Mystery Science Theater 3000

[matrixschmatrix]

Those are all really good ones. I think there was a licensing agreement that was keeping them from getting Alien from LA forever, too, so this may mean yet another company has signed on.

[Minkin]

MST3K Volume XXVII (27) announced!

The contents:

108- THE SLIME PEOPLE with short: COMMANDO CODY PT 6
205- ROCKET ATTACK USA with short: THE PHANTOM CREEPS PT 2
523- VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS
804- THE DEADLY MANTIS

Bonus material:
* Interview with The Slime People star Judith Fraser (Judee Morton)
* Interview with Village of the Giants star Joy Harmon
* Introduction by Mary Jo Pehl
* Life After MST3K: Trace Beaulieu
* Chasing Rosebud: The Cinematic Life Of William Alland
* Theatrical Trailers
* Mini-Posters By Artist Steve Vance

ALSO as a gift if you purchase from Shout Factory:

The MST3K Serial Variety Pack Bonus Disc, stitching together, for your convenience, the riffed installments of “The Phantom Creeps,” “Undersea Kingdom” and “General Hospital.”

[mfunk9786]

More good ones. Village of the Giants is fantastic.

[matrixschmatrix]

They're down to three each left from seasons 1 and 2, though one of the remainders from Season 2 is a Godzilla that will probably never get released. Still, it'd be interesting if they actually finished off a season- wonder if it would be worth anyone's while to put out an all-of-season-1 box set?

[jindianajonz]

Is there any sort of consensus on which collection is the best? I've never actually seen a full episode of the show, but have loved the bits I've seen. It just feels like something I ought to do at some point in life...

[matrixschmatrix]

I dunno about the best (the 20th anniversary collection, maybe?) but Volume XXIV is pretty solid and basically half price on Amazon right now.

[mfunk9786]

I tend to skew a bit towards Mike-era stuff (even though I adore Joel episodes, I find Mike's, particularly once Bill Corbett took over as Crow, to more bitingly funny in the movie segments [at the expense of the host segments, which are frequently very skippable]), so that is absolutely reflected in my selections (however, who is still trying to make the claim that the Sci-Fi era didn't have a glut of great episodes?), but I'd say the best sets available are:

Volume XVII:

The Crawling Eye is the first full episode ever (i.e. non KTMA), and while far from the funniest, is a terrific oddity to own. The Beatniks is one of the most solid Joel efforts, and one of his personal favorite episodes. The Final Sacrifice may be the best episode ever, and also might be the most accessible. Blood Waters of Dr. Z is... well, it's got to be seen to be believed.

20th Anniversary:

First Spaceship on Venus is from the era when the show was really starting to click, and while it's a bit of deep cut itself, it's really an underseen gem of an episode. Laserblast is up there with Zombie Nightmare and Alien from L.A. as a best-of Mike during the Comedy Central era ep. Werewolf is a truly terrible direct to video effort that was only made a few short years before the episode was made, which makes it another more accessible episode for newer viewers. Future War has rubber dinosaurs and really bad fight choreography. Enough said.

Volume 4:

Might as well throw out your copy of Hamlet, as it's essentially a failed experiment of an episode. However, between The Girl in Gold Boots (my personal favorite episode of all time), Space Mutiny (consistently in fans' top 3 episodes of all time) and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (an absolutely hysterical Raul Julia film made for public television that's sort of about the power of cinema, I guess?), this is essentially a best-of the Sci-Fi era collection that can't be missed. Speaking of which...

Volume 5:

This set picked up where Volume 4 started, with all Sci-Fi era eps; however, with the distinction of all 4 discs being all-time great episodes. Boggy Creek II is probably not up to par with the rest, but it's still gag-inducingly hilarious; but The Touch of Satan, Time Chasers, and especially the truly odd pieced together Ernest Borgnine starring family film Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders all would find a place on my top 10 episodes of all time.

[matrixschmatrix]

I count myself a Joel fan but wind up liking Mike era episodes as or more often, too- I think just because they got so many amazing movies with the Sci Fi channel, and because the first couple of seasons are so frequently shaky.

If you're looking to see if you like the series before taking the plunge and have Amazon Prime, there are a number of episodes you can watch for free on there- Eegah!, The Final Sacrifice, Bride of the Monster, and Devil Doll, just to name some of the highlights. It's a shame the Rhino-era individual releases are so pricey now, because Mitchell, I Accuse My Parents, and Eegah! are among the best of the Joel episodes, but you can still get the 2-disc essentials pack (with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Manos: the Hands of Fate) for under $20. If you like Manos, you're probably an MST fan.

Also- maybe it's just having a personal connection to Vermont, but Time Chasers is like the funniest thing on earth to me. I made my girlfriend get me a Castleton shirt last time she was visiting her dad up there.

[jindianajonz]

Thanks guys! Very thorough! Volume 5 definitely sounds intriguing, but it's so damn expensive! Hopefully I can find it at a used DVD store when I go out of town this weekend...

Also, where can you find the essentials pack for under $20? Amazon is showing it for almost 30.

[mfunk9786]

The standalone Manos release is really, really good too.

matrix, I knew you were a Castleton snob.

Jonz, you can find Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders on YouTube here, Time Chasers here, and Boggy Creek II here. I'm sure that A Touch of Satan is on YouTube as well, but you can also support Shout! by watching their stream of it on Amazon Instant Video.

Damnit, guys, now you have me wanting to make a bona-fide top 10 or 20 MST3K episodes list. Which I probably will, shortly.

[Dansu Dansu Dansu]

You beat me to a Castleton snob joke, mfunk. Did you also get the Nick Miller haircut and tape a dinner roll to your chin?

"It's time chase-as!" is something of a catch phrase for me when I'm in a mildly unexplainable situation. If it's not my favorite, then it's close. Any episode that has reduced me to tears makes it into my "favorites" category, which includes Time Chasers, Space Mutiny, The Final Sacrifice, Riding with Death, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, and Boggy Creek II.

Girl in Gold Boots is your favorite, mfunk? I'll have to revisit that one. I remember enjoying the opening credits (and the segment where Crow is dancing with gold boots) but I don't remember anything else about it.

[Brianruns10]

Also- maybe it's just having a personal connection to Vermont, but Time Chasers is like the funniest thing on earth to me. I made my girlfriend get me a Castleton shirt last time she was visiting her dad up there.

Who are you kidding? You never went to Castleton.

And the correct answer to best MST3K episode of all time is Space Mutiny. Roll Fizzlebeef!

[mfunk9786]

You beat me to a Castleton snob joke, mfunk. Did you also get the Nick Miller haircut and tape a dinner roll to your chin?

"It's time chase-as!" is something of a catch phrase for me when I'm in a mildly unexplainable situation. If it's not my favorite, then it's close. Any episode that has reduced me to tears makes it into my "favorites" category, which includes Time Chasers, Space Mutiny, The Final Sacrifice, Riding with Death, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, and Boggy Creek II.

Girl in Gold Boots is your favorite, mfunk? I'll have to revisit that one. I remember enjoying the opening credits (and the segment where Crow is dancing with gold boots) but I don't remember anything else about it.

It's the ultimate lousy drive-in Vietnam-era west coast crime movie. It even stars one of Judy Garland's short time husbands. There are very few things funnier than that MST3K episode. The film's naïveté when it comes to drugs, guns, and adult performing is more entertaining than any other crummy crime flick I've seen.

[matrixschmatrix]

Thanks guys! Very thorough! Volume 5 definitely sounds intriguing, but it's so damn expensive! Hopefully I can find it at a used DVD store when I go out of town this weekend...

Also, where can you find the essentials pack for under $20? Amazon is showing it for almost 30.

Huh, it was $19 last night. Keep an eye on that one, it varies wildly- I've seen it at like $70 and drop to $8 in the course of like, a month.

Which is generally true of the Rhino sets- they're all out of print, but the pricing on them is totally inconsistent (aside from Volume 9, which is always really expensive.) There's a lot of good stuff in them, but I'd start with the Shout sets (which are all in print) unless you see a Rhino one for less than $40, which will still come up.

It's the ultimate lousy drive-in Vietnam-era west coast crime movie. It even stars one of Judy Garland's short time husbands. There are very few things funnier than that MST3K episode. The film's naïveté when it comes to drugs, guns, and adult performing is more entertaining than any other crummy crime flick I've seen.

The stinger ("I HAD A PRETTY MIIIIIIND") is one of the best they ever had, too.

There used to be an extensive MST collection on Netflix Instant, which is now down to just the movie, but the movie is still really good- the creators seem to have kind of disowned it (largely because it sounds like it was a miserable shoot, and they were all used to virtually nil creative interference) but the movie itself is really fun and the writing is really worked through and solid. I also find it nice to watch an MST in actual widescreen with a nice print of the movie- I wish it were more plausible to go back and use better prints for a lot of the TV stuff, since I always find it more engaging when I can follow an episode visually. It's one of the other reasons the Sci Fi era had a bit of an edge on movie choices, since they got a lot of recent stuff in great condition (though the quality of the sketches dropped pretty badly for the first few years.)

[Lemmy Caution]

The two Dvd sets I have available here are:

Shout Factory Volume 24:
Fugitive Alien (310),
Star Force: Fugitive Alien II (318),
The Sword and the Dragon (617) and
Samson vs. the Vampire Women (624)
&
Shout Factory Volume 20
Master Ninja I & II (322 and 324 from Season 3),
Project Moonbase from Season 1 (Episode 100), and
The Magic Voyage of Sinbad (Episode 505).

Was wondering which was better, which people would recommend?
I've just seen a handful or two of MST3000 episodes from random cable viewing years ago.
Thought it was fairly amusing, but I like watching the old B-movies as much as, or more than, the silly riffing.
I'm not much into martial arts films, and much prefer weird sci-fi or adventure films.
So I was leaning a bit towards Vol. 24 since Vol 20 has two ninja films.
But I'm not familiar with any of the 8 films or which might have good commentary/jokes.
It's too bad both of these sets contain a film and sequel.
I'd prefer more variety, and both of the films with sequels sound less interesting than the other 2 films in each set. Surprisingly, both sets contain a Russian film (though on Wiki it says the MST crew mistakenly believes the one Russian film is Finnish and makes lots of Finnish jokes ...)
I'm guessing that 4 MST3K films will be enough for me.

[Matt]

It's close (Fugitive Alien being one of the best episodes of all time and maybe worth the purchase alone if you prefer sci-fi films), but I'd go with #20. The Master Ninja films are probably the furthest thing from what you are thinking of as "ninja films," but the riffs and skits during those are some of the best of the series.The Sinbad episode is pretty good, too.

Either way, I don't think you can go wrong choosing between these two.

[Lemmy Caution]

Thanks. Helpful to know they're both good sets.

For Russian films, the "Sinbad" sounds better than "The Sword and the Dragon."
In fact, the original undubbed Sinbad (aka Sadko) won the Silver Lion Award in Venice 1953!

But "Samson v. the Vampire Women" is a great title, and intriguingly features a Mexican wrestler Santo in the lead (original title "Santo vs. los Mujeres Vampiro"). A little lucha libre not hurt anyone!!
So I'll probably take your "Fugitive Alien" rec and go with that set (Vol .24)

I'm somewhat surprised they don't package together genre films, ie 4 sci-fi films, 4 adventure films, 4 martial arts, etc.

[knives]

That's actually one of the better Santo films. A great deal of fun with some surprisingly moody cinematography. At moments it even comes off as the leftovers of a Bava film.

[Dansu Dansu Dansu]

The best part of the Master Ninja episodes is how the middle-aged, pot-bellied Lee Van Cleef suddenly becomes a young, agile Asian man once he dons his ninja attire. It's like the difference between Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno except you're not supposed to notice.

[Polybius]

If you're one of those people who likes to watch the films without the treatment in order to compare and contrast, TCM is running both The Thing That Wouldn't Die and The Brain That Wouldn't Die overnight tonight (starting at 2 A.M. EDT)

[Minkin]

Question for those who have quite a number of MST3K sets:

How in the world do you guys organize these things?

None of the volumes (other than Gamera) have any logical order to them, so that won't do. Alphabetically might work, but there's certainly a difference between Joel/Mike episodes, plus the latter episodes when you'd lose a main character a season (basically). So, the best I can come up with is either alphabetically by season, or alphabetically by Joel vs Mike, or just put them all in order of air date (though that can be confusing too).

Anyone have a solution?

[matrixschmatrix]

I order them by episode order- it's a little weird, since it's very catch as catch can, but it also means there's a satisfying filling in the puzzle pieces thing that happens every time a new set comes out.

[mfunk9786]

Do you have a binder for them? That's what I do - I have every episode in the binder (thanks to the awesome Digital Archive Project, which I probably can't link to here even though they only offer homebrew DVDs of episodes not released by Rhino or Shout! Factory, and remove new ones when sets are announced), and then replace my DAP copy whenever a new set comes out with a backup (i.e. burned) copy of my Shout! or Rhino DVD. Similar effect to what Matrix is describing, it's satisfying to fill in the puzzle, and remove an amateur VHS converted copy of an episode to replace with an official release.

[matrixschmatrix]

Vol XXVIII Announced

111- MOON ZERO TWO
422- THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE (with short: HERE COMES THE CIRCUS)
802- THE LEECH WOMAN
909- GORGO
There will also be a bonus disc with 512- “Mitchell” and 513- “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.”


Those episodes are pretty exciting- Moon Zero Two is a good one by first season standards, The Day the Earth Froze is a straight up classic, and the other two are very solid. Plus, they've almost finished off an entire season (all that's left in S1 are The Black Scorpion and Untamed Youth) which is both nice in itself and also cool because we'll finally stop getting relatively dull season one stuff.

Slightly annoying that the bonus disc is two things that I have, but whatever- I'm glad more people will get to see Mitchell.

[mfunk9786]

Vol XXVIII Announced

111- MOON ZERO TWO
422- THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE (with short: HERE COMES THE CIRCUS)
802- THE LEECH WOMAN
909- GORGO
There will also be a bonus disc with 512- “Mitchell” and 513- “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.”


Those episodes are pretty exciting- Moon Zero Two is a good one by first season standards, The Day the Earth Froze is a straight up classic, and the other two are very solid. Plus, they've almost finished off an entire season (all that's left in S1 are The Black Scorpion and Untamed Youth) which is both nice in itself and also cool because we'll finally stop getting relatively dull season one stuff.

Slightly annoying that the bonus disc is two things that I have, but whatever- I'm glad more people will get to see Mitchell.

That is a pretty awesome set, value-wise! Glad they were able to resurrect those OOP titles, Mitchell is an all-time great.