Post by Torgo on Feb 25, 2017 19:51:29 GMT -5
Well, it's finally here. My pizza came and it's still hot and fresh.
Oh yeah, and another DVD set of MST landed on my doorstep as well.
I don't really feel enthused about this one. I watched three of the episodes in the last year in my Review Thread (shameless plug) and am not entirely over the moon (rock? OH WOW) about two of them, while I like the third just fine. The fourth I don't remember that well and might refreshen my memory soon enough.
(that and I've been injured and off work for the last three weeks, so while a new set is welcome, my mind has been elsewhere)
If my memory serves, Volume XXXVIII is our third all-Mike set, following volumes 4 and 5. Unlike those two, the majority of episodes actually come from Mike's tenure on Comedy Central (season six to be precise), while only one hails from the Sci-Fi Channel. Season six has been underrepresented on DVD lately, so to have a big drop of episodes from it is a bit refreshing in that regard. Especially as we get down to the wire on releasable episodes, and tough nuts to crack only get tougher. This set also has something of a public domain theme, which means it will be an MST set in print until the end of time.
You remember those five episodes Sci-Fi kept repeating until they finally took the show off their schedule? These episodes feel a lot like those.
Aside from that, as I get into our new set the first thing I noticed about this set are the menus...and they stink. It seems as if they had a new idea they wanted to play with in this set, concentrating on the Mads. The first three episodes in this set have puppets of Dr. Forester and TV's Frank stiffly repeating dialogue from the episode, while Mike, Servo, and Crow recite riffs from theater seats down below. I like the idea, but it feels limited and it's not very funny. The best menu for the set is Track of the Moon Beast, which is merely Servo, Crow, and a "Fish Lips Guy" puppet singing California Lady. There's not much of a joke to this one, but it feels like pretty much the perfect menu to this particular episode.
Getting into the meat and potatoes of the set, we start off with Invasion USA, the most important movie ever made until Red Dawn took the crown. What do this movie, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Touch of Evil all have in common? Producer Albert Zugsmith! He's the center of attention in Zugsmith Confidential, a fascinating look at this strange career. Well worth a look for cinephiles of any kind. Also here is a theatrical trailer.
Colossus and the Headhunters, the second Maceste movie of the series (the first being the retitled Hercules Against the Moon Men), is more sword and sandal nonsense from Italy. There doesn't seem to be a lot that can be said about this particular movie, so the disc houses "Mike, by Joel," a ten minute interview with Joel in which he talks about Mike. This featurette is a bit of a missed opportunity, since Joel shares a bit of information that we have already gathered from other interviews. However Joel does share some colorful tidbits, including his idea for his replacement was actually Bridget Jones(-Nelson) as a version of himself that was accidentally turned into a woman due to an experiment gone wrong. I'm pretty sure I've heard this story before, but it doesn't stop me from wanting a peek at an alternate reality in which Bridget hosted MST.
Next up, High School Big Shot. I guess they think the melodrama can stand on its own two feet, since we're given a scratchy print of the uncut film and a theatrical trailer.
Last up, one of the most overrated episodes on the set (and one that I enjoyed trolling people with, due to it never being in a DVD set until now), Track of the Moon Beast. This disc has a wonderful interview with Leigh Drake, who is very unhappy with her movie. She shares minor behind the scenes info, and claims the Mystery Science Theater was her husbands favorite show (and that he unfortunately passed away before they got to do Track of the Moon Beast). She treasures the episode, which is good to hear. Unfortunately the interviewer didn't get her to say "Moon rock? OH WOW!"
Looking into the bonus disc, Play MSTie for Me Triple Decker seems to be a video Best Brains put together way back when that stitched together all the songs of the series. I assume it was initially produced during the Comedy Central era since the "Music Video" motif is dropped when the Sci-Fi episodes are up, and also because Trace voices over a hilarious introduction to the compilation on how to "clean" your video cassette. But I imagine it was reissued with the Sci-Fi material before now since it ends with a 2000 copyright for Best Brains. As for the material, they're songs. We've all heard them, and we all have our favorites. I will say that the California Lady segment seems out of place, since it's not really a song. Sure it's about a song, but it's the black sheep segment of the bunch.
And now I finish my journey through this set. I feel empty inside. How many more of these do I have left? Outside of the relaunch, that is. There are fourteen unreleased episodes (fifteen, if you include Godzilla vs. Megalon, which should never have been released at all). Two are likely to be released, another five or six also have a good shot. So, one or two sets left? Gah. Sure we have Rhino volume re-releases, and I still believe Shout might burn some of the old singles in volumes, but still...
You know what? We got this far. Let's go the distance. Every episode or none! F*** you, Rocketship X-M and Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, because we're coming for you too!
Oh yeah, and another DVD set of MST landed on my doorstep as well.
I don't really feel enthused about this one. I watched three of the episodes in the last year in my Review Thread (shameless plug) and am not entirely over the moon (rock? OH WOW) about two of them, while I like the third just fine. The fourth I don't remember that well and might refreshen my memory soon enough.
(that and I've been injured and off work for the last three weeks, so while a new set is welcome, my mind has been elsewhere)
If my memory serves, Volume XXXVIII is our third all-Mike set, following volumes 4 and 5. Unlike those two, the majority of episodes actually come from Mike's tenure on Comedy Central (season six to be precise), while only one hails from the Sci-Fi Channel. Season six has been underrepresented on DVD lately, so to have a big drop of episodes from it is a bit refreshing in that regard. Especially as we get down to the wire on releasable episodes, and tough nuts to crack only get tougher. This set also has something of a public domain theme, which means it will be an MST set in print until the end of time.
You remember those five episodes Sci-Fi kept repeating until they finally took the show off their schedule? These episodes feel a lot like those.
Aside from that, as I get into our new set the first thing I noticed about this set are the menus...and they stink. It seems as if they had a new idea they wanted to play with in this set, concentrating on the Mads. The first three episodes in this set have puppets of Dr. Forester and TV's Frank stiffly repeating dialogue from the episode, while Mike, Servo, and Crow recite riffs from theater seats down below. I like the idea, but it feels limited and it's not very funny. The best menu for the set is Track of the Moon Beast, which is merely Servo, Crow, and a "Fish Lips Guy" puppet singing California Lady. There's not much of a joke to this one, but it feels like pretty much the perfect menu to this particular episode.
Getting into the meat and potatoes of the set, we start off with Invasion USA, the most important movie ever made until Red Dawn took the crown. What do this movie, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Touch of Evil all have in common? Producer Albert Zugsmith! He's the center of attention in Zugsmith Confidential, a fascinating look at this strange career. Well worth a look for cinephiles of any kind. Also here is a theatrical trailer.
Colossus and the Headhunters, the second Maceste movie of the series (the first being the retitled Hercules Against the Moon Men), is more sword and sandal nonsense from Italy. There doesn't seem to be a lot that can be said about this particular movie, so the disc houses "Mike, by Joel," a ten minute interview with Joel in which he talks about Mike. This featurette is a bit of a missed opportunity, since Joel shares a bit of information that we have already gathered from other interviews. However Joel does share some colorful tidbits, including his idea for his replacement was actually Bridget Jones(-Nelson) as a version of himself that was accidentally turned into a woman due to an experiment gone wrong. I'm pretty sure I've heard this story before, but it doesn't stop me from wanting a peek at an alternate reality in which Bridget hosted MST.
Next up, High School Big Shot. I guess they think the melodrama can stand on its own two feet, since we're given a scratchy print of the uncut film and a theatrical trailer.
Last up, one of the most overrated episodes on the set (and one that I enjoyed trolling people with, due to it never being in a DVD set until now), Track of the Moon Beast. This disc has a wonderful interview with Leigh Drake, who is very unhappy with her movie. She shares minor behind the scenes info, and claims the Mystery Science Theater was her husbands favorite show (and that he unfortunately passed away before they got to do Track of the Moon Beast). She treasures the episode, which is good to hear. Unfortunately the interviewer didn't get her to say "Moon rock? OH WOW!"
Looking into the bonus disc, Play MSTie for Me Triple Decker seems to be a video Best Brains put together way back when that stitched together all the songs of the series. I assume it was initially produced during the Comedy Central era since the "Music Video" motif is dropped when the Sci-Fi episodes are up, and also because Trace voices over a hilarious introduction to the compilation on how to "clean" your video cassette. But I imagine it was reissued with the Sci-Fi material before now since it ends with a 2000 copyright for Best Brains. As for the material, they're songs. We've all heard them, and we all have our favorites. I will say that the California Lady segment seems out of place, since it's not really a song. Sure it's about a song, but it's the black sheep segment of the bunch.
And now I finish my journey through this set. I feel empty inside. How many more of these do I have left? Outside of the relaunch, that is. There are fourteen unreleased episodes (fifteen, if you include Godzilla vs. Megalon, which should never have been released at all). Two are likely to be released, another five or six also have a good shot. So, one or two sets left? Gah. Sure we have Rhino volume re-releases, and I still believe Shout might burn some of the old singles in volumes, but still...
You know what? We got this far. Let's go the distance. Every episode or none! F*** you, Rocketship X-M and Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, because we're coming for you too!
