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Post by Cleolanta on Jul 13, 2006 22:44:33 GMT -5
By the way (I'm putting this in a seperate post 'cos the other one was already too long)...off-topic, but who is that in your new avatar, Warwilf? I've been wondering for a while.
We need the avatar topic back again...but I looked and it's on the third page of Sloane...I don't wanna be known as the one who dug it back up from that far down. But we do need a good avatar/sig topic, for those of us who actually like to change theirs more than once a year! :P
...Notorious
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Post by kernunrex on Jul 14, 2006 8:55:28 GMT -5
I almost missed Dr. Erhardt's moment of "finality" the first time I saw 113 too - it's not really that big at all, he just says "Bye!" when he walks offscreen at the end. I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional for two reasons - not only was 113 not the last episode produced for Season 1, but nobody at BBI knew that Josh would be leaving after the first season. I chalk it up to coincidence. {blast from the past} Also, Dr. E waves goodbye in 112 as well. It was just a thing he started doing towards the end (he didn't do it in 104 because he was carrying something at the time).
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 16, 2006 3:04:07 GMT -5
Rock 'n' roll, Cleo. Thanks for all the encouragement! I think I like the episodes I've been watching, I think I'm just a little too vulnerable to the movie pain at the moment. And it's my depression that's doing it. But I am coming out of it. I'm a cyclical depressed person which means I go back and forth across the line between depressed and not depressed with some regularity. I periodically begin to feel that I hate everything around me and want to quit everything I'm working on. So, that's what's been going on here. I know that this isn't why anyone is interested in my thread here, but hey, I kind of think of this as a Full Series Viewing Diary, so if you're into the "human drama" (as opposed to animal drama), then this is the review thread to read! So, that explained, it still holds that Lippert should be more hated than he is. I do agree though that the B&W sci-fi/horror/monster flicks are the original bad movies, the foundation all bad movies since have been built upon, and upon which MST3K was built (like I mentioned in my show #101 review, it feels right that they begin the CC era with The Crawling Eye, a cheesy B&W monster movie). The cheap/bad '50s films originated the term "B-movie" afterall. I think I need to clarify that I feel the high movie-pain here, but I like these eps. What's actually had me feeling =P about the show has been my own mood disorder. Whether or not I knew that a couple days ago, I can say that now. My apologies! So my avatar this month is a shot of Clint Walker as he appeared in Killdozer. Well, he appeared in color in the movie, so I'm not sure why the photo is in black and white, but it was the best image I could find to represent Killdozer. For the past couple months, as an avatar, I've been using an image from whichever movie I'll be showing at the end of the month for my "Scooter's Live MSTing" project. Which is actually known as "Scooter's B-Movie Night" if you're here in town. If you'd like to read about how it's been going and which movies we've shown and riffed upon check out this thread here: forrestcrow.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1145524240Okay, I so need to go to bed 'cause I'm on the opening crew in the morning! Ack! Oh, one more thing, I got half an hour into First Spaceship on Venus and I was laughin' my pants off (which is actually really nice 'cause it's pretty hot lately, well, for Flagstaff). Just "F Yer Y" as my old boss who thought Warren Zevon was Bob Seger used to say. (She meant FYI, but if she'd gotten it right and said "F Yer I" . . . it would've been really awkward.)
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Post by Donna SadCat Lady on Jul 16, 2006 23:42:46 GMT -5
*sends hugz to Azwar* I've had chronic depression since I was a teenager, so I know a little of how you feel. Even if I don't reply to each review, I do read and enjoy them! So... uh... keep up the good work. If you want, I mean.
And I don't know why, but up until this moment, I thought that it was Clint "Ron's li'l brother/Let's have some tranya!" Howard that had starred in Killdozer. Not that I've ever seen the movie, but still.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 19, 2006 17:43:09 GMT -5
Thanks, dnaldy. I'll definitely keep going! I feel way better and I just need to remember to take a break from the show and do the stuff that gets me out of ruts next time. 211 - First Spaceship on Venus I loved this episode! I'd really love to see this one released by Rhino. My copy has bad edits (to and from commercials) and a bad picture. And it's just a fun and bizarre episode. The theater segments are fun, it's the host segments that are, for the most part bizarre. The opening and invention exchange aren't so bizarre, but are funny. I like the sarcasm sequencer bit though Tom's random sarcasm gets a little old by the end of the ep. I've always loved the junk drawer. I mean the real thing, the concept of it and the actual thing; I've always been fascinated by it, as Joel seems to have been given the other junk drawer invention (the junk drawer organizer from 507). Is it an American tradition? Do other cultures have junk drawers? It's a little odd that the Mads seem to invent Abe Vigoda in a drawer . . . But the really random and bizarre stuff is in the rest of the host segments. First the bots invent a bot of their own but all it does is spew foam (odd, amusing). Next the bots encounter a space-going gorilla in the Hexfield, but they don't get beyond being scared of it (not really funny, just pointless. Wonder who was in the suit, I forgot to watch the credits for it). Then Tom voices a Klack commercial which consists of still frames of incredibly ugly food with even more ugly names (funny, almost nauseating, but above all totally bizarre. My picture was really bad, but I did manage to spot the orange circus peanuts smothered in something or other and daintily arranged around something else or other). And finally the show ends with Dr. F retching into the drawer, the sounds of which we hear all through the credits (huh? Not funny, but definitely unpleasant). I have a bunch of missed riffs for this episode. This prompts me to say that I don't wish to imply that the Brains aren't doing it right or that I'm better than them. I just think I'm funny sometimes. Think of these as my exclusive "bonus features"! Missed riffs: As the “box spring” is coming around again . . . Me: Mr. Esquivel! Juan! Look out! ( ) During the going to sleep scene, after the "I’m going to show you a film called Mannequin . . . " Me: Sheesh! Where’d they find that huge white thing? Other me: Spatula City! In deep space while approaching Venus . . . Guy: There’s too much interference; I can’t hear a thing. Other guy: Keep trying. Me (as Guy): What? As the spacepeople exit the Cosmostrator upon returning to Earth . . . Me: And The Aquabats are there! And later as a line of guys in "A" shirts holds the crowd back . . . Me: Well, it looks like The Aquabats were the right choice. Someone call Altamont Raceway! Now, I know the Brains couldn't have heard of The Aquabats back in 1990, but again, this is just me thinking I'm funny. Some of my favorite actual riffs: Lady: This is Intervision calling the world. Crow: This is the world; I’m not in right now . . . Tom: This is the day the teddy bears fly to Venus! And before this one I should explain my name for this character. He's the guy with the white cap that one of the guys calls his "trainee hat". But in his first and second shots he looks like he's playing a keyboard. And isn't there a famous jazz musician who wore a hat like that? Joel calls him "Vanilla Ice's grandfather" but I don't really understand why. There is something that looks just like a turntable spinning in front of him, but Vanilla wasn't a DJ . . . I dunno. Anyway, he looks like a jazz man to me . . . Jazzer: This petrified forest was made to be a weapon of aggression. Tom: Wish we had one of them weapons of aggression. Jazzer: Then something went unexpectedly wrong. Crow: Bush was elected. Isn't it great how this has come to be meaningful again? I also love that about the Dada song "Dizz Knee Land" in which he flips off "president George" and then states that he will proceed to Disneyland. In this ep, it's Joel who uses the "You look at 'em; I'm bitter" line when a character says, "Look at those bubbles!" I also wanted to highlight this riff for Cleolanta as it is an example of "dees" with which I confused her some posts ago: It's in the classroom at the beginning of the movie . . . Guy: There is only one other planet that it could've come from. Crow: Uranus! All: *Sophomoric laughter* Crow (or Joel?): Dees! So, there ya go. One of the most fun moments of all is had with the credits which don't want to stick around. Before those, though, Tom says, "A sneeze: thousands of snot particles!" Doesn't he use a slight variation of this riff at the beginning of This Island Earth? If you know, go ahead and tell me; don't worry about "spoiling". Oh, and yes, this is the ep in which Frank pulls the plastic butt from the junk drawer and recalls the rope thing and Dr. F says, "A very important part of your training, Frank!" I still don't really get it, though. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean I know it'd hurt, but, oh just forget it. Hey, here's another cool board user name, this time for the MSTie who likes to hit the links! It's Schlesinger Nine! By the way, who is Crow imitating when he's doing that golf talk stuff? I'll post this in esoteric. A couple more that I'm confused about, but I don't think belong in esoteric 'cause I don't think they're references: Crow: It's always zero hour with these goons around! Huh? Is there another meaning for zero hour? Joel: Why do they have a bent coat hanger on the mirror? Is that foreshadowing? I see the reflection of the wire "dish" thing that Joel is talking about but I don't get it; is his comment supposed to be dirty? So, I really dug this one. The movie pain is pretty low here, but I don't think this is a sign that I can only handle the soft stuff. In fact, I feel like a double shot of Godzilla!
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Post by Donna SadCat Lady on Jul 19, 2006 23:48:48 GMT -5
Thanks, dnaldy. I'll definitely keep going! I feel way better and I just need to remember to take a break from the show and do the stuff that gets me out of ruts next time. That's good! I think this is part of why so many movie reviewers are so bitter--because they can't take a break and come back when it's fun again, you know? Or else it's the sticky theater floors that get them down. At the beginning of The Movie, as the credit titles are shown over a star field, one of the guys says something like, "Hey, somebody sneezed all over the credits!" Boy, I don't remember the coat hanger riff or the zero hour riff. About the bent wire coat hanger, all I can think of is that they're referring to the use of it either to unlock a door (after locking the keys inside) or possibly using it to replace a broken radio antenna. Maybe the "zero hour" riff is a take on the old "It's always happy hour around here" kind of joke? I dunno.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 20, 2006 2:25:54 GMT -5
At the beginning of The Movie, as the credit titles are shown over a star field, one of the guys says something like, "Hey, somebody sneezed all over the credits!" Isn't there another one, then? I'm thinking of an instance when someone sees a star field and says, "A sneeze magnified 1,000 times!" Or is that a variation I dreamed up? Hmm . . . I also dunno. No disrespect, but those don't sound likely. Joel really sounds like he's making a dirty comment there. I appreciate your thinking hard about it . . . I thought of maybe that somehow a coathanger could mean someone would be getting undressed and thusly using the hanger but even that doesn't feel right. Then again, this could be another example of my mind thinking things sound dirtier than they are.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 20, 2006 15:18:17 GMT -5
This watery manifestation of a vengeful, wrathful god couldn’t have come at a worse time!
Well, it was funny. But it wasn’t the event I was kind of hoping for. I mean I approached this episode with some anticipation. The Japanese monster movie is a huge pillar in bad movie history, yet this is the first kaiju film the Brains have done in the CC era. I wondered, will this really be something special? What will the guys do to a Godzilla movie? How will Joel and the Bots react when they find out they'll be watching Godzilla? How will the Mads introduce it?
But they didn't really treat this movie as something special. Dr. F introduced it as if it were something legendary (by comparing it to some legendary court cases like Kramer vs. Kramer) but didn’t really do anything he's never done for many other movies. They treated this as just another bad movie. But then, as I watched it, I realized that it really is just a bad movie. It's an important subgenre of bad movies, but really, it's just a no plot cash-in on a popular theme. And boy is it ever boiled down to the basic elements of kaiju: giant monsters destroying structures and giant monsters fighting each other, oh and an annoying little kid! They also pull the old trick of giving the headlining monster the least amount of screen time. Despite the silly Seatopia concept (complete with togas and Kooky Klan dancing!), there's not much else to this one but buildings tumbling and monsters rumbling. There isn't even a love story or a corny moral or anything! That is, unless the moral was contained in the Jet Jaguar theme song at the end.
Anyway, this ep was a good time. The monster fighting started to drag it down as the guys seemed to lose steam. I liked the sports commentary they did, but in the end, the monster brawl was the weakest part of the episode. If I were to describe the movie in one word repeated for emphasis, that word would be goofy goofy goofy! There's the the flying robot with the Jack Nicholson face, all the robot/monster sign language, the Seatopia dancing, two really silly looking monsters, Godzilla doing the totally stupid jump off the cliff into the water (which was used as the stinger) and the flying forward feet first move. I suppose I was in the right mood for all the goofiness 'cause I enjoyed the ep. The movie is so silly that it is funny all by itself (I have this one uncut, maybe I should watch it). The host segments are pretty silly as well. I like the opening and invention segments best. They're my kind of innocent silliness. The inventions are not so much inventions as costume ideas. Joel turning Crow into the floor of a movie theater is great. My favorite moment, though, is Dr. F’s foosball goalie costume. Has anyone out there used any of these costume ideas? They’re actually pretty good, clever, funny ideas, if you ask me. It's odd that this episode was released in January, as opposed to somewhere near Halloween. But then they couldn't have released it on Halloween since their season always started on Thanksgiving.
Another thing: they used Godzilla's feet-first move during the theme song in a later season. But I remember clearly that while Godzilla is going past, Joel is doing a wavy hand motion. But in this episode, Joel doesn't do the hand motion during either of the times Godzilla uses the move. Is the shot used in the show opening from a scrapped take? Or does Godzilla use the move again in 212?
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Post by jjb3k on Jul 20, 2006 16:47:52 GMT -5
Actually, the shot of Godzilla used in the opening sequence starting towards the end of Season 3 is mixed with a shadowrama shot from 317 "Viking Women and the Sea Serpent". There's a bit in "The Home Economics Story" where Joel makes a "come-hither" motion with his hand, and apparently the Brains saw that motion when they reviewed the theater footage for 317, decided to pair it with the Godzilla jump from 212, and put it in the opening sequence from then on.
One thing I noticed about this movie is the story of Seatopia's creation. The Oscar Wilde guy says that, after Seatopia fell into the sea, the inhabitants managed to create their own oxygen supply. Okay, but what did they breathe while they were working on that? I'm a little surprised that Joel and the 'bots didn't touch on that.
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Post by mstgator on Jul 20, 2006 18:00:32 GMT -5
Re: the "zero hour" riff, I'll have to go back and watch that ep, but it sounds to me like he's just equating whoever was onscreen as a loser ("zero").
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 21, 2006 15:03:52 GMT -5
That sounds like a decent explanation, gator.
And wow, jjb, did you figure that out yourself? (And I mean it; that wasn't sarcasm) Or is that in the ACEG or something? In this ep (213) they don't use the feet-first move, but they do use the same goofy shot of Godzilla jumping into the ocean. And to be clear, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster actually came first (1966) so it's Godzilla vs. Megalon that reuses the shot. But then, it's just as likely that GvSM isn't the first to use the shot either.
213 - Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
This ep didn't light my fire, and this time it wasn't me. The riffing is just not that great. It feels lacking in energy, not exactly sparse, but never dense or riotous. I guess it'd be good if you need a low-key episode, but I can't imagine wanting that. Megalon's strengths were that the guys were practically giddy throughout the episode and the movie itself was ridiculous enough on its own. Sea Monster doesn't have either of those. The models of the people in rowboats were funny as were the initial and final monster fights when they play tennis/baseball and when Godzilla just rips Sea Monster's claws right off, respectively. But for the most part it's like the hard to follow GvM but without the benefit of as much silliness.
Some of the host segments were good. There was a lot of energy and fun in the Godzilla genealogy song and in Joel's space madness modeling. I felt cool 'cause I guessed that the egg carton building was supposed to be the Capitol Records building before Joel said that it was. Yes, I have seen the ep before, but it was over a year ago and I'm quite good at forgetting.
I'd like to know what movie is featured behind the Film Ventures International credits. There's some kind of huge locust or something. But Joel and the Bots don't enter the theater until right after the FVI credits. Then, throughout the film they wonder aloud what the name of the movie is (no, the Mads don't actually say it, Clay says that the experiment features Godzilla and a giant lobster). I'm thinking that this is the first FVI movie (with the "other movie" credits) that the Brains have used. So, it looks like they made the episode figuring that they would just leave off the confusing credits and just have the guys act confused instead, but then discovered or decided that they needed to show the credits afterall. As a result, the FVI credits roll to an empty shadowramma.
What is drawn butter anyway? Well, it's butter, flour and water, of course!
So! That was season two! Despite my breakdown in there, I enjoyed the season. I probably didn't give a few eps a chance, but I'll see them again another day. Time for the season two non-Rhino top five!
It didn't take much to decide which eps to include until I realized I only had four eps. There are five eps that have been Rhinocized, so those are out, and of the other eight there were only four I was really excited about. So four of these eps I recommend just 'cause they're the most fun eps of the season and Jungle Goddess I decided to include because it's okay and has the benefit of originating some classic lines. I had to pick between Rocket Attack USA and Jungle Goddess for the fifth spot. RAUSA originates a classic line of its own but Jungle Goddess is a little more good-bad, has some great host segments ("Oh, I feel so funky!"), and originates some cool lines. So there you go! My top five for season two, in experiment number order, is as follows:
201 - Rocketship X-M 203 - Jungle Goddess 206 - The Ring of Terror 208 - Lost Continent 211 - First Spaceship on Venus
Here comes season three! A looong season! It features all the KTMA reriffs! Lots of Gamera but not all in a row this time! I'm excited!
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Post by jjb3k on Jul 21, 2006 15:31:13 GMT -5
And wow, jjb, did you figure that out yourself? (And I mean it; that wasn't sarcasm) Or is that in the ACEG or something? Well, the last time I watched "Shorts Vol. 1", I noticed that Joel did the little hand-wave thing during "The Home Economics Story". Then when I got Season 3 from Skyroniter, I noticed that every episode up until 316 used the clip from "The Crawling Eye" that had appeared in the opening since 101 (mixed with a shadowrama shot from 102), but it switched to the 212 clip starting with 317. I just pieced it together, really.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Jul 22, 2006 1:24:15 GMT -5
Wow, what an eye! (get it?) That is awesome.
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Post by Hugh Beaumont on Jul 22, 2006 13:53:32 GMT -5
At the beginning of The Movie, as the credit titles are shown over a star field, one of the guys says something like, "Hey, somebody sneezed all over the credits!" Isn't there another one, then? I'm thinking of an instance when someone sees a star field and says, "A sneeze magnified 1,000 times!" Or is that a variation I dreamed up? No, you definitely didn't dream it up. I'm pretty sure it's in Fugitive Alien. I could be wrong, though.
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Post by Blurryeye on Jul 24, 2006 23:42:00 GMT -5
Hey warwilf, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your reviews here. I like the haphazard, unstructured, stream of consciousness way you write and your observations are enjoyable and amusing. I look forward to each new review.
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