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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 18, 2008 4:24:12 GMT -5
I've been watching them again.
Hollywood After Dark -- finally bought a copy I rented it before and was so underwhlemed that for the first time ever, I didn 't go right out an buy a copy of something the former brains had done. It's still, just okay.
WWOW - Opinion hasn't changed. It had moments both high and low.
KFS - Still as good as when I first watched it. Still ranks among the best.
GOM - Thought this was okay the first two times I saw it, but this time out it really clicked and I'd place it with Killers as the best of the 4.
Geez, now I'll have to go change the review some time.
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Post by Beautiful Mind on Feb 18, 2008 10:13:35 GMT -5
I love em all and I'm sad there won't be more. I rented them at first but I've purchased one and expect to get the others soon. My faves go WWOW, KFS, HAD, GOM.
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Post by Queen Shadowrama on Feb 26, 2008 22:36:59 GMT -5
I popped my Film Crew cherry today! Bought Wild Women of Wongo (as well as Death Rat and Movie Megacheese)...and LOVED it! It was absolutely hysterical, and I loved the host segments, though I wish there had been more of them. Now I'm conflicted. I'm a huge Rifftrax fan and I didn't think anything (in terms of Mike projects) could beat it, but Film Crew seriously shakes that belief. Now I know what everyone is talking about when they say they're bummed new ones won't be coming out! ;D
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Post by Trumpy's Magic Snout on Jul 9, 2008 21:53:54 GMT -5
Decided to go back and watch the Film Crew DVDs and write a review of each. I decided to go in the order they were released so:
Hollywood After Dark
It's a sad day when you're looking forward to seeing one of the Golden Girls stripping, but that's the case with HAD. It's not because I'm some granny obsessed pervert or nothing. No the reason is because the scenes of stripping bring about the best riffing from the Film Crew on this show.
The best scene is when the black woman strips, I say strips but she starts off pretty much "stripped", to some tribal drums. The combination of arousal and repulsion in the riffers is hilarious, as are the who the stripper looks like riffs.
Shamefully the rest of the movie is either too bleak, the depressed scrap heap/strip club owner, possible drug induced rape, or played in silence, the twenty minute "heist" (what happened, did the boom operator's arms fall off?) to hold attention. This seems to rub off on the crew as well, as for the most part they struggle to make the movie funny. The heist should provide tons of riffing opportunities, but Bill's knowledge of gimp masks aside they just can't fill that much silence.
Also the host segments are quite poor on this release. The lunch meeting goes nowhere and the opening pretty much just describes the premise, forgivable for a first effort. Bill's "Ode To Lunch" bit in the extras is clever rather than funny. Thankfully the closing segment where Bill manages to ruin the recreation of death by funny object to the head, in reference to the long lamp death scene, which is cool, by pointing out the movie doesn't actually show the character dieing.
Hollywood After Dark has its moments but it feels like a first effort, a little unsure of itself but providing the platform for further installments. Of course the order the Film Crew DVDs were released was determined by a fan vote meaning it may have not been the first of the four, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that this was the first they made.
6/10
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Post by Trumpy's Magic Snout on Jul 11, 2008 17:08:00 GMT -5
Killers From Space
Or The Tall Norwegian's Tales of Daring. 3/4 of this film is just Peter Graves snooping, being bland and shouting at his wife. Oh, and he dies and stuff. When the intergalactic murderers finally turn up they're maybe the goofiest aliens in cinematic history, it's just a shame that they're barely in the film! Brilliantly their eyes aren't even the worst/best part. That goes to Graves doing some very dangerous snooping while smoking his pipe, purely so he can be discovered by his superiors later on. It's stunning in its stupidity.
Thankfully the Crew know how to polish a turd and make a pretty decent fist of this prototypical 50's sci-fi guff. Obviously the movie sets them up for some easy ones, those big eyes, Peter's unbearable acting technique, the insistence of showing extreme closeups of the actor's faces to break up a scene, which becomes the focus of the final, hilarious, host segment. The most obvious are the Biography references, which are cranked into overdrive. There's probably too many though. And the riffing during the giant animals bit becomes very much of the "I can't take this turn it off" variety very quickly, but the length of the scene would probably wear down even the hardiest of comic writers.
Like Hollywood After Dark the film works against this episode, but it's goofier, helping the riffing to rise a level above the former effort. Add to that far better host segments, the bonus one, including Kevin in the menu screen, is fantastic, and you're looking at a good, if not spectacular installment.
7/10
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Post by Mod City on Jul 13, 2008 1:42:10 GMT -5
Finally saw a Film Crew release. Watched Hollywood After Dark and was pleasantly surprised.
The threesome sounds very natural together and the riffing definitely felt like it was in the best tradition of the old MST3K days. After a while I forgot that there weren't any silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. Laughed out loud several times.
The opening, middle and closing sketches were fine, but nothing to write home about. It's a premise that would take some getting used to, but by the end I was warming to it.
Overall a pretty good experience. Might rent a few more to check out the rest of the series.
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Post by Trumpy's Magic Snout on Jul 17, 2008 16:31:03 GMT -5
Wild Women Of Wongo
So according to Mother Nature she and God decided to do an experiment where they created one village full of ugly men and beautiful women and another that was vice-versa. Why? Erm? That's for those two to explain. Anyway the Wongonians (Wongoites? Wongers? Wongegians?) have set up a society that keeps its women down, probably jealousy on the men's part because their's barely two of them with faces hanging the right way. For some reason they also allow Cher to tell them what to do. Shamefully that involves dancing (or having a fit, I'm still unsure which) and worshiping a three-foot crocodile. Oh and there's something about apemen. And an annoying parrot.
This installment of the Film Crew promised to be goofier than the first two thanks to a movie that appeared to be pretty darn stupid, but fun. And as an added bonus it's in colour and full of people in various states of being half-dressed. The thing is The Wild Women of Wongo is actually a really dull, annoying movie. It's a bit like Teenage Caveman without the twist, or that movie's coherent (ahem) plot.
Thankfully the riffing is good. The crew seem to be very excited about the (not all that) wild women, and after Rue McClanahan stripping and Peter Graves sucking up any charisma present in the surrounding area who can blame them. The riffing on the crocodile "God", the dancing scene and the recurring Mother Nature/God voiceover are great fun and Bill's celebrity look-a-like thing at the end is brilliant. Shamefully there are a few dead spots, where not only is the riffing a bit poor but also a bit sparse.
The host segments vary in this one. The opening with Bob Honcho is maybe the weakest one and the closing skit with the machine that finds your mate from history based on your face leads to an obvious conclusion. A better ending is the skit in the extras where the Crew recreate the beefcakes winking at camera ending and Bill forgets how to. The other extra skit recreating the dancing scene is fun, as is Kevin's map of the world lunch break, which feels the closest to a classic MST sketch.
The Wild Women Of Wongo is a very good release that suffers from a few dead spots and a movie that's way duller than the separate parts would suggest, but thanks to some great riffing in places and good sketches becomes a very worthwhile release indeed.
7/10
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Post by Trumpy's Magic Snout on Jul 23, 2008 18:10:55 GMT -5
Giant Of Marathon
Well this is more like it, a colour movie full of half-naked people that is goofy and fun. Giant Of marathon's another one of those Italian Steve Reeves vehicles, where he plays Herc... sorry some other bloke who is not in any way Hercules and kind of faffs about while some vaguely truthful events from ancient Greece happen. Oh and Andromeda might be the hottest little filly to appear in any riff project, so at least it's visually stimulating for some of us.
After three unbearably dull movies Giant Of Marathon comes as something of a salvation for the Film Crew series. It's actually quite fun, and a decent movie in its own right, well at least compared to Wild Women of Wongo anyway. Thanks to this the Crew end up having great fun with this. The riffing is great for pretty much all of the movie, although it does falter towards the end a little.
Highlights include the clear homosexual overtones of the movie, the alarming amount of statue batch on show, the brutality meted out towards horses and some particularly vicious attacks on the older "impure" woman. One of the funniest moments comes thanks to the riffing during Herc... sorry other bloke's fight scene with the crappy wrestler in which the Crew decide that he is the host for the evening and proceeds to present the menu while fighting. Not only funny writing, but great voice acting as well.
The lunch break sketch is another that moves to an obvious conclusion, although the whole history buff/knower joke is great. Better are the extras, one featuring Mike apologising for comments made during the closing skit, only to continuously offend more and more nations and a near ten minute fake commentary in which Mike plays a day player who featured on the movie as various people. it's probably the best extra on one of the DVDs along with the Killers From Space backwards talk thing.
So a fun movie, great riffing and good extras mean that this is the best of The Film Crew DVDs. Funnily enough thanks to public opinion it came out last, with the worst, Hollywood After Dark, coming out first. Just goes to show you that you can't always judge something by its cover, in this case a five minute clip.
8/10
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Post by dangfish on Aug 13, 2008 15:48:15 GMT -5
Watching them for a second time.
Hollywood After Dark - I liked this the first time but I liked it even more the second time. It was one of those episodes where the film drags everything down so much that you need to re-watch it to truly start enjoying the riffing. This movie really tries to suck the life out of you but you must never let the movie win! (except in super-duper extreme cases like Monster-a-go-go and Wild World of Bat Woman). I laughed at many riffs that I didn't appreciate the first time around. The first scene in the junkyard has strong riffing and then the film alternates between strong and not as strong riffing scenes. Overall, there are plenty of laughs. I particularly enjoyed the dancing riffs and the scenes with Rue making out with various oily men. Also, the silent bank robbery was a highlight. I also found myself enjoying the sketches and the set-up quite a bit more this time. A good episode and a solid debut for the film crew.
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Post by dangfish on Aug 13, 2008 15:58:43 GMT -5
Killers From Space - second viewing
The first time I watched this I didn't care for it at all and ranked it as my least favorite film crew release. I liked it a bit more this time but still like Hollywood After Dark better.
The first half of the film has several amusing riffs that had me chuckling this time around. THe second half of the film, however, didn't have all that much going for it riff-wise, which I find curious, since that's when all the goofiness occurs. The second half of the film we get the bug-eyed aliens, the giant insects, the silly alien technology and Peter Graves in full nutso mode. The trio don't rise to the task and seem strangely silent for all of these escapades. There were a few dead-on quips, but overall not one of their better efforts.
Better the second time around but still lacking a bit.
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Post by dangfish on Aug 22, 2008 13:57:03 GMT -5
Wild Women of Wongo - second viewing
I would now put this pretty much on the same level with Killers from Space. Both have enough amusing riffs to make them enjoyable but the riffing seems rather sparse compared to Rifftrax or even the other two Film Crew Releases. There just seemed to be long periods in the movie where we would only get one or two riffs along the way. This movie was eminently ripe for riffing and they seemed to let a lot of opportunities slip by. If I were to randomly speculate, I would guess that they filmed Wongo and Killers first, then started to get into the swing of things more when they recorded Marathon and Hollywood. I know they were not released in the order they were recorded.
Still, there were enough funny riffs for me to rank it slightly higher than Killers from Space.
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Post by supergeeky on Nov 9, 2008 12:04:58 GMT -5
The only one I've seen so far is WWOW and it rocked! I can't wait to see the rest!!!
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Post by ometiklon on Dec 26, 2008 22:17:25 GMT -5
I received all of the Film Crew DVDs for Christmas. Just watched Giant of Marathon.. And laughed My arse off. I sure wish Rifftrax would do some cheesy films from the 50s and 60s.. I'd probably purchase more of them.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Jan 19, 2010 4:17:16 GMT -5
I tried to watch Hollywood After Dark again. (looks like the last time I popped it in the player was in Feb 2008 - nearly 2 years ago)
MK&B work real well together, but there's just not a lot of funny in this one. I got bored and turned it off halfway through. I will probably give it another go and finish it up later. But watching this after Master Ninja II? The contrast was startling - one was really funny, the other pretty blah.
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Post by dangfish on Jan 19, 2010 19:12:24 GMT -5
I tried to watch Hollywood After Dark again. (looks like the last time I popped it in the player was in Feb 2008 - nearly 2 years ago) MK&B work real well together, but there's just not a lot of funny in this one. I got bored and turned it off halfway through. I will probably give it another go and finish it up later. But watching this after Master Ninja II? The contrast was startling - one was really funny, the other pretty blah. I've had similar situations. Most recently, I watched the Matrix Revolutions and Star Trek RIfftrax. I enjoyed them both quite a bit and did a lot of laughing. A couple days later I popped in Track of the Moon Beast and was laughing twice as much. I could give you similar examples with Cinematic Titanic and MST as well. Don't get me wrong, I love Rifftrax/Film Crew and CT and will take them over almost any other viewing options. When they come up against MST, however, they just can't win.
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