Our pal Bruce Westbrook has his review.
Update: WTF-Film.com has a review.
I’ll update this post as more reviews come in.
UPDATE: By the way, I just got a note from Jordan Fields, who says: “I think there’s an assumption from your readers that our “Manos” release is a Shout Select title (which I understand since it’s a re-release). It’s not. It’ll be in stores.”
So if you’d like to pre-order it direct from Shout! Factory, we’d appreciate it if you used this link.
If you’d prefer to pre-order it from Amazon, please use this link.
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AHHHH dreams…..in them all things are possible. I am just happy CT releases a new dvd of their shows and when Rifftrax releases a new dvd. This is the reality…..let’s just be happy everyone is doing riffing and we get to enjoy it. HMMM everything is fine in the world. ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I’ll wait a while to purchase it. I’ve already got it.
I’d just like to see some crossover stuff. Kevin with CT for a night or two or Joel does a Rifftrax. The only thing you’d get with a new MST3k is the bots, which would be nice.
They probably did the interview with the CT crew when they were together doing a show.
I think that Joel and Mike were never really friends, just casually friendly co-workers. They’re not enemies but the only reason they’d have to get together again is for business, money. I can think of a lot of people I used to work with that I was mildly friendly with that I haven’t seen in years but I’ve got no real reason to get in touch with them. Have you ever met someone you haven’t seen in years and the conversation goes something like:
How you been?
Fine. How bout you?
Fine. What you been doing?
…
and then it fades out after about 2 minutes. That’s Mike and Joel.
Joel, Trace and Josh were friends before ktma. Mike was a hired hand originally. They worked well together but never really hung out together. (This is just an educated guess from what I’ve read over the years.)
Not sure if I’m going to get this one since I have the Rhino version but the extras do look cool. A little disappointed the uncut, unriffed copy of Manos isn’t in better shape. It’s not like I expect Manos to look good but this looks like a worse print than the one MST originally used. I was kind of hoping for the definitive “Manos” dvd.
The Gamera set was absolutely spectacular and I’m so glad I bought it. I have a couple of the unMSTed Gameras Shout produced and it’s fun to oompare them to the mangled Sandy Frank prints MST3K used.
I gave the single release of MANOS to a friend. When I get the new SHOUT release of MANOS I’ll put the ESSENTIALS version in storage as a back-up.
I never really cared about the Joel vs Mike crap. And this type of show is a VERY difficult thing to sell to producers who see $$ in reality shows.
And most of the world is moving on. When I told my brother I got GAMER vs BARAGON, the first show we saw he said “Don’t you think it’s getting a bit old?”
It’s my goal to have every show on DVD. I may live to do that.
I’ll go to the (CT/RT) live shows when I can afford them and I’ll download them also. I don’t see MST3K starting up again. It would be like the CREAM reunion. Great on paper, Great songs, all smiles. But not the same.
Smirkboy, I liken it to the mid-90s Yes “Union” tour.
EricJ:
That’s a bit much, isn’t it? As I recall, Rifftrax came before CT.
I realize this is totally subjective, but I’ve been less than impressed with CT. The riffing seems half-hearted and the whole thing has an air of our-other-stuff-didn’t-pan-out-so-let’s-do-this. On the other hand, Mike, Kevin, and Bill seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Rifftrax generates a lot more material and it’s a nice mix of classic-MST (the shorts) and a chance to finally skewer the big-budget blockbusters they never could do before. I’ve shown the Twilight riffs to some non-MSTies I know and they were roaring with laughter the whole time. I’m guessing that they’d probably be baffled by CT.
That’s just me, of course…
Like with every great band, isn’t there some unreleased material in the vault? The live shows done at the conventions for example…
Not to get TOO far off the subject, but:
@52 – I think that Joel and Mike were never really friends, just casually friendly co-workers. They’re not enemies but the only reason they’d have to get together again is for business, money. I can think of a lot of people I used to work with that I was mildly friendly with that I haven’t seen in years but I’ve got no real reason to get in touch with them.
I think Joel respected Mike as a writer of riffs and sketch mimic, and seemed like the right guy to put in charge of the show….AT FIRST!
I can’t imagine Joel could’ve been happy with seeing the cult-intellectual tone of the series turned into an almost anti-intellectual high-achool Adam Sandler tone, but the ship has sailed and was sunk, so there’s not much he can do about it except to move on to new projects.
I remember finally meeting the CT bunch at one of the shows: Joel was friendly, and when I casually (no, not trying to start the Usual Argument) let it slip that I hadn’t seen most of the “revival” RT/CT work since I’d lost touch with the show during the Sci-Fi Mike years, Joel quickly covered that with a business-like “Yeah, well, Mike’s still a talented performer…” in a friendly way of squashing that subject and moving on–That was enough of that.
Either he’s sick of seeing the Debate brought to his doorstep (which is understandable), or else there does seem to be some backstage friction there that he’d rather bury than keep old resentments going.
@56: I think CT’s quality has been rather uneven so far, especially the first couple of episodes I don’t think were very good. I think they have gotten better as they have gone along though, and they don’t have the Rifftrax smugness about them. It’s hard to explain, but when watching a good CT, it’s like watching the movie with old friends and sometimes Rifftrax I think tries too hard and is a little too in love with themselves. I have enjoyed the Rifftraxes for The Room and Plan 9 but not some of the more recent ones. Admittedly I was on the Joel side of the debate back in the day but I do think there were many good Mike episodes.
I’m Reading these comments and they are on razor’s edge. They are so close to being Joel vs Mike. Just saying mabye we should back off and just let the special features fall as they may.
MST3K isn’t dead. It’s spirit lives on. Maybe in a midnight showing by some improv guys at a theater or maybe in a small town Kansas City centric version *cough*ICWXP*cough* but it’s out there. Sure it isn’t clown hammers and creepy girls, but the spirit lives on. In fact, I am sure that Mr. B Natural is being harassed by an unexpected creation of the Spirit of Riffing, that somehow resembles Jack Perkins.
Sure you can never go back again but sometimes you need appreciate what you have before it completely goes away.
This really a lot like Yes (as someone mentioned). Which I guess makes Kevin Jon Anderson.
RE: EricJ says: ” I think Joel respected Mike as a writer of riffs and sketch mimic, and seemed like the right guy to put in charge of the show….AT FIRST!
I can’t imagine Joel could’ve been happy with seeing the cult-intellectual tone of the series turned into an almost anti-intellectual high-achool Adam Sandler tone, but the ship has sailed and was sunk, so there’s not much he can do about it except to move on to new projects.
I remember finally meeting the CT bunch at one of the shows: …when I casually …let it slip that I hadn’t seen most of the “revival” RT/CT work since I’d lost touch with the show during the Sci-Fi Mike years, Joel quickly covered that with a business-like “Yeah, well, Mike’s still a talented performer…” in a friendly way of squashing that subject and moving on–That was enough of that.
Either he’s sick of seeing the Debate brought to his doorstep… or else there does seem to be some backstage friction there that he’d rather bury than keep old resentments going.”
—- Frankly, I have to point out that you have slanted this little encounter with a LARGE dose of Your Own Opinion, embellished with an unhealthy and unsupported amount of INNUENDO.
There are a number of angles that the scene as you describe it could be viewed from, yet you purposely started with “I can’t imagine Joel could’ve been happy with… ”
Well, y`know..it just is NOT YOUR CALL to declare what Joel (or anyone else) may or may not be pleased with.
It`s obvious that you have your own opinion, but you also seem inclined to have Joel support it, which is the direction your post slanted.
RE: EricJ says: ” I think Joel respected Mike as a writer of riffs and sketch mimic, and seemed like the right guy to put in charge of the show….AT FIRST!
I can’t imagine Joel could’ve been happy with seeing the cult-intellectual tone of the series turned into an almost anti-intellectual high-achool Adam Sandler tone, but the ship has sailed and was sunk, so there’s not much he can do about it except to move on to new projects.
I remember finally meeting the CT bunch at one of the shows: …when I casually …let it slip that I hadn’t seen most of the “revival” RT/CT work since I’d lost touch with the show during the Sci-Fi Mike years, Joel quickly covered that with a business-like “Yeah, well, Mike’s still a talented performer…” in a friendly way of squashing that subject and moving on–That was enough of that.
Either he’s sick of seeing the Debate brought to his doorstep… or else there does seem to be some backstage friction there that he’d rather bury than keep old resentments going.”
Joel is smart enough to know the show had to change or die. New writers, new direction. I read it more like, I’ve heard it a million times before and I don’t really feel like talking about it. I don’t feel like talking about a guy I’ve spoken to for a couple of hours in the last 15 years. :-)
I had jello today
Guys, just watch Soultaker again! Joel and Mike are bros!
Some people tend to forget that Joel left the series VOLUNTARILY.
You don`t walk away from something and then complain that it`s not going the way you want it to, and Joel has said nothing to that effect about MST as it continued after his departure.
There is another review on the Digital Bits Website now too
I understand where everyone on here is comming from (or at least I think I do.) I’ve been a very poor college student who could not always afford to buy things when they came out, though I did priortize MST3K, and missed the Begining of the End set and am happy to get another shot a buying it. As soon as I noticed that MST3K box set would, sometimes, become unavilable I saved up ahead of time, eatting PB&J instead of fast food at work, working a few extra hours, etc. I have to say that Shout has had much better success at keeping Box sets from having rights issues. On the other hand this will make the 3rd purcase of Manos. The 1st being the Rhino single disk relase the 2nd being the exact same copy in the Essentials Collection and now the Shout version for the new features. At this point I wouldn’t feel guilty if I could “pirate” just the extra features somehow.