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Posted by Sampo, on December 8th, 2011 The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 23, will contain:
* episode 210- KING DINOSAUR (with short: X MARKS THE SPOT)
* episode 323- THE CASTLE OF FU-MANCHU
* episode 608- CODE NAME: DIAMOND HEAD (with short: A DAY AT THE FAIR) and
* episode 611- LAST OF THE WILD HORSES
Extras:
New Introduction By Frank Conniff
The Incredible Mr. Lippert (a Ballyhoo Production)
Vintage MST3K Promos
Life After MST3K: Kevin Murphy (this is the first installment of a new series)
Code Name: Quinn Martin
DARKSTAR: Robots Don’t Need SAG Cards
Original Trailers
4 Exclusive Mini-Posters By Artist Steve Vance
If you want to pre-order it at Amazon, we would appreciate it if you would use this link.
Here’s the Shout! press release
On March 27, Shout! Factory will launch into orbit Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIII, a 4-Disc collection of four Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes previously unreleased on DVD. Featuring the episodes King Dinosaur, The Castle Of Fu Manchu, Code Name: Diamond Head, and Last Of The Wild Horses, Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIII also features a MSTie-riffic collection of bonus features!
Much like the country that spawned it, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a melting pot. In every imaginable genre, Joel, Mike and their robot pals Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot have seen the promise of cinema mutilated by mediocrity. Nowhere is this highfalutin concept more hilariously exemplified than in this 23rd collection of episodes from the beloved cult comedy television series. You want a Western? It’s here. Space adventure? Look no further. We’ll even throw in a failed TV pilot and a barely coherent science fiction-horror-thriller. All genres are treated with equal disrespect by the luckless crew of the Satellite of Love. They pledge allegiance only to funny, with justice — SoL style — for all.
In King Dinosaur, two scientist couples are sent to investigate a mysterious new planet and are menaced by snakes, gators, giant bugs and other scary process shots. In the world of MST3K fodder, this unique collaboration between ultra-prolific suppliers Robert L. Lippert and Bert I. Gordon deserves a moment of silence. Truth is, 63 moments of silence might be more entertaining than King Dinosaur, but those intrepid SoL’ers come to the rescue yet again, bringin’ the funny with a delirious running commentary. This disc includes the 1944 short film X Marks The Spot. Bonus features include a new documentary featurette, The Incredible Mr. Lippert, and the original theatrical trailer.
It says something about a movie when the best thing about it is a mustache, as is the case with The Castle Of Fu Manchu. Christopher Lee takes climate change into his own hands in this 1969 installment of the Fu Manchu franchise. Determined to freeze the global water supply, the diabolical Fu Manchu heads to Istanbul for a castle, an opium reserve and a heart-to-heart with an ailing scientist. Fear not: his archnemesis, the Interpol superstar Nayland Smith, is on the job. An alternate title for this movie is The Torture Chamber Of Fu Manchu and, judging by the convoluted plotting, it’s by far the more accurate one. As Dr. Forrester says, “This movie makes The Unearthly seem like Citizen Kane.” It’s a good thing Orson Welles wasn’t around to hear that. Bonus features include a new Introduction by Frank Conniff, behind the scenes of the video game Darkstar featuring many MST cast members, and the original theatrical trailer.
Counterintelligence takes on a new meaning in the barely coherent tale of Hawaiian espionage that takes place on movie sets meant to look like Hawaii in Code Name: Diamond Head. If only superspy “Diamond Head” had infiltrated some of his own script meetings before this deadly pilot from legendary TV producer Quinn Martin was released on an unsuspecting public. Fortunately for us, Mike, Crow and Tom manage to sneak some really funny wisecracks into the script, not only neutralizing its odor but actually converting the 1977 TV movie into a work of art. This episode includes the short film A Day At The Fair. Bonus features include Code Name: Quinn Martin and the first installment of Life After MST3K, where we spotlight a cast member and the work he or she has done since leaving the show.
The last, but not least, stop on this Satellite of Love ride is Last Of The Wild Horses, though a second helping from Producer Robert L. Lippert is probably more than most can keep down. In this 1948 Western, “Duke” (no, not “The Duke” — you should be so lucky) is a robber-turned-rancher who gets in the middle of a ranch foreman’s scheme to steal wild horses and is framed for murder in the bargain. Those B’hoys on the Satellite of Love cut dirt on the riffing until the movie is catawamptiously chawed up, but the real treasure lies in this episode’s host segments, featuring an utterly unforgettable parody of Star Trek’s celebrated “Mirror Mirror” episode. Vintage MST3K Promos are offered as bonus features.
Posted by Sampo, on December 7th, 2011 …and this one is murder! Get it?
Download it and see a sample here.
Posted by Sampo, on December 3rd, 2011 Alert reader Scott writes:
I was wondering if anyone’s had any interesting encounters with the MST cast.
A few years back, I invited Mary Jo up to Canada for the weekend to hold one of her humor seminars for our authors association. She was living in Minnesota at the time and I gave her a call to discuss particulars. It was kind of surreal talking with her on the phone and she started teasing me about the invitation saying: “So, how do I know you’re not an axe murderer?” When I picked her up at the airport several weeks later, I think the first words out of my mouth were: “Hi…I’m the axe murderer.” We got along famously after that.
Do you have a story?
Posted by Sampo, on December 2nd, 2011 
VAN NUYS, CA–Actor Bill McKinney, perhaps best remembered the mountain man who assaulted Ned Beatty’s character in 1972’s “Deliverance,” died here Dec. 1 of cancer of the esophagus. McKinney also starred in several Clint Eastwood films, 1982?s “First Blood” and 1999?s “The Green Mile.” He was 80.
MSTies will remember his performances as Sheriff Kyle in the movie in episode 322- MASTER NINJA I and Chief Wilson in the movie in episode 1008- FINAL JUSTICE. They will likely also remember his good-natured comments in a bonus feature of “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XX.”
He also made appearances on various TV shows, including “The Monkees,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Colombo,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Hunter,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Baywatch.”
“He is survived by son Clinton, along with several ex-wives,” according to a statement.
Posted by , on December 2nd, 2011 RiffTrax recently asked me to review a beta version of their new RiffPlayer software and I enthusiastically said “sure, okay.”
Full disclosure: In addition to the RiffPlayer, RiffTrax provided me with a commercial copy of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse DVD and associated RiffTrax MP3 and sync files. But I’ll try to not hold that against them.
RiffTrax recommends that the RiffPlayer be installed on Windows systems running WinXP and above (DirectX is recommended) or Mac systems running Snow Leopard (10.6) and above, and have an Intel CPU. I was able to test the RiffPlayer on a laptop system running WinXP and a desktop system running Windows 7. Sorry, I don’t have a Mac. Let’s not get into that whole Kirk/Picard thing.
Installing the RiffPlayer is a breeze, and playing a DVD is a simple matter. You simply start the RiffPlayer, load the DVD, then use the RiffPlayer to select the associated RiffTrax MP3 file. The RiffPlayer scans the DVD for a few seconds, then you’re off and running.
When you look at the RiffPlayer itself, you might notice immediately that there are two separate volume control sliders; one for the DVD and one for the riffs. This comes in handy. On one of my test systems, the riffs were playing noticeably louder than the DVD. A simple lowering of the riff volume and raising of the DVD volume solved the problem. On my other test system, I experienced the opposite problem. The riff volume was low, and I had to raise it. Once I got the volume levels set, everything was good.
The new RiffPlayer almost entirely eliminates the need to sync up the RiffTrax to the DVD. But during my viewing of Eclipse my laptop experienced a momentary glitch, causing the tracks to be out of sync. At first I didn’t know what to do, but when I looked closer at the RiffPlayer I noticed an icon labelled “Resync.” Sure enough, when I clicked on it the RiffPlayer quickly scanned the DVD again and the two tracks went right back into perfect sync and I never experienced the problem again.
After Eclipse ended, I wondered if the player would work with previously released RiffTrax titles. The answer is yes and no. If the RiffTrax download included a sync file, everything worked great. In tests without the sync file, I received an error saying that the file couldn’t be found. RiffTrax has helpfully created new sync files for many of its older titles, and it has also created a list of DVDs that currently work with the player. You can find more info on the RiffPlayer page.
For those of you who have been daunted in the past by having to manually sync RiffTrax files to DVDs, you can’t do any better than the RiffPlayer. It’s the best way yet to get the full RiffTrax experience at home, short of having Mike, Kevin and Bill standing in your living room to riff the DVD for you.
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