DVD review: “MST3K Volume XIV”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
MST3K fans will find plenty to adore in this four-DVD set packed with hilarious jokes, nonsensical sketches and fun special moments.
The cult TV show centered on a hapless man and his wisecracking robot sidekicks (portrayed by puppets) who are trapped on a spaceship and forced to watch horrid B-movies, which they gleefully deride.
The four episodes span MST3K’s 10 seasons on national cable. Two episodes feature series creator and original host Joel Hodgson and date to the show’s Comedy Central run. The other two star Mike Nelson as the host and come from the Sci-Fi Channel years.
“Mad Monster” is just the third episode the MST3K crew filmed after the show made the leap from a small Minneapolis cable access station to Comedy Central. It features original performer J. Elvis “Josh” Weinstein, who played mad scientist Dr. Laurence Erhardt and initially voiced smart-alecky robot Tom Servo. Weinstein left the show after its first season on Comedy Central, so it’s entertaining to hear him ridicule this abysmal werewolf flick.
Season 4 episode “Manhunt in Space” boasts the more familiar lineup of Hodgson, Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo, Trace Beaulieu as the voice/puppeteer of sarcastic robot Crow, and Beaulieu and Frank Conniff as baddies Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV’s Frank. It includes uproarious skits about beanbag pants and musical robots that help elevate the movie, a painfully cheap and dull 1956 space “adventure” about a Buck Rogers wannabe.
The 1990 “horror” film “Soultaker” which is scary for all the wrong reasons, was mocked in the 10th and final season. The movie stars Joe Estevez, Martin Sheen’s brother, but for diehard MST3K fans, the real stars of the episode are Hodgson and Frank “TV’s Frank” Conniff, former cast members who make a cameo.
Also from the 10th season, the 1985 spaghetti Western “Final Justice” – which follows a renegade Texas lawman tracking an Italian gangster on the island of Malta - features Joe Don Baker, a favorite MST3K target.
Bonus features: New interviews with Estevez and “Final Justice” writer-director Greydon Clark, “Mad Monster” trailer, MST3K on an episode of ESPN Classic’s “Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker” and four mini-posters.
- BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment