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Post by Shark on Jul 11, 2015 14:13:10 GMT -5
USPS delivered my copy of volume XXXIII this afternoon and I assume others have started to get their copies, so I wanted to start this thread. I'm settling down to watch the episodes right now and will let you know some thoughts, but just wanted to show you guys the copyright info first:
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Jul 11, 2015 14:45:26 GMT -5
Unfortunately I held off on the pre-order and I'm going to get it when it hits normal retail, for various reasons. So I'll get my copy by the end of the month.
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Post by Shark on Jul 11, 2015 17:23:04 GMT -5
Daddy-O looks marvelous! I've never seen it looking so good. EVTS up next.
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Post by sirhamhat on Jul 14, 2015 16:42:19 GMT -5
Any update on the audio/video on this set, Shark? I have mine, but I won't be able to watch it till this weekend. Thanks!
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Post by Diet Kolos on Jul 14, 2015 17:07:20 GMT -5
I'd hope the Season 3 episodes look good, as they're the oldest and most fan copies aren't great.
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Post by Shark on Jul 14, 2015 19:08:36 GMT -5
No problems with EVTS or HARM to report. Look great to me! I like the extra interview with the guy who played Adam Chance - wish it was longer! Funny coincidence I just saw him in a Murder She Wrote episode last night!
I didn't care for the HARM menu though...
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Jul 14, 2015 22:11:19 GMT -5
Great to hear that Harm is in good shape. I'm looking forward to revisiting that one when I finally get my set, if only for the hilarious trial host segments.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Jul 31, 2015 15:26:04 GMT -5
And two weeks later I finally got a copy. But I'm moving this weekend so I won't be able to do anything in-depth for a while. Can't wait to dig in!
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Aug 1, 2015 3:43:20 GMT -5
"Mike, why were you choking the monkey?"
Better late than never with an MST set, and with four solid episodes this one would have tasted just as good if I had waited even longer. But I must have that sugary sweet taste of gym policies, spider webs, Thanksgiving dinners, and spaz chops NOW DAMNIT NOW!
Daddy-O starts the pack revving us up with a nonsensical tale of music, cars, and DEATH, managing to outdeliver that lousy new Fast and Furious movie that was released this year. The set gives us a featurette called Beatnik Blues: Investigating Daddy-O, a minor retrospective documentary on the making of the film. If you're hoping for an introspective tell-all on Daddy-O (AND WHO WOULDN'T?) this is about as close as you're going to get. Basic story: these types of movies were popular, so they made another one. Wrapping up the set are reliably funny MST Hour wraps and a crappy quality trailer.
Round two: Earth vs. the Spider (Dawn of Justice). Tarantula it aint, and sometimes it takes itself too seriously (the orphaned kid in the streets is a huge buzzkill for a movie like this...though Crow delivers a hilarious counter-riff that makes the image all better..."Damien? Damien?"), but Bert I. Gordon is almost always a hoot and a half. Thankfully almost all of his episodes are now on disc, with the next sets War of the Colossal Beast being the seventh. Just give us Amazing Colossal Man and we're all set (DAMN YOU SUSAN HART!). We're given another retrospective documentary, which ribs the film a little bit itself but obviously made by people who do love it. MST Hour wraps also grace this disc with another low quality trailer in tow.
Jumping to one of the last episodes we've yet to see in season five, Teen-Age Crime Wave might be my favorite of its season, or at least tied with 12 to the Moon (incidentally the only fifth season episode still awaiting release). I always felt the What About Juvenile Delinquency? short would have made for an outstanding appetizer for this episode (instead of being paired with the spoiled main course that was Atomic Brain), but this episode didn't have room for a short I guess so the point is moot. Film it Again, Sam: The Katzman Chronicles christens this disc, providing one of those out-of-left-field documentaries of someone you don't think would be interesting, but actually are. This was my favorite feature on the set. It's followed up by an interview with the film's star Tommy Cook, who conveys highlights of his career. Another crappy trailer is featured.
BAH-DUM-BAH-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Agent for HARM makes its way to disc, possibly to capitalize on the spy craze of the year which is not limited to another acronym title that's around the corner, The Man from UNCLE (that's to say nothing of Bond's latest film Spectre, Tom Cruse's dazzling Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, the awesome Kingsman: The Secret Service, Steven Spielberg's upcoming Bridge of Spies, and the unbearably unfunny Melissa McCarthy in yet another movie of hers I skipped called simply Spy). As far as spy episodes go, Danger!! Death Ray it's not (I'd have preferred they had released the invisible spy "thriller" Riding with Death instead), but it's a really funny one. The trial host segments are excellent (and the psychedelic menu for the disc reflecting it is pretty awesome). The disc's only feature is an interview with Peter Mark Richman, who plays the lead. Not very taken with the "movie" (shot as a pilot for a HARM television series that was picked up for theaters after it didn't make it to series), but has a lengthy career to compensate.
Transfer hounds will be glad to hear I didn't spot any flaws with any of the episodes. Be advised that I am moving and mostly had the episodes as background noise, only to sit down and watch when I was taking a break. If I missed anything I apologize. Minor note of coolness with this set: I didn't notice at first that both Daddy-O and Teen-Age Crime Wave, which both used the same end credit gag of starting and stopping the credits over and over again, were both put on the same set until just now. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
So I'd like to conclude my review of this set by just saying...."I said MISTER I said thi...::cough:: this inn't your seat you see I've been sittin' here a whole lot longer than you seemed to think I have..."
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Post by Diet Kolos on Aug 1, 2015 7:53:41 GMT -5
Watching Daddy-O now. The transfer is pretty good. Fairly devoid of blips, except a minor one in the Prologue. I did notice, the color is a little off. The film, notoriously vibrantly blue-hued on every VHS and Youtube video I've ever seen, is a little too black-and-white on my TV. I had to adjust the color and red-blue color temperature to get it close to the original. I guess the color dimmed on the tape after all these years.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Aug 1, 2015 18:35:17 GMT -5
Watching Earth vs Spider now. Color is a little better, sharper image than Daddy-O. There is a tape distortion line across the screen, near the top, I noticed it starting about 1 hour in. Relatively minor, but noticeable. Audio on the MST Hour segment is a bit fuzzy.
It's interesting seeing these episodes in near-broadcast quality for the first time. Little details I missed on the VHS transfers due to fuzzyness, like the last segment of Earth vs The Spider: Crow's pink marker, Joel's pointing stick, the goblet of RAM chips, and the "MOVIE SIGN!" bumper sticker.
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Post by mrsphyllistorgo on Aug 6, 2015 15:26:08 GMT -5
Why do I read these posts??? All I want is to run out and buy this set and I already own all these episodes!
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Post by gorncaptain on Aug 16, 2015 20:37:09 GMT -5
Agent for H.A.R.M. seems atypical for a Universal tv pilot. It's so cheap looking. Most spy shows of the era would have made some use of the studio backlot. This thing smells like something independently made that they bought. People dissolving into green goo, or being strangled to death with a wire coat hanger, (no Joan Crawford/Mommie Dearest riff?) seem a little too graphic for mid 1960's television. For a tv pilot, a lot of shots look like they were framed for 1.85 widescreen. Lots of headroom. It wasn't until my second viewing I realized that was surfer Billy's spored body in the water when the bad guys flee in the Amphicar.
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Post by continosbuckle on Aug 24, 2015 2:24:21 GMT -5
It wasn't until my second viewing I realized that was surfer Billy's spored body in the water when the bad guys flee in the Amphicar. Hell, until I read this post, I had no idea that's what it was! And I've seen that episode dozens of times! And Christ, it makes me hate Adam Chance even more, which I didn't think could be possible. Here he has a woman who he's supposed to care about, and she's discovered that her friend, probably her only friend in the world due to her specific circumstances as a defector, has been murdered in a particularly gruesome fashion and is panic-stricken over it. Rather than sympathizing, Chance gets all smarmy and calls back to the time when she said she wasn't scared of anything except Adam, maybe a little bit. "Guess we found something you're scared of, huh, Angel Face? Heh heh heh!" What a shithead. Now the only way I'd find Adam Chance any more reprehensible is if I were to find out there was a scene cut from the MST3k version where he beats up an innocent woman and sexually assaults her. Still love the episode though!
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Post by gorncaptain on Aug 25, 2015 18:42:43 GMT -5
There is an uncut version on Youtube. At least it's longer than the MST version. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBc4XNQQ1XYSeems like it's an old tv recording with the commercials edited out. Mostly a lot of padding driving around scenes were snipped for MST, although I liked seeing a bit more with the obligatory creepy coroner guy.
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