Just checked IMDB because I thought maybe I was mixing this one up with Destination: Moon (did that piece of crap ever get the MST treatment?), but Heinlein is credited as cowriting both the story and the screenplay.
How much Heinlein have you read? Both of those are vintage RAH hallmarks…
I just got the a/c in my car fixed and the wonderful cold air (it’s in the 90’s here now) reminded me a brief exchange between TV’s Frank & Dr. Forester.
It’s winter and Dr. F has just come into Deep 13:
Frank: How cold is it out there?
Dr. F: Brass monkey, Frank, brass monkey.
Not nearly enough, apparently.
Heinlein’s female characters are pretty much all “the perfect woman”…if you’re a 1940s-era Objectivist male with SMBD tendencies. They may have four doctorates and be able to fix a Univac with one hand tied behind their backs, but they all melt into little puddles of estrogen when a man looks at them, and they all have a mild sadomasochistic streak that makes the numerous spanking discipline scenes quite erotic…again, if you’re a 1940s-era Objectivist male with SMDB tendencies.
I’m not calling RAH a hack. I’m a pretty major Heinlein fan. But even rabid fanboys have to admit that the man wrote women with some major glaring inconsistencies.
After this sentence, I spent more time than I should’ve trying to imagine a 1940s-era objectivist female doper. :smack:
I’m a 2040’s era Somnambulist male with SDMB tendencies, where does that leave me?
You BASTARD! Thanks for reminding me of growing up with my mom.
…grumble, grumble…
I reccomend starting with Mitchell or Overdrawn At The Memory Bank.
Avoid Manos:The Hands of Fate until after your indoctrination. The guys are funny, but the movie itself is so simultaneously boring and weird, that even the riffing doesn’t save it. Also, don’t start with Hamlet. It’s a black and white German version that’s so lifeless and dead that no amount of humor can sustain a watcher for long.
I always use Space Mutiny when beginning an indoctrination program.
And you have to love the Battlestar Galactica (old-school BG!) stock footage for the space battles…
I have to recommend The Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast . Bert I Gordon films are lotsa fun to begin with; add their riffing and Mr. B Natural and I think any MST newbie will be hooked! Then hit 'em with The Magic Sword and the indoctrination is complete!
I find **The Final Sacrifice ** makes a good intro.
Should be able to watch another episode tonight, I think…
Wow. We meet Valeria this episode… or Vawewia, I suppose, the woman with the thickest generic accent ever.
We start with the final installment of Commando Cody - which film-breaks a few minutes in, bizarrely. Joel heads back to adjust the projector, and we see that he apparently wears glasses in the theater.
Then our main feature begins, In Color.
This is the earliest example I recall of them staying through the credits, but then again, a lot of the others they’ve done are older movies that don’t have long end credits.
There’s also a contest to name the “Avocado Guy”, which, through some miracle of temporal mechanics that is beyond me, is resolved in one of the earlier episodes I’ve reviewed thus far. I forget which, at the time, I thought it was a contest based on the KTMA incarnation.
Signature Riff :
<Amazon> : “We have no history. We have always been here.”
<Crow> : “So you have a history.”
OT but related, I remember how surprised I was when I realized Mike Nelson wore a headset in his theater segments. Was a lavalier not considered adequate? Or was Mike getting direction in his headphones, or listening to some kind of “click track”? Did the bot actors also wear headsets?
I vaguely recall seeing a few behind the scenes shots with puppeteers wearing headsets… don’t know what came through them.
In case you missed the title, the theme music will remind you again and again. This movie, recast, with better effects, and a different composer, could be made as a taut hard SF drama.
Which is completely at odds with the wacky Pink-Panther-esque cartoon credits sequence and overbearing jazz score. On the upside, Joel appears to be bitten by the funk bug, and dances in the theater through a large portion of the credits. It’s strange to see him so animated. (ba-DUM-bum)
Then, there’s Moonopoly. A board game the “bad guys” play in the film. Really. Of course, it inspires Joel to reveal in the next Host Segment that Crow and Servo incorporate Rock’em Sock’em technology.
Signature Riff:
<Crow> “They’re so rich they got movies and they don’t even watch 'em.”
Don’t give them any ideas. They’re already remaking “Parts: The Clonus Horror”. “The Island” is coming out this summer, and looks idiotic.
“James Arness: Ugly and stupid. Next time, on Biography.”
Just had to note that my all-time favorite MST3K line comes from this one. When the blind woman is atop the lighthouse:
<Crow>: “Hey! I can’t see my house from here!”
:: Contemplates going back to his “As elusive as Robert Denby” sig line ::
Yowza. Mamie Van Doren.
This is a teensploitation film about seedy teenagers and seedier adults. Y’know, Shaft was originally going to be a teensploitation film rather than blaxploitation, but the test audiences kept giggling whenever the main character’s name was said.
Shaft. tee-hee!
Guest-stars a skinny gal that Joel and the Bots mistake for Greg Brady, prompting a nice tribute; and a hispanic lass who’s fond of the interjection of surprise : “Chihuahua!” Of course, that’s probably only the second most racist thing in the movie, since there’s the reference to “wetbacks” later on.
Everyone in the theater gets up and dances in the show-stopping Calpyso number that occurs at the end of the film.
Outside the theater, we get a peek inside Gypsy’s brain - Richard Basehart and RAM chips.
Signature Riff:
<Crow> “Hey, It’s Lenny and Squiggy school!”
One more to go for Season One.