Movie: (1978) Vacationers at a winter resort struggle to survive after an avalanche hits.
Opening: Crow and Tom are working on their “Mad Bots” script
Invention exchange: Ardy in Moon 14 has some concerns; J&tB have the mouth vacuum; the Mads have the Don La Font-aine 3000
Segment 1: Crow and Tom are impressed with Rock Hudson’s romantic moves. Jonah tries to talk them down
Segment 2: As J&tB play Marco Polo, Neville La Roy visits and he and Kinga sing “Our Love Is on Wings (You Can’t See)”
Segment 3: J&TB decry deliberately stupid hybrid B-movies
Closing: Night club singer Gypsy sings a wintry medly
Stinger: Collateral avalanche damage
(80 votes, average: 4.39 out of 5)
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• Several new things in this ep: Joel as Ardy in Moon 14 (other than saying “movie in the hole!”) and the first mention of Kingachrome.
• Movie thoughts: Did Rock and Mia just assume there would be chemistry and not even try to create it? Also interesting and vaguely related: J&tB carefully avoided any riffs on Rock’s, um, lifestyle.
• Jonah’s invention triggered my gag reflex.
• Steve Franken in two out of the first four movies? What are the odds?
• In the theater, Crow and Tom control drones which carefully block the naughty bits of a naked lady, similar to the umbrella bit in episode 403- CITY LIMITS.
• Also in the theater J&tB produce cymbals.
• As the helicopter flies in, they do a M*A*S*H-style description of the movie, one that is taken WORD FOR WORD from the synopsis in the IMDB. I know because I also stole MY synopsis, above, from there, but I rewrote mine a little.
• Neil Patrick Harris pops up out of the blue in a sort of “Dr. Horrible” reunion with Felicia Day. The lyrics by Joel, Elliott Kalan and Robert Lopez. The music is by Robert Lopez, arranged and produced by Stephen Oremus.
• Interesting “Simpsons” reference: “Feels like I’m wearing’ nothin’ at all! Nothin’s at all!” How many Simpsons references were on MST3K, even though “The Simpsons” referenced MST3K several times?
• The credits do not say who wrote Gypsy’s song, so I am guessing it was another great song from Paul and Storm.
• What sort of musical instrument in Jonah playing during Gypsy’s song?
• The TripAdvisor bit is very funny.
• Callback: “We want to hear California Lady!” (Track of the Moon Beast).
• Phrases from the legacy show: “Commercial sign,” “He died as he lived…” and “You look at it, I’m bitter.”
• Cast and crew round-up: As noted, Steve Franken was also in “The Time Travelers.” Stuntman Freddie Hice also did stunts for “Alien from LA.” Behind the camera, producer Paul Rapp was assistant director on “High School Big Shot.” Producer Roger Corman’s other riffed films include “Gunslinger,” “It Conquered the World,” “The Undead,” “Viking Women,” “Teenage Cave Man,” “Swamp Diamonds” and “The Sword and the Dragon.” Editor Larry Bock also edited “Final Justice,” in which he also had a cameo as a drunk. Production designer Sharon Compton was an actress in “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II.” Special effects artist Roger George also did special effects on “The Human Duplicators” and “The Amazing Transparent Man.” Script supervisor Sandy King also supervised the script for “The Incredible Melting Man.”
• Fave riff: “1978, you have so many crimes to answer for.” Honorable mention: “o/` Rock rock rock rock rock ’n’ roll search team. o/`”
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have not watch the movie yet, but if they did take the high road on the Rock Hudson private life thing, i think that is good of them (because there are a lot of jokes they could do).
But it’s pretty amusing that Kinga has a crush on Neil Patrick Harris.
I try to refrain from negative comments here, however even in the seventies it must have seemed strange to cast Mia Farrow as the sexy love interest in Avalanche (or anything else). As Jed Clampett said when Miss Jane entered a beauty contest against Ella Mae, “Why Ellie’s shadow could win a beauty contest against her”.
Actually, it wasn’t strange. What was an “in” look (weight, bust, muscles, makeup, hair, eyebrows, you name it) for women was very different in the 1970s compared to now. Any of the Kardashians would have been laughed off the screen as freaks back then.
Your point is accurate in a general sense. I tend to sneer the Kardashians off the screen with the assistance of my remote. However, speaking as a fellow who was young, dumb, and full of interest for the opposite sex in the seventies I can definitively state that not one of my acquaintances, male or female, found Miss Farrow to be a pulse quickener in those long ago days. I speak only of my own perspective, of course, and for all I know she may have been the Farrah Fawcett poster girl for all the heroin addicts.
Good points. I was young & dumb in the ’70s too, although a straight female. I recall Farrow as being considered willowy and romantic-looking, kind of a holdover from her role in The Great Gatsby in the early part of the decade. I agree that by 1978 the less gaunt and more busty Farrah Fawcett look was considered more comme il faut.
There were definitely different sensibilities back then — can anyone imagine Miss Twiggy being a model and icon nowadays? So, yes, Mia was a standard of beauty for certain folks (not me, either, but definitely some).
But you aren’t seeing her at her best here (even if, at her best, she was no Raquel Welch, just to offer another 70’s alternative). Just like Rock is past his sale date, she didn’t age well and quickly went bad.
I’m not one of the Felicia fan boys (although I enjoyed her performance in Dr. Horrible) but I have to say that by the episode we watched today, Land of the Lost (but no spoilers) I have fallen in love with her. Yes, she’s not *evil* in the way previous Mads have been, but she’s so seriously cute and earnest that I do buy her character. It’s almost like she’s *trying* to be bad but has such a sweet nature inside she can’t pull it off. I don’t know if that’s a character choice or not but it works for me. It was going to be difficult no matter what she did, considering she was immediately following a female baddie (Pearl had it easier in that regard) and needed to carve her own niche. And I do like the play between her and Max — I sense the genuine love he has for her and his willingness to please is really funny.
I’m kind of with Brandon Pierce in that I think the riffing kicked into high-larious gear with the second ice skating segment, just before the Avalanche started. That said, what came before was good too.
I enjoyed the song and the list of titles both!
The riffers do a good job of not letting the jokes about being up to code get run into the ground.
“You know what this movie needs?” “Name tags.” I agree, but then I need them for a lot of movies and TV shows, so I’m biased.
You might have something there. I’ve decided that so far, I reallly like her only in moments, usually when she interacts with Max. She gets annoyed or puts him down or is kind to him. Most of the time she’s onscreen, she’s fine but not selling herself to me. Contrast that to the gold standard, Forrester and Frank, where just them being on the screen is entertaining. I’m not down on Kinga, just expressing my feelings so far (through Starcrash): She’s fine, but she could be better.
Me neither. Can that get fixed? Numbering is useful.
Neil Patrick Harris? Is this what they spent the extra Kickstarter money on? Those were my thoughts when watching that painfully over-long host segment. Yes, I get it, Avalanche is boring, perhaps even lower than San Francisco International, but that song duet host segment was weak and it did make Kinga look weak.
I decided to re-watch Bloodlust earlier today, just to compare how they handled a similar situation with a closeted actor whose sexuality was known at the time of riffing. I don’t think I heard anything that was even close to a reference in that direction. I don’t know if there were other comparable MSTed occurrences.
Tommy Kirk in Village of the Giants, whilst making out, Crow: “This is Tommy Kirk really acting!”
I watched Yongary last night, and part of the song at the end was Kinga questioning for a moment whether she was wrong in subjecting Jonah and the Bots to such horrible movies. This, the NPH duet and her interactions with Pearl illustrate what you said pretty nicely, I think. She’s trying to be evil because she thinks she should but she really just wants love and acceptance.
If it’s the same Land of the Lost episode I finished (the one where they call back an entire episode’s worth of Joe Don Baker riffs on actors that…sort of…look like Joe Don Baker) Max is good, but the whole attempt to give Kinga the running aspect of “Grandmother issues” is just–well, it’s not what I worried would happen when I first heard we’d be getting a female Forrester, but it’s needlessly distracting from the role the Mads SHOULD play.
More on the specific episode when the WDT comes up (some time by the end of summer), but was anyone else a bit, well, puzzled by that ending? Best I can sort out is, maybe it was supposed to be one of those Dynasty endings, where if it doesn’t get renewed or the original actors don’t come back, it’s okay, because they’ve already written it off?
Avalanche. No thanks I just had one.
To Eric J:
it was a Dynasty ending. Jonah has made it clear when a season 12 is approved, he’ll be back. However, I’d like to see Max being forced to riff on a movie, then he does the same to Kinga, then the Boneheads force both of them into the SOL before Jonah finally shows up to straighten things out. I also suspect Ardy will play a role in this.
Just a theory, but it should be considered.
Easily one of my favorites of the new season. It’s so perfect for the show in so many ways. The first time I watched it, I did think, wow, now I have a new least favorite host segment of all time (the song by NPH and Felicia). Second time, I warmed up to the song a little more. My friend mentioned after the song that it seemed like something someone had hip-pocketed for a while and finally found a place for it.
I think the weight of all the emotional baggage caused the avalanche.
The joke about photography ropes reminded me that you should always use Irving Klaw brand professional grade photography ropes.
One thing this movie taught me, which I guess I never knew, is that skiing lies directly at the center of so many political, cultural and personal conflicts.
You have to hand it to a movie with the word avalanche in the title that doesn’t give you any actual avalanche until like the last half hour or so. I was looking forward to the typical 1970s disaster movie formula where you have the disaster somewhat early on in the film and then you spend the remainder of the time watching all the characters work through the disaster (and their own personal issues). But no, the producers of Avalanche decided that the audience would want the characters to get most of their issues resolved before the big disaster and then see a disaster right at the end, sort of as an afterthought.
You also have to hand it to the producers of a disaster movie who ratchet up the body count by throwing in random accidents that have nothing to do with the disaster itself. I guess they thought audiences would be thrilled by random car accidents, bad driving and inept rescuers. Or something.
I like the setup for Moon 14 and why certain movies will be edited (because part of the liquid movie leaks out of the container), though I’m not sure what the ‘supernatural occurrences’ that Ardy is referring to are.
Finally, the most important thing I learned from this film is to always keep a supply of cheerleaders in the kitchen ready to go for whenever you might need them.
It’s almost like the show’s writers didn’t consult a random fan’s head canon when choosing the direction of the character arcs. For shame. :eyeroll:
This is a GREAT choice of movie. It contains all the sins of disaster movies (has-been or on-the-way-out stars embarrassing themselves; melodrama aplenty; subplots of very little relevance to the main plot; 1970s fashion aplenty) PLUS its own special sins, most notably the fact that some characters die ignoble deaths simply because people drive (and fly) carelessly. You really can’t lay that at the feet of the avalanche.
There are times when Rock is just chewing the scenery.
I wish Mia’s sister Tisa had been in this movie instead.
The Neil Patrick Harris song goes on for FAR too long. It is too much like any song you’d hear on a comedian’s album – more amusing in concept than in execution. Sadly, the rest of the songs in Season 11 do not much improve on this one. Sad to say that “Every Country Has Its Monster” was an early (and solitary) highlight of the season.
Although the scene where Jn&tB sing the Jim Henson “Fraggle Rock” theme as the camera POV-follows the skier up and down the ski trail is probably the best Psychic Lawn Dart we’ve had on the show so far–
See, it’s an 80’s song and an embarrassing specific pop-cultural reference, they can both work! ;)
Again, it’s the rule that you have to have the disaster at the midpoint (the earthquake is actually pretty short in the middle third of Earthquake, before we’re back to Charlton Heston sifting for his ex-wife through the rubble), but there’s not much that can happen in an avalanche, and Corman didn’t have much budget for anything but the digging out/consequences after.
At least they could afford car crashes and general rescue-chaos, those only need a day or two of stunt work and don’t require bad special-effects.
I, er, think that was supposed to start serial-arc setting up the series climax with Max and Spoilerus Spoilerus, but at this point, it’s so throwaway and unfollowed-upon, it comes off as “…Huh.”
When he first said it, thought we were going to get some disaster-parody in the episode segments, as Kinga’s big ambitions overlook the warnings of the janitors that there’s some technical problem in the basement.
i thought the one at the end of yongary was the best of the whole season (although the depressing/irritating movie may have helped boost it up a bit in my estimation)
missed riff: “i said ava-LUNCH, not ava-LAUNCH!”
hey y’all, i’ve been cah-razy-busy lately with new projects going on, so sorry to not have made the time to reg and post… not much new i could’ve added anyways, keeping up with everyone else’s thoughts about the new eps. it’s great though, ain’t it?? !! :) :) continuous grins and double-smiles, as i re-watch the new’sies over and over, now mixed with the old classics…
no doubt the first three new eps really kicked things off in high-gear, though there’s the slightly rickety “regaining its bearings” of a project trying to restart after being off-the-air for fifteen-plus years! this flick, though, really put the new series firmly in its prime… just too much great stuff here. i hate to pound on “seventies white people dancing” again (my candidate for “most loathsome character personified”), but this flick gave up a good heapin’ helpin’ of it! i couldn’t help giggling a lot at that; this was the best batch i’ve seen since the original “poseidon adventure”. plus, it’s just not a seventies flick without a “helter skelter” girl in the mix! this time, i think it was the leslie van houten actress that was “bruce’s” date at the big dinner party.
the “keystone kops”-style EMT personnel after the avalanche… just, -wow-… was -that- part of the rewrite of that script (according to wiki) to make up for the lack of funds? just to “pump up the action?” you can make a drinking game out of that, just to finish the film with… 1) firetruck/ambulance careening makes crate of supplies drop off and bust in the middle of street; 2) careening copcar makes (but doesn’t actually touch!) a man fly backwards through store window (that -doesn’t- break into pieces?? just the frame comes entirely apart?? call -that- contractor for a refund)… 3) don’t makes any bets on being caught by the rescue workers below you with that jump-tarp (“K-THUD!” that -alone- makes me laugh, no riffs required), and 4) don’t trust that ambulance driver to make it safe to the hospital, driving dangerously fast around slick snowy curves with rock hudson’s mother in the back.
while the kitchen cheerleader is a high-point, i hafta gripe that the riff pre-recording is getting edited sometimes just a -wee- bit too much in advance… watch that event again a few times in a row, and you’ll see they anticipate the cheerleader by a good quarter/1-3rd secs prior any flying skirt! (sorry, i’m the kinda guy that can see one of those micro “power flickers” in the room lights that no one else notices…) still, the “pre-riffing” does have its benefits, as i then re-reviewed CM later in the evening, and found the joke right near the end (as CM finishes up its “E.T.” moment) really hysterical. so, some pros with the cons of it all… :) i do wish it had a bit more of the old feel of spontaneity from being “recorded live in front of the green-screen.” i understand though, again, the pros and cons of “the new way…”
just a buffet of buffoonish ridiculousness in this one! five stars!
p.s. call me a sucka, but ms. day’s singing voice is heart-achingly beautiful… (don’t you ever dare try to autotune her!! ;0) i don’t know if i can get enough of it, so don’t hold back on these numbers. :) nph cracked me up with his arched-eyebrow cockiness (and anyone who gets so hung up on strange little “well isn’t it ironic that blah-blah” ideas just isn’t the kind of person or personality i wanna know). patton’s plaintively meek singing just cracked me up… patton just cracks me up; such a worthy successor to tv’s frank’s lineage.
and – again, call me a sucka – but when nph turns down kinga’s “let’s meet” suggestion, her fragile delivery, ‘… ok…’ mmoaahh that just broke my heart just a wee lil’ bit. hey, tragedy equals comedy, with enough time/episodes! as someone else pointed out, it’s all just a bit of lead-up to her and other’s character and storyline development. (nothing like a broken heart to lead to a life of evil! just ask a vogon…)
p.s. anyone else just treating ms. day like another “servo’s voice” b.s. meme, can read this somethin’-somethin’ i saw via googly-news the other day… someone else wrote it, so i don’t have tooooooo!!!… (slides down the drain…)
In defense of Kinga Forrester: The evil ladies of MST3K
http://www.blastr.com/2017-5-8/mst3k-kinga-forrester
p.p.s. thinking of the overly-abused abomination that is autotuning… maybe that could be a funny invention-exchange of some kind, especially for patton to play with… i could imagine a lotta hilarity to make with something like that! runner-up/extra-credit IE: patton playing with one of those “peter frampton-ish” wow-pedal vocoders.
p.p.p.s. “nerdemic” -totally- needs green-lit. i don’t care what it is. but it screams “wil wheaton” all over it.
I think we get a hint of that near the end of the Carnival Magic episode (not going into spoilers, but those who’ve seen the episode will know what I’m talking about).
“paranormal activities” – i was thinking earlier, i wonder if they’re building in a “bioshock”-ish ghostly phenonmenon to explain later? (i don’t remember what reference there is to that at the end of CM; good excuse to watch it again…) i just hope it doesn’t take seven-plus years to explain it, the way it seemed it took till “infinite” to sort of back-‘splain the bioshock ghosts as tied into the time/space tears (maybe/possibly/perhaps/kinda, If’n I Recall Correctly…) if i moved into a lab on the moon, i’d be kinda disappointed if there weren’t ghosts of some kind… but i guess they’d have to be alien-ghosts instead. now -that’d- make for some interesting stories, nay video game ideas… that new game “prey” sounds a wee bit like that…
and thinking of the frampton-ish vibes i mentioned earlier, that bit of background piano for the animal+disaster movie list for the skit of avalanche… when that played over the end credits, it kinda startled me how pretty that was! it has that seventies frampton progression of chording… i guess that’s where and why his name was on my mind. just noting, in retrospect…
This was a great episode and shows that the “re-boot” is a vaulted success.
Good new material with enough of a shout out to the past (without dwelling).
Two problems (minor in the big scheme of things)
Jonah and the bots sound too much alike. It is still hard to differentiate. Do not know why they did not notice this in pre-production.
Not enough development of the Deep 14 staff.
Compare this to the early episodes of the original. Even with short screen time, you felt the mads were characters on the show, not just filler.
Fav Riff: “I am up to my ass in celebrities” Jonah: “I think we will just let that one go.”
That was number 5!!!
Nice “SIDEHACKERS” reference…
Definitely the high point of the new season. More laughs per minute than any other season 11 episode.
When the climax of your disaster epic has everything to do with unsafe driving and nothing at all to do with your disaster (seriously, the bridge wasn’t even damaged by the avalanche), you are doing it wrong.
Hopefully Season 12 can tap Mia Farrow’s OTHER disastrous disaster movie, Dino de Laurentiis’ ill-fated remake of “Hurricane.” Bigger budget, bigger effects, bigger names, and yet still a horrible slog of questionable taste.
The reboot is one of the best things on TV (or the web, etc.) but I miss the…smallness, the intimacy of the original. I agree with the comment above that Ms. Day seems too intrinsically, too organically nice to be really evil. And I’m still not used to the new speed-riffing. Quantity is not quality, no matter how fast the jokes are delivered. These are my issues with the new MST3K, & but I have been enjoying the show, & hope to like it even more as we go.
“Avalanche” was pretty funny. Getting better & better.
Mia Farrows sister was nice in Fulci’s Zombie.
“Fire bad. Rock good.” This was a great episode. Watched it twice and it was better the second time around.
And not bad in Anthropophagus.
Just saw this one last night (a little late to comment)…” Hey, Free Olive Oil!” was my favorite riff (5 minutes before the movie “ended” or more accurately, “stopped”). Quite bad. Director Corey Allen (“Buzz” from Rebel without a Cause) blamed Roger Corman for cutting the budget from a modest 6.5 million, at the last minute. The original screenwriter blamed Allen for ruining his rewriting & ruining his screenplay. Corman hoped this “mainstream” picture would recoup his costs for “Piranha.” It turned out to be the other way around..
Wow this movie is something else. I’ve never seen Rock Hudson play such an angry unpleasant person before. I’m sure he had fun playing it. This movie seems to take way too long fleshing out the characters, except none of the main ones seem to have any kind of actual arc. It is so disco 70s it hurts. All that should make for good riffing. And it is pretty solid. They do a fine job with that slog in the first 55 minutes of the film before the avalanche arrives. Once the disaster strikes they kick into overdrive and once again the riffs seem to come too fast. All in all not a bad episode, but I was hoping for it to be a real winner. Check out my full review here: http://romansreviews.blogspot.com/2017/07/avalanche-1978-mst3k-review.html
I loved this movie, this and Cry Wilderness are the top 2 from Season 11 in my opinion. One of my favorite riffs is from the figure skating practice scene. When the skater fails and Servo says, “Well, at least she can take the penalty shot.”
Actually, MST3K and Simpsons gave lots of love back and forth to each other throughout the years. The only one I know for sure off the top of my head was in The Violent Years, after Paula’s crash and she wakes up in the prison hospital room (or something), the shot is of the sky outside and Mike and the Bots go “The Simpsons!” like the classic opening title. As for others, I’d have to take notice on another run through, but I do remember Tom shouting “MENDOZA!” on one of the Made For TV film commercial climax moments, reminiscent of McBain doing similar when his partner was shot and killed by the crime boss.
So yeah, Simpsons-shout outs from the Brains is not unexpected. Probably the only thing odd about it is the specific episode their referencing is 15-20 years old, making it a meme reference and not a more contemporary Simpsons reference, but as many Simpsons fans would say, there’s nothing positively memorable about modern Simpsons.
SAMPO Opening: Crow and Tom are working on their “Mad Bots” script?Invention exchange: Ardy in Moon 14 has some concerns; J&tB have the mouth vacuum
Speaking of vacuums, another idle item related to Joel’s early history: In the opening credits, Joel is cleaning with a combination accordion/vacuum cleaner (the accorduum?). Did that ever appear in an invention exchange?
SAMPO Fave riff: “1978, you have so many crimes to answer for.”
Annnnnnnnd yet again I just don’t get what was supposed to be so bad about the 1970s. :-|
SAMPO Thoughts?
Yes, they are. ;-)
I’m not sure I understand why Crow categorized Bruce the Skier as “not a nice guy.” He seemed like a generally inoffensive sort to me, and if it’s about the girl, well, if she was in fact sixteen, that means she’d reached the age of consent (although, ironically, not drinking age), so there was technically nothing “wrong” (“icky” is subjective) with Bruce showing an interest in her.
For that matter, I’m not sure how there could have at no point been the riff “Bruuuuuuuuce!”
Since it’s been brought up: There was a Frank Sinatra riff and a Roman Polanski riff during the opening credits. There was a Woody Allen riff early in the final scene. And that was it for those guys this time around.
Budget cuts, y’know.
“How sad – you got old.” — Cat Ballou (1965)
I don’t remember there being an Ignore button in the first place. Then again, I don’t remember a lot of stuff. I don’t even remember how much stuff I don’t remember…
How does one scream all over oneself? Are pores involved?
Yeah, I’m not really sure that’s a word that accurately reflects the overall dynamic in here.
“I’m a well-wisher, in that I wish you no specific harm.”
For me, it’s tough to answer that question. As a kid, the 70’s were great. “Star Trek” on Channel 11. “Star Wars” in theaters. Saturday morning cartoons. The Bicentennial. School only three blocks away, so I could go home for lunch.
It was only much later that I really learned about the downside of things. Poor economy. Heavy drug use. Watergate. Ugly clothing styles. Rising crime rate.
I loved the ’70s and 1978 in particular. Thing is, people tend to make fun of everything from 20-30-40 years ago — the clothes, the hairstyles, the music, movie trends, and so on. In the ’70s we made fun of the ’50s which now seem to be retro and cool again. The ’80s have come in for their share of ridicule lately (Miami Connection, anyone?), and the ’90s will be in for it too if they’re not already.
Avalanche remains my favorite episode of Season 11 although I hate the NPH duet with Kinga more and more, and now skip it. If Kinga is back for Season 12 I beg her to be more evil and less like a schoolgirl. I say that as a former schoolgirl!
Servo, Servo…
As much as I feel things reached a perfect balance and feel of every aspect, this episode feels like yet further minor improvement. Which mostly revolves around the riff pacing than anything, but still worth noting.
Once I learned the host segments were all filmed out of order all season (not just episode to episode) I started to play a little game: How pregnant is Felicia in this scene? It doesn’t change anything, just a fun little thing to do.
The movie is just hot garbage full of far, far too many characters and subplots no one cares about. Mostly because with so little time to develop those characters, all we see is how they’re mostly terrible people. Rock Hudson is just a piece of human garbage, narcasist. Mia Farrow, while eventually developing a spine, should not even be visiting such a terrible man let alone allowing him to just force kiss her (and how many times can she be giving a line of “[statement of uncertainty], [statement of possibility].”) The mother is the embodiment of rich white privilege. But Robert Forster… Is just Robert F’ing Forster, and the only good person in the whole movie. If anyone doesn’t know his Marlon Brando story, look it up. Forster is a national treasure!
Because of all of that, the movie is mostly a slog, so much so that when the “exciting” avalanche hits, it’s boring. To the point of an insane scene of emergency vehicles –MILES away from the avalanche– crashing for no reason, and a car falling off a cliff and exploding, is so incredibly boring.
The mouth vacuum is a fun, VERY Joel bit that made me chuckle. And I do enjoy the Don La Font-aine 3000 going immediately off track. Some of those names are great. But unfortunately, for me, “Our Love Is on Wings” just does not work. I am a big NPH fan, but this just felt forced. The song’s fine and all, but contextually it’s just there. Same with Gypsy’s song at the end.
Funny thing about the B-Movies segment (which I loved); I have the same problem with this movie as one called Avalanche Sharks. Too many characters (in Sharks, you literally can’t tell most of them apart) most unlikable, and too many subplots that go nowhere, so when supposedly exciting things happen it’s impossible to care.
Fav Riffs:
Crow: Feels like I’m wearing nothing at all…
Jonah: Careful that thing has a hair trig…OH MY GOD, SHE’S DEAD!
NPH is wearing his wedding ring during the song.
(I don’t where to mention this but…) I just noticed that Door/Chamber #2 is the woodshop, that’s why there’s a BIG-ASS saw on the left.
Certainly doesn’t compare to the guff he reportedly got from Julie Andrews on the set of Darling Lili.
Personally, I rather liked A Stranger’s UFO from Starcrash, The Magic Inside You from Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, and P.T. Mindslap’s little ditty in Carnival Magic.
Favorite riffs
Somewhere in these mountains, Roman Polanski is hiding from extradition.
This is like if The Shining was booked on Priceline.
It’s not you. I’m a wood elf. We don’t show affection through kissing. We exchange syrup.
The cameraman’s drowning. Don’t mind him.
1978, you have so many crimes to answer for.
We’ve got an avalanche of polyester on the dance floor.
“Very good dance.”
By Seventies standards.
Is everything brown, or do I have retina damage?
Really says something that this avalanche has more emotional range than Mia Farrow.
Sure it’s pretty, but what have we learned?
I am a messenger from Muab’dib.
When you’re out of snow, tough Schlitz.
Up here, you don’t head for mountains. The mountains head for you.
Don’t panic. Snow can sense your fear.
I’m gonna die, and my last act on Earth was hitting on an underage girl.
Is this an avalanche or a poltergeist?
“What are you doing up here?”
Location scouting for Avalanche II.
Here comes the fire department to put the avalanche out.
Oh no, the avalanche was poisoned!
This is the worst Cirque du Soleil show I’ve ever seen.
She died as she lived. Completely lit up.
“What shall we drink to?”
Your comeuppance?
Dear Trip Advisor, found cheerleader in my salad. Wait staff refused to help. One out of five stars.
Suddenly I’m craving a York Peppermint Patty…
‘Cry Wilderness’ proved to me that the show’s return was on the right track, but this episode confirmed to me that it was truly back. I think this one might just be my favorite out of the season. I even liked the song segment. I’ve never seen ‘Dr. Horrible’ so to me it’s just a fun detour with someone who I hope was doing a guest spot out of a love for MST3k and acquitted themselves quite well.
Fave Riffs
Lonliness and bell bottoms is never a good combination…
I’ve got a question: how do you conduct an interview with a microphone that isn’t plugged into anything?
Wow, who knew the ‘Price is Right’ set was so huge inside?
If she gets distracted, she’ll get stuck in the spin and auger right down into the ice!
Y’know, it’s technically illegal to shoot a ski jump at a normal frame rate.
Okay, I’m in. With my puffy jacket I’m perfectly camouflaged, and its inner pockets should hold at least four pounds of cocktail shrimp!
Steve Franken in two out of the first four movies? What are the odds?
With my advanced degree in calculus I have determined it’s 1 out of 2.
If you lived in NYC, you know EXACTLY what was so bad about the 70’s. I only lived upstate.
(The Seventies As We Know Them, ironically, are considered to have mostly ended after ’78, since ’79 was pretty much entirely taken up with the Iran hostages, although 1980 is still considered part of The Seventies for more than just stickler numerical value…It all ended with Reagan, not John Lennon.)
If you didn’t, you don’t remember it for that–Just for having a big Bicentennial thing, everyone burning disco records in Yankee Stadium, the Village People having #1 hits, and a Star Wars Holiday Special on TV. On a different channel from the Fonz, but hey, at least they had the Muppet Show.
Unless it’s a 70’s-porn bio, of course, in which case “Dreamweaver” was playing on radios 24/7.
Obviously, we’ve got a new writing-staff generation that remembers the second, and not from actual life experience. Hence the inexperienced “Huh, if it’s a disaster movie, why isn’t the disaster happening at the beginning?” riffs.
Maybe, like Sam Casey, they just need to mellow out with Jimmy Carter.