The Ultimate MST3K Thread

Cafe Society
941

YES! I love the Final Sacrifice. “The Worst Thing to Ever Come Out of Canada.” Ouch. I knew it was going to be a good episode when they made the riff on sartoris: “I don’t know. I just feel happy.”

Their comments on the score had me in stitches:

“You know, this music is more suited to plate spinning.”

“Video poker music.”

And the Canada bashing was extensive:

“So eh then, eh?”

“You gonna be a fishing guide or a mounty when you grow up?”

“So how do you like our health-care system, eh?”

But the best, best part was Mike Pipper/Yosemite Sam:

“Oooooh I needs an eraser!”

942

Best riff in Gorgo was the storm that apparently had no ill effects on our hero’s ship, as it is next seen safely in port. Which leads to a parody of “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”: “Oh, they made it to port, everyone was ok. They went out to lunch and felt better”

Love the Pipper as Yosemite Sam riffs. They just have a cumulative, devastating effect.

And the cultist hiding outside Troy’s door, saying “hee. hee. hee.”

943

Exactly. By the end of the scene, i’m crying.

I also liked the way they’d make groaning noises whenever Troy moved an object. Reminds me of the way they’d act all super winded whenever Joe Don Baker ran or even mildly jogged in Mitchell. Not to mention all the geek jokes:

“Wait! It’s been almost a week since I read Tolkien!”
“This is almost as tense as mock U.N. debate.”
“My swing club will be looking for me.”
“Ha ha! Jokes on you! I don’t have any friends!”

944

Yeah, the abruptness of the cut from capsizing to safe is what really makes it. Love that bit. :smiley:

945

MST3K 9.11 - Devil Fish

Episode Thoughts: Sadly, one of the weaker outings of season nine, but still fun.

Movie : It’s Jaws! Kind of. We have a vaguely Euro cast dealing with a menacing creature of the deeps - the twist is that it’s a shark-octopus hybrid engineered by a sinister corporation, and they’re willing to kill to keep it under wraps.

Memorable Bits : Some bad dubbing. The vaguely Italian guy. Aggressive use of a heavy blue filter. The beer-drinkin’ guy! The really skinny chick. Random, rapid editing.

Intro: Mike thinks he’s Jason Bourne, at the center of a government conspiracy to hide his identity… but then Tom and Crow find his misplaced wallet. Pearl’s pretending the castle is a cruise ship to rake in extra cash, and has Mike and the Bots help out by making ice sculptures.

Host Segments: Debating Dolphin intelligence - and taunting Blowie the Dolphin via phone. Ends badly when a Dolphin Battlecruiser decloaks next to the SOL; An Electrician stops by, and Mike mocks him - but the mutual Electrician/Dolphin defense pact makes Mike eat his words; Pearl has Cambot try out some filters to make Mike and the Bots more vaguely Italian.

Finale: Brainstorming other animal hybrid ideas.

Signature Riffs:

<Crow> Two thousand flushes, the movie.

<Tom> Something vague this way comes.

<Mike> The director’s vision : lots of shots of things.

<Tom> You know, just because you can edit doesn’t mean you should.

<Tom> Tiny Medical Center : starring Tiny Chad Everett.

<Crow> The sound of William Conrad’s heart.

<Mike> Enjoy the softcore porn soundtrack.

(after a clear scene ‘homage’)
<Mike> Blake Edward’s ‘Point Ten’.

<Crow> Heh heh. He’s never faced a mediocre woman with a hand axe before.

<Crow> Underwater fights are like the drum solos of movies.

Next: 9.12 - The Screaming Skull

946

CandidGamera: Are you also gonna go over the short that was on a DVD, but never aired on TV - the one about the oil guy who moves to South America? Or did you already note that, and I missed it?

947

Weaker outings? Me, I thought **Devil Fish ** was hilarious-- but then, I live in Florida. Did you notice how the dolphins at Ocean Harbor were named Donald and Minnie? Because “Florida” = “Disney.” Those crafty Italians!

So much funny… the inexplicably mush-mouthed girl in the Robin Williams outfit, the brutal mockery of electricians… I love it when they take a passing remark like the “electrician” thing and spin it out into an elaborate running gag.

Crow: “Beery Guy’s Theme.” :smiley:

I can’t help busting up when Beery Guy tries playing back his Devil Fish recording and Tom adds all the can-opening and guzzling sound effects. (“It lasted about thirty seconds…” Crow: “–like my last twelve-pack.”)

Or when ‘Kotter’s Wife’ takes her glasses off and Tom adds the stripper music.

Crow: “Another dark-shaded, mobbed-up doctor…”

Crow: “Well, this ought to kill EVERY LIVING THING in the Everglades…”

Tom: “Whoa!–did I just see–?” Mike: “Yep, yep yep… we have bike rack.”

Anyone else notice the moment when Electrician Guy leaps down the stairs in the boat, and they had to block his area out for a split-second with the MST3K logo because the camera was filming right up his shorts? I don’t remember them ever having to do that before.

948

Yes, I love Devil Fish too!

My favorite riff was “We done been et. Over.”

And they did a similar censorship in **City Limits ** when Joel used an umbrella to obscure the nude swimmer in the opening credits.

949

I did! I wondered why they didn’t trim a few seconds of film, but it amused me that the planet logo had to be brought in to bowdlerize the buffalo shot.

Re: Leaper - Assignment : Venezuela. I think. Let me see if I did that one… Doesn’t look like I did a full review. It fits in somewhere in the neighborhood of Season Seven, if memory serves, in terms of when it was created.

It’s an extra on the Killer Shrews disc, mentioned here :
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6730147&highlight=assignment#post6730147

950

Guy in movie: “I’ve got three hot women waiting for me in New York.”
Crow: “The Del Rubio Sisters!”

951

**MST3K 9.12 - The Screaming Skull **

Episode Thoughts: One of my season 9 favorites. The movies full of wide open spaces for riffs… and a short!

Short : Gumby’s Robot Rumpus. Sadly, IMDB fails me on this one. Gumby and Pokey use robots to do their lawn chores with disastrous results.

Movie : It’s Rebecca! Kind of. Sinister husband-guy brings his formerly-mentally-ill second wife to the lovely home left to him by his rich first wife who died in an ‘accident.’ No bonus points for guessing the new wife is rich, too. Sure, there’s a Torgo-like groundskeeper for a red herring, but it’s obvious who the bad guy is…

Memorable Bits : The coffin guarantee. Ambulatory skulls. Peacocks? Scrunchy-face screaming woman. Mickey, our surrogate Torgo.

Intro: Tom metamorphs to a butterfly, but he is quickly back to normal - almost. Pearl and the gang play an elaborate prank on the SOL crew involving Penguin costumes, only to realize it wasn’t worth the effort.

Host Segments: Tom and Crow put on a clay playlet, picking up on anti-robot themes from the short; Tom tries to scam a free coffin by claiming he died from fright in the movie; Crow pretends to be the Screaming Skull, Mike panics and hits him a lot.

Finale: Tom’s Coffin is delivered; Bobo tries a prank on the SOL crew, involving a monkey costume, but they don’t buy it, not even a little.

Signature Riffs:

<Tom> Mrs. Gumby is stacked!

<Crow> It’s a fair to partly-cottony day…

<Mike> (as Gumby) Mom threatened to make me into a bowl…

<Narrator> It may kill you…
<Tom> (as Narrator) … if you watch it in front of a moving bus.

<Wife> (re : First Wife) You still love her, don’t you?
<Mike> Hey, look, you’re second choice, accept it.

<Crow> (as Mickey) Oh man, it’s like a buffet of victims, I don’t even know where to start…

<Mike> (as Mickey) I’m gonna start my own pond.

<Mike> Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

<Tom> It’s like they have two servings of tension and they’re trying to stretch it out for seven people.

<Crow> (as Narrator) Remember, folks, if you die of boredom, you do not get a free coffin.

<Husband> Now, it may sound selfish…
<Tom> (as Husband) … but I want everything for me.

<Mike> I think the title was supposed to be ‘Screaming, Semi-colon, Skull.’

<Tom> And the moral of the story - never get close to anyone, ever.

Next : 9.13 - Quest of the Delta Knights

952

I love that short. The horrible grating voice on Gumby is just naturally funny.

“Thank goodness for the internal genitalia!”

953

Gamera, you took all the best quotes!

But I do remember some goods ones:

Mike, after one of the “Screams:” “Did the subway just pull in?”

Crow, as the wife pauses during undressing: “What was I doing? Oh yeah, titillating the audience.”

Crow: “It’s Wife-Skull Lake.”

I liked whenever Mickie would talk they’d do a Snagglepuss quote, “Exit, stage right.”

954

Woo, Quest of the Delta Knights! A bizarre mishmash of historical periods (much like the Ren Faire they used as a shooting location), David Warner inexplicably playing two roles plus narrating, and the actress who briefly played Wesley’s girlfriend on Angel. It’s just so dumb.

955

Ah, Quest of the Delta Knights! The Delta Knights movie against which all other Delta Knights movies will be compared!

“I’m Coming!”

956

Watched it this weekend, will type up my thoughts tonight if I have time!

In the meantime, I will share this good news:

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Dvd-News-Reviews/Mystery-Science-Theater/800031498

957

Movie: “The Screaming Skull is a movie that reaches its climax in shocking horror …”
Mike: “-- but we cut that.”

958

MST3K 9.13 - Quest of the Delta Knights

Episode Thoughts: A really solid outing - I enjoy the sword and sorcery movies they do most of all, and they’re pretty rare. And of course, this is the only time we get to see Pearl in the theater, riffing with the Bots instead of Mike. I’m intensely amused to learn that the boy who played our hero also played a young Medieval lad in Robin Hood : Men in Tights, the same year as this movie.

Movie : It’s the Da Vinci Code! Okay, not really. There a secret order of ‘Delta Knights’ founded on the teachings of Archimedes - they fight against tyranny and preserve knowledge, et cetera. A young boy is found by one of the Knights who seems to be the key to a prophecy of the order - I guess they’re not all that scientific, after all. He is to be the one to discover the lost vault of Archimedes. Standing in his way is the villainous Vultare - played by David Warner, who does double-time as the boy’s mentor Knight. The boy’s wacky sidekicks include a whore who’s secretly a princess, and the bumbling Leonardo Da Vinci.

Memorable Bits : You may remember whore-princess Thena from Angel, where she played Virginia Bryce. The absurdity of Da Vinci as the bumbling sidekick. “I’m coming!” Hurling pee. David Warner vs. David Warner. RenFest gags. PEARL in the THEATER. RIFFING.

Intro: We briefly have an AMC model loaner Crow, as Gypsy hauls off the real one to repair hail damage; Pearl is disappointed to find that Mike is healthy and happy and arranges to swap places with him for the first theater segment.

Host Segments: The Bots love Pearl for giving them a mint, and Bobo and Brain Guy get along great with Mike, but Pearl switches things back; The Tom Servo Chorus presents ‘Air on a Delta Knight’; a mobbed-up Leo Da Vinci arrives in a spaceship to set the record straight about the movie.

Finale: The Bots miss Pearl. The modern Delta Knights are holding a pancake breakfast in Castle Forrester.

Signature Riffs:

<Narrator> From the land comes life…
<Pearl, as Narrator>… and fat-free goodness.

<Crow> Well, better than Quest of the Delta Burkes, I suppose.

<Tom> When these guys aren’t writing lines of code, they’re out doing this crap.

<Crow, as kid> Je m’appelle ‘Bite Me’.

<Pearl> He’s the lost member of ZZ Top!

<Tom, as Knight> Back now, this is a lot of money.

<Kid> Who’s Cato?
<Crow, as Knight> Clouseau’s houseboy.

<Crow> It’s his ‘Museum of Odors’.

<Mike> NRA Home-schooling!

<Crow> He’s really rather an ‘Artless’ Dodger.

<Mike> Man, Ancient Servo! (spotting a familiar-looking head in a scene)

<Tom> Later, in Castle Forrester… (spotting a familiar-looking Castle in a scene)

(regarding the Tom Servo Chorus)
<Mike> Where did those other Servos come from, anyway?
<Tom> You know… around.

<Crow> He eats his body weight in moths every day.

<Mike> Wow, they had Ethan Hawkes back then, too?

<Crow> He’s staying in a ‘Bed and Renfest’.

<Mike> Wenchjacking was a big problem in the Middle Ages.

<Tom> The Vikings in this movie don’t vike very well.

<Tom> I’m starting to like Willow.
<Mike> Wow.

Next: 10.01 - Soultaker

Season Nine Thoughts :

I can sense a decline setting in - I’m not sure if it’s the lack of support they received from the network, or what. The movies chosen for the experiments are not quite as ripe as some of the older experiments. Season Eight’s emphasis on ‘classic’ SciFi pictures may have been a good thing. (I’m looking at you, Deadly Bees.) Still, there’s some classics in Season Nine, and Final Sacrifice will stand the test of time against any other experiment easily.

959

He was the screaming kid being chased by Rottingham, wasn’t he? Wow.
Of note, Shout Factory, which put out all the Film Crew DVDs has announced that they have gotten the rights to put out MST3K DVDs from Rhino. 10.2 will be the last Rhino release, and Shout Factory will start releasing DVDs around mid year.
From here

960

I wonder what Shout Factory’s release plans are. I hope they try to release episodes that aren’t already on DVD, since that would make the most sense with a show like this with a devoted, DVD-buying fanbase. I assume the same rights issues will affect SF, where the rights to use certain films have expired and must be renegotiated.