19 March 2007

MST3K (SBR1)

1st Annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 Summer Blockbuster Review - That's the way. They took the good idea they had last season and improved upon it. The main flaw with the Little Gold Statue Preview Special was that the bots let the clips from the films play without comment. In this special, they treat the studio-provided promo material as they would any movie on a regular episode. This involves mistaking Milla Jovovich for a clown, pointing out the holes in the plot to Lost World and having a dumb ape laugh uproariously at the really stupid jokes in MIB. Good fun.

It's kind of neat to have the three villains cram into the theater with the bots. I'm impressed with the flawlessness of having Crow and Brain Guy or Servo and Bobo onscreen at the same time. You couldn't even tell that something was amiss. They must have pre-recorded the robot's lines ahead of time? My compliments to the timing of the guest puppeteers.

I'm somewhat amazed to remember that I saw each and every one of these films on the big screen that year:

Ten years later, I have three of these on DVD... but only one on purpose (The Fifth Element, which I like, clown and all).

"If you like injecting LSD into your eyeballs then you'll like this film." (7/10)

mst d. Kevin Murphy (2 Sep 1997)