Island Earth” and all the riffs are dubbed into French!! Man! If someone from England has trouble with watching the show without context, what sort of problems must someone that doesn’t speak English face?!!
I’ve always been curious about how our favorite cowtown puppet show is viewed outside of the United States. It’s an acquired taste in its home country and that’s taking into account all the humor based around U.S. pop culture references. In addition to the French language version of the film, there is also a German version of the movie. Apparently the person who dubbed it changed some of the jokes so they’d make sense to German audiences. I also remember reading in the comments section on this site that the series aired in Spain with Castilian Spanish dubbing.
Episodes from Season 8 and a few from Season 9 briefly aired in the U.K. on Sci-Fi Channel Europe, so MST3K did have a little official exposure there. Even though the reviewer who didn’t like the movie is British, there are other Brits who enjoy the series. Heck, Matthew J. Elliott is a Brit who contributes to Rifftrax. He even tried to interest several independent production companies in the idea of a riffing show for British TV, but unfortunately it was either ignored or rejected.
I’m from England and I’ve been a huge fan ever since I first saw Time Chasers on Sci-Fi back in 1998. I’ve shown it to friends over here with varying degrees of success – some loved it and wanted MORE MORE MORE, others looked at me funny and one just stopped talking to me altogether (true story).
And I had friends from the US that never watched an episode in their life, or had seen it and hated it.
I don’t think it matters where you’re from, you either get it or you don’t.