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Post by Who Let Servo Drive on May 30, 2014 8:57:03 GMT -5
... admit it, there are a few that you actually found watchable! I know there are for me at least. They can be dumb, and almost invariably are, but some are actually a hoot to watch even without riffing.
Which ones do you feel that way about? I don't mean movies you like to watch only because they are terrible, like Manos or Horror of Party Beach, or anything Ed Wood made. Here are a few for me, to get the ball rolling:
1) Robot Monster and
2) The Slime People -- bad movies, no doubt, but they still creeped me out as a kid on Saturday morning when they showed up on TV. Something strangely atmospheric about them (literally so with The Slime People). To be honest I found Season 1 a struggle to watch (I'm glad I kept up with it as the show took off starting in Season 2) and I actually prefer these two movies in their straight versions.
3) Godzilla vs the Sea Monster -- rather dull but when the monsters fight it's great!
4) Santa Claus Conquers the Martians -- again pure dumbness and that polar bear is hilarious! But it's actually got a plot you can follow, which for an MST movie is saying something. I felt ripped off though that Santa doesn't conquer the Martians militarily, leaving a garrison of elves behind when he returns triumphant to earth.
5) Killer Shrews -- same deal as the Slime People really -- has decent atmosphere. The riffing had really picked up by Season 4 and I love to watch the MST version.
6) Girl's Town -- jaunty pacing and Mamie is always a blast to watch, and not just because she's gorgeous.
7) Revenge of the Creature -- Clint! And again there's a discernible story line that a human can follow.
8) The Deadly Mantis -- see a pattern taking shape? I like creature features. Deadly Mantis is Them for stupid people, but it's fun to veg out and watch a monster kill a bus now and then.
9) Gorgo -- I used to look forward to this airing on Channel 9 in New York -- it used to be on the Four O'Clock movie. Anyone here old enough to remember when TV was virtually the only way to watch movies, and you would scour the TV Guide to see when the movies you loved were going to air?
OK, your turn....
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Post by brandonakaxerxes on May 30, 2014 10:56:08 GMT -5
As Crow pointed out at the end of the film, "The Final Sacrifice" wasn't that bad of a movie.
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Post by Sheik Yerbouti on May 30, 2014 11:15:41 GMT -5
Although the movie contains numerous goofy/dated elements that haven't aged particularly well, I would still contend that Moon Zero Two is watchable.
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Post by TheNewMads on May 30, 2014 14:19:36 GMT -5
From the OP:
The Slime People
Killer Shrews
Girl's Town
Revenge of the Creature
Gorgo
are all films i enjoy on one level or another.
I've heard good things about Phase IV but i've yet to see it.
I think City of Fire is definitely far from the worst 70s disaster movie ever made, and i have a soft spot for that genre.
The Crawling Eye is a very effective psychodrama. It suffered from really bad marketing.
Moon Zero Two is a bit iffy plot-wise but has tremendous production values, considering.
First Spaceship on Venus is a pretty decent early space exploration flick. One day i'd like to watch the uncut version; it's apparently very ambitious.
Stranded in Space is not bad for a 70s made-for-TV movie. Kinda Richard Mattheson-y.
Space Travelers is a bit joyless but has a certain cache, and is definitely the most reputable movie they did.
I've always found Teenagers from Outer Space to be weirdly romantic and good-hearted, and it's certainly never dull, even if the acting and SFX are pretty lacking.
As a "Rebecca" ripoff, Tormented is a well above average psychodrama/supernatural murder mystery. Sure beats the hell out of "Screaming Skull."
I Accuse My Parents has terrific musical numbers, and come on, as far as exploitation movies go, they certainly come a lot worse.
Girl in Lover's Lane: Come on, you cried a little. And that's what the movie was after.
Gunslinger is just the Beverly Garlandest.
Alien From L.A.: I just like it. I have no excuse.
Invasion USA: It's about as good as the original Red Dawn. And that's pretty good.
San Francisco International: Again, for 70s made-for-TV, it's all right.
Kitten With a Whip: Terrific movie right up to the end, when the bottom completely falls out of it.
High School Big Shot: I think this is a pretty powerful movie in a pretty underrated genre. There are a ton of overlooked juvey-delinquent movies out there.
Parts: The Clonus Horror also gets a bad rap. They're supposed to act goofy and naive! That was part of the premise!
Devil Doll: well paced suspense/horror, with some genuinely creepy moments. I wouldn't be surprised if Anthony Hopkins took inspiration from it for "Magic."
Time Chasers: Ok, it's a crappy movie but it really feels like a genuine labor of love.
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank: Does well with its budget restrictions, and is based on, and fairly loyal to, a very good short story. If it's confusing, that's your fault, not the movie's. (Lathe of Heaven, which came out of the same PBS workshop, is still much better, though.)
Deadly Bees: As far as Hammer-inspired dry british mysteries go, it's pretty decent.
Space Children: Love it. I love almost all Jack Arnold. The political references to the Manhattan project are quite sly.
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Post by Monophylos on May 30, 2014 16:40:52 GMT -5
Insofar as "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" isn't confusing it's just plain lame, the tale of a slacker who reacts to his very mild disciplinary action for watching movies on company time by vandalizing his employer's bank accounts and the world's weather. So it still sucks ass, sorry.
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Post by TheNewMads on May 30, 2014 17:02:22 GMT -5
well, taste is relative. pretty sure the raoul julia character wasn't meant to be particularly likable though. so the fact you didn't like him isn't necessarily a legitimate criticism.
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Post by Space Teens on May 30, 2014 17:24:04 GMT -5
The Leech Woman is one I could watch on its own. And I own Squirm, which is a pretty fun little regional horror movie. Also Teenagers from Outer Space is a pretty fun movie.
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Post by angilasman on May 30, 2014 19:06:57 GMT -5
I enjoy both of the Godzilla movies (Sea Monster more than Megalon). I am, after all, a lifelong fan. I've come around to the old Gameras. I like vs. Gyaos and vs. Guiron on their own, but the original film and Zigra are quite lame without MST3K accompaniment.
I love all the Russian Fantasy Films. They're quite terrific. On a similar line, The Sword and the Dragon is a fun movie, and nightmarish children's film Santa Claus is wonderful entertainment with or without MST3K. Teenagers From Outer Space wins me over with the sweet main couple.
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Post by Monophylos on May 30, 2014 20:25:47 GMT -5
well, taste is relative. pretty sure the raoul julia character wasn't meant to be particularly likable though. so the fact you didn't like him isn't necessarily a legitimate criticism. Unfortunately the filmmakers made Fingal the designated hero fighting against the Man(TM) and his destructive actions go without comment or challenge or barely so much as simple acknowledgement, so assailing his likeability is the only legitimate criticism. Heaven knows there's nothing else to grab hold of in that mess. |
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Post by TheNewMads on May 31, 2014 6:02:16 GMT -5
well, taste is relative. pretty sure the raoul julia character wasn't meant to be particularly likable though. so the fact you didn't like him isn't necessarily a legitimate criticism. Unfortunately the filmmakers made Fingal the designated hero fighting against the Man(TM) and his destructive actions go without comment or challenge or barely so much as simple acknowledgement, so assailing his likeability is the only legitimate criticism. Heaven knows there's nothing else to grab hold of in that mess. not liking "Overdrawn" because Fingal is unsympathetic is like not liking "The Pickup Artist" because Robert Downey Jr. can't keep it in his pants or not liking "The Passion of the Christ" because Mel Gibson's character reminds you too much of jesus. There's a lot of reasons to dislike those movies but those in particular couldn't possibly be among them. Fingal was plainly meant to be unlikable and the reason his actions went without comment or challenge is that they were unprecedented so the power establishment didn't know how to react to them. there's stuff going on with that movie and the story it was based on well beyond which characters were or weren't sympathetic. |
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Post by continosbuckle on May 31, 2014 15:09:07 GMT -5
there's stuff going on with that movie and the story it was based on well beyond which characters were or weren't sympathetic. I think that's a little unfair, and I certainly don't think that it's obvious that Fingal was "plainly meant" to be repugnant. It's a very standard hero story. Fingal's the little guy, who's brilliant and the only person in the world who appreciates art, crushed in a stupid irrelevant job far below his special abilities, who decides to fight his society's authoritarian monolithic oppressors and manages to defeat them in the course of the movie. He even gets the girl in the end, the "good" brunette girl rather than the vapid blonde girl he was crushing on at the beginning, representing his "character growth". He then wanders off to start the new life he's set up for himself (since he's a brilliant) where he gets to live out the fantasy he's had a boner over the entire movie. It's entirely a standard hero movie with its standard Happily-Ever-After ending. I can only believe that the filmmakers were intending on making Fingal repugnant rather than heroic if their intention was to deconstruct the hero myth, and that's granting far too much cachet to a transparently dumb ("Is it sexy??") movie. It's much easier to believe that they mistakenly thought their hero had their audience's sympathies. |
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Post by Mike Flugennock on May 31, 2014 22:00:03 GMT -5
... admit it, there are a few that you actually found watchable! I know there are for me at least. They can be dumb, and almost invariably are, but some are actually a hoot to watch even without riffing... Actually, a huge number of the crunchy old "B" horror and sci-fi from the '50s and early '60s that I saw in the first four seasons were movies I watched regularly on the local Saturday night "Creature Feature" as a teenager in the early '70s -- Slime People, Black Scorpion, Amazing Colossal Man, Rocketship XM, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, pretty much all that old Corman, Gordon, Lippert and Ed Wood stuff, and every Gamera/Godzilla/Mothra/Rodan/Megalon/Gaos flick they could get their hands on. It was all fun as hell. I learned early on that the worse they were, the better I liked 'em. |
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Post by mitchell33 on Jun 1, 2014 1:05:23 GMT -5
Hercules there was one or 2 of them that were decent. it made me watch the one that Christopher Lee was in. Haunted world I think it was called? and that one actually was pretty damn good. and that one was unriffed.
and I kinda dug it. SST Deathflight I think was a good one. going back to the KTMA days and also City of death another one I liked. there are of course other films as well.
I forget the name of it but it was the one that Robert Reed from the Brady bunch did in I think (1961) that was a good episode and a pretty good movie actually. surprising me to be honest.
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Post by outlawofmitchell on Jun 1, 2014 9:28:17 GMT -5
Hobgoblins and Wild World of Batwoman have me laughing so hard I sometimes miss the riffs. Robot Holocaust, Mitchell, Jack Frost, and the Master Ninjas also probably would make that list.
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Post by SOL Stowaway on Jun 1, 2014 14:06:03 GMT -5
Humanoid Woman. <3
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