MJ's Riff Reviews and Lists

[Mighty Jack]

Introduction

I've learned over the years that it takes a while to discover the personality of a show, I have to live with it a while before it becomes a fully formed entity. Snap judgments on first viewing can shift years later. For example, Killer Shrews has never been funnier than the first time I saw it - on the other hand, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad was merely okay before it blossomed into one of my Top 10 favorites. I find I can rewatch Jack Frost over and again and it never fails to make me laugh, but I have to space out re-viewings of Attack of the Eye Creatures, as overwatching murdered the humor.

With this in mind, I knew I'd have to give season 11 time, that it might take years before I had a good grasp of it. And so here we are, years later, and I thought now might be the right moment to re-visit the show and collect my thoughts. Now, I don't have it in me to do the work I did on the classic era of MST3K, where I took constant notes on every minuscule detail of the show - which can be tiring and frankly, sucks the fun out of the series. I started my website back in 1997(?) because I was bursting with excitement about the show, and I wanted to get all my thoughts down on a paper (so to speak), but once it became work, something to over-analyze, it stopped being entertaining for me. So, I'm not going to do that with season 11. What I record here will be observations off the top of my head, after finishing an episode, without any note-taking. It won't be as in-depth as what I did before, but it will be more relaxing from my end of it. (Besides that, sites like mst3kfandom.com covers all that, Mighty Jack's MST3K Review has become obsolete... though if I finish with this season I might transfer it to the old, dusty site)

I'm no expert, I'm not the lawgiver, and no one should care if I like or dislike an episode, these are just my thoughts, a bit of entertainment (hopefully) about an entertaining show. And a chance to share, and I hope anyone reading this will share. Favorite riffs, trivia, information, etc.



Index:
* Page 1 and much of page 2 were devoted to seasons 11 and 12. But here's what else is on each page...
* Page 2: Hobgoblin's Livestream and discussion
* Page 3: Cave Dwellers vs Ator * More Livestream & Gamera talk * Talking about Mrs. Swenson, The Packers and Bridget and Mary Jo
* Page 4: Links to the Mads Livestreams, and talking MST Spys * Season 3 Bikers * New Glenn Grades, etc * The British Invasion * The final part of the page was focused on Nostalgia, My Top 25 comparisons, and more Spy Rankings
* Page 5 and 6 is where we started talking about collecting Beatles Riffs, at the bottom of page 6 is a link to a Jack Frost actors article
* Page 7 we talk and reminisce about Uncut MST3K movies
* Page 8 more nostalgia as I establish MJ origins. The Angry Glenn's * Yipe Stripes and Hamlet

[Mighty Jack]

MST3K Season 11 - 2017



1101 - Reptilicus

Primary Cast: Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston; Hampton Yount as Crow T. Robot; Baron Vaughn as Tom Servo; Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester; Patton Oswalt as Max (TV's Son of TV's Frank); Rebecca Hanson as Gypsy / Synthia; Joel Hodgson as Ardy

Special Guests: Wil Wheaton as Drake; Erin Gray as Martha Masters

"Reptilicus.... Craptillicus!" That was my original opinion, and what a cute, and cutting quip. Sadly, I can no longer use it as it no longer applies, while Reptilicus is not a comedy masterpiece, it has morphed into a pretty decent season opener.

The "new" is set up nicely in this episode and from the start, we can see that production values are slicker, it's bigger (there's a house band), though that's not always better, the way they recorded and pieced together the theater segments is understandable logistically, but it can undercut the chemistry. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, riffers are no longer puppeteers. Also, at first, it was difficult to distinguish voices, individual personalities weren't as distinct, though over the years I can now tell who is who, on a first viewing, that was a major knock against the new cast and the show.

Hampton as Crow is the series ace, he has a touch of Trace in his voice, Baron as Servo was the weak spot, though he tries to liven up his character with exaggerated voice inflections, he sometimes tries a little too hard, and tends to ramble. But I may have gotten used to him, as I wasn't as bugged by his delivery and timing as I was back in 2017. Jonah's a bit stiff on screen, better in the theater. I remember complaints about the movement in the theater (Gyps delivers the payload and drops a riff), but you know, Joel was a prop comic and used to bring that element into the theater back in the day (Batman-style "Bams, Pows!" during Project Moonbase), that's his thing, and maybe at first it was distracting, but not so much in today's viewing. Tom flying (Pink Floyd's Animals), and the bit with the 3D glasses was cute.

Outside of that -- the trivia tossed in between theater segs helped me to understand this new MST3K – Joel still has a lot of imagination (I’m guessing he came up with the new concepts? The Bone-Heads, bubble tech, iron butterfly, jet screen, etc) and I thought the Mads were fun.

Summary: Uneven, but plenty of chuckles to be had. Maybe I'm more into the rhythms of the cast, but the joke delivery wasn't as jarring, hurried as it once seemed, in fact, I noticed several dead zones in the quipping. The movie was great, just perfect for the show.

Best Riffs: The first riff of the new series... “Nothing says ‘international’ like a picture of the U.S. Capitol building.” (Servo, after seeing the AIP logo). I didn't make notes for any of the jokes that got big laughs out of me, but the "Sailor Moon" reference and "Stan Lee's in this?!" were funny.

Best Host Segment: Every Country Has a Monster

Grade: 3 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

1102 - Cry Wilderness

Special Guests: Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester, Bill Corbett as Brain Guy, Kevin Murphy as Bobo

Perfect movie and top drawer riffing, though I noticed them laying on the quips one after another in this one. They really needed to come up for air, allow some spacing between lines. But I like how they get into the groove of the movie and its characters (laughing Jim, and the Indian racism, etc) they have fun with this thing. And I seem to recall this being mention somewhere, as maybe a running gag (we'll see), but a riff from the previous movie (about Fudgy the Whale) makes its way into the Mad's experiment in this episode (are they stealing ideas from the SOL?) Oh, and seeing the sci-fi era Mads was a special treat (Synthia giving affection made me laugh too).

Trivia: The kid who played Paul can also be seen in the Rifftrax short Harry the Dirty Dog

Best Riffs: "I've shouted at 3 different boy's schools, is this the right Paul?" - Jonah as Bigfoot | "Dad please don't carry me like an American Girl doll" - Jonah as Paul. Also, references to Large Marge and the Autobots, the line about Bigfoot giving Paul Lyme disease, and "Well, happy Easter", were a kick.

Best Host Segments: Playful raccoons get progressively more dangerous with their destructive antics, and Mads meeting Mads.

Grade: 4 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

1103 - The Time Travelers

Special Guests: Elliott Kalan as Dr. Varno; Joel Hodgson as Larry

This was the 200th episode (201 if you include the movie), on my first viewing in 2017 I wrote that "I could count the number of times I laughed on one hand." today I'd need 3, maybe 5 hands. Danny and the creepy androids are on the receiving end of the funniest riffs, and Servo taking flight was used well, he tries to pull a lever, takes a peek at a girl (with Crow), and helps lift the rocket, which was a riot. The pacing seems smoother with this one, and though there are examples of Baron's rambling in spots, he does get Crow chuckling at a line. And as a comic book geek, I liked the X-Men, Ghost Rider, and the Blandtastic Four quips.

Aside from the flat and unfunny visit from Varno, the host segs are generally entertaining, and yup the Mads experiment (Afterlife Alert) comes from a riff in the previous episode.

So all told, it's aged well. I had a better time with it (that was not intended as a bad pun, lol)

Note: It's too bad they cut off the ending of the movie, I think they could have had fun with that (the characters get stuck in a time loop, faster and faster it goes - which actually was an effectively grim finish for the film). I also wonder if the person in charge of the SFX in this movie was a magician?

Best Riffs: "Cowboy boots, with granny panties and a bra made out of toilet paper? Works for me" - Servo (Crow giggles) | "Can someone please tase Danny for me"

Best Host Segments: They were generally pretty solid, however, no 'one' was a standout.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

I wasn't planning on a marathon, but sometimes when you can't sleep, all you can do is crawl out of bed, order some pancakes from IHop, and watch a bunch of MST3K...



1104 - Avalanche

Special Guest: Neil Patrick Harris as Neville LaRoy

Rip-roaring hilarious, season 11 finally hits one out of the park. I was laughing steady, start to finish, and the pop culture references made this feel like a classic era episode. Movie-wise, Danny from Time Travelers is back, there's Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, and an angry Rock Hudson, who shouts most of his lines.

Jonah and the bots nail it, rarely squandering riff opportunities when the movie presents them, and it presents them frequently, even before the late-arriving avalanche finally does its thing (that's a rich source of humor too, with the bots using props to hurry it along). And once the avalanche does let loose, it's side-splittingly funny.

There's also a couple of killer host segments (and how special that Dr. Horrible reunion between Neil and Felicia). Though I couldn't connect a riff to the experiment this time out (not saying it's not there, just that I didn't find it, hear it).

Best Riffs: "This is extremely rare, it's a Keene painting of an Ocelot." - Jonah | "Turn around and try to reason with it!" - Crow as skier attempts to outrun avalanche | "The Daniel Clowes characters love it." - Jonah (Ha - they did look like they stepped off the pages of "Wilson") | "She's harder to kill than Wolverine!" - Crow | "Mark sounds like an overly sincere Jerry Lewis, and it's not helping at all" - Jonah

Best Host Segments: Neville and Kinga sing a duet, with some funny additions from Max, and the animal-disaster title crawl (Kinga punches Max in frustration, LMAO!)

Grade: 4.5, maybe even 5 out of 5, it's that good.

[Mighty Jack]

1105 - The Beast of Hollow Mountain

My opinion hasn't changed on this one, it's still a slow starter. I got a few giggles here and there (circus tents with werewolf children?) but that was about it... until a woman walks on screen and Hampton riffs, “Buster Keaton was into drag?” After that, the comedy floodgates began to open (as a Buster fanatic that line made me howl. And I kept laughing every time she popped on screen because she really did look like a female Keaton)

That final -laugh-filled- 30 minutes saved the ep for me. It helped that we FINALLY got to see the beast rage on (but what, no Tor Johnson quip? even after opening the door for one in one instance).

Oh and the Mads experiment comes from a line in the previous movie where they propose using hot water to melt the avalanche. Poor Max, poor, slow-to-learn, short-term-memory Max: like father, like son. Ha Ha. I won't go on about these riff-inspired experiments from here on out, but it is something to note.

Lastly, Baron was doing this gravely vocal thing that sounded like his chimp voice in "Carnival Magic", makes me wonder if he'd seen the film, or if that was in production before this one, and aired later? (he might have done that voice before and I didn't notice, could be a simple coincidence)

Best Riffs: "Hats off to you, fireball in the sky" Crow as Poncho | The aforementioned Keaton line, and anything associated with the creature's attack was a blast.

Best Host Segments: The Bots parade confuses and disturbs Jonah, Kinga, and Max

Grade: 3 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

BTW, there are spoilers sprinkled throughout these write-ups, so it would probably be a good idea to watch the eps before reading.



1106 - Starcrash

Special Guest: Jerry Seinfeld as Freak Masterstroke (see, I spoiled the surprise guest, I warned ya) and Jonah plays Akton on an SOL visit

Loaded with deus ex machina, the movie does a lot of the heavy lifting, humor-wise - from its ultra-cheap FX, to Proto-McConaghy, Marjoe Gortner and his dead stare acting, to Christopher Plummer slumming it ("He's peeing back there" says Crow when Plummer turns his back to the camera, which would be an appropriate response to this flick). There is also a collection of robots, which gives Tom and Crow plenty to play with - you have a cowboy robot, a pair of slow sneezing robots made out of bike chains, and a giant robot with breasts... complete with nipples... I don't know why. (but it's funny how the SOL bots have a double standard, they can slobber over a lady made of metal, but will not abide Jonah slobbering over Stella Star.)

In addition, there's David Hasselhoff and a quick cameo by Ook (Salvatore Baccaro) from "Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks", of Cinematic Titanic fame, which sounds like a whole lot of fun, though if I'm honest, I'm not sure I could have made it through this thing, and held on to my sanity, if not for the lovely Caroline Munro and a nifty John Barry score. (interesting that the two things I enjoyed about the movie, have an association with Bond.)

Props and theater play? While Servo's flying at the start was extraneous, his slide down a snowy hillside was cute. Crow also interacts with the film, Jonah pulls out a camera, and the bots roast weenies (a callback to Black Scorpion?)

Missed riff? The Hoff blandly says "Stella, Stella..." and they don't do a "Streetcar Named Desire" joke, something along the lines of, "Worst Brando impression, ever.", or "Stanley Kowalski as you've never seen him, completely devoid of emotion."

Best Riffs: "I feel like I'm watching a community theater production of Guardians of the Galaxy." - Jonah | "Well now they're just openly ripping off Spaceballs" - Jonah after Akton whips out a lightsaber

Best Host Segments: I guess the visit from Freak? Servo's eyes were funny.

Grade: a soft 3 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

1107 - The Land That Time Forgot

Special Guest: A giant space squid, voiced by Joel

So during the experiment exchange, the Mads are called out for stealing ideas from the crew of the SOL, funny, I have no memory of this skit, but it must have been in my subconscious because I caught onto the gag from the first. I had a laugh when Max defends the act by arguing that it's not theft, it's an easter egg. Unfortunately, the skits, on the whole, left me cold, the BBQ bit for example was unfunny and pales by comparison to the hilarious Ricochet BBQ skit from Starfighters.

It's better in the theater, though uneven. Some big laughs are had, but it doesn't sustain those levels on a steady basis as Avalanche did. Nevertheless, those high points made it worth my while, and the pop culture references frequently tickled me pink... Doug McClure doing wax on, wax off, Pteri from Pee Wee's Playhouse flying by, the U-Boat Captain mentioned having troubles and Jonah quips, "with Tribbles", and the callback to an old (Gamera vs. Zigra?) quip, “We all die in a Yellow Submarine”.

Oh and I remember seeing this movie at the Drive-in with the family back in the day. And felt it was a good choice.

My own riff? When the man in uniform at the start finds the message, I quipped... "It's Paddle to the Sea!" (which was the title of a short film I liked as a youth)

Best Riffs: “It’s dirty Debbie Harry” - Servo | "Oh he's holding the first Far Side cartoon" - Crow | "I've heard of Craparoni" - Crow | "Hey come back and tell us how we can save 50% or more on our car insurance!" - Crow to a caveman | "What a coincidence, they all threw out their backs at the same time" - Crow

Best Host Segments: Mmm, not much, I guess the Mad's Elder Pump, and Ardy mentioning losing part of the film (a clever way to explain the editing of the movies)

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

1108 - The Loves of Hercules

New Cast Member: Grant Baciocco as M. Waverly

Save for Moon Men (which was actually a Maciste film), I love the Hercules experiments, love 'em on Rifftrax (The Sons of Hercules), love 'em on MST3K, so I was happy to see the Herculean tradition continue on with this new crew, and it does not disappoint. MST has done a variety of film, but Herc truly puts the cheese in cheesy movies - there's something about these flicks that stokes the creative fires - the way they tease the clothing, acting, props, and script ("I can't quite tell from here, but she seems like someone I might want to grant clemency to" - Servo) and do so with such unbridled silliness, that it can't help but put a big smile on face and put me in a good mood. The riff-anachronisms are an added plus (he's a ceiling fan!" - Crow).

Movie interactions? Servo flies and Herc swats him down (HaHa). Host segments were a mixed bag - the closing bit, where they imitate the dramatic music at the very top of their lungs - bigger and louder they go, bullhorns are brought in, until Max finally just let's go with a scream... I about died laughing.

Good riffing, good movie (though what the hell was with the ending? Usually the hero beats the baddie... he doesn't have some random thing pop in and do it for him?)

Best Riffs: “It’s PETA, they found us!” | "Russ Meyer presents Ferdinand the Bull as you've never seen him!" (the entire sequence with the bull was a scream)

Best Host Segments: Max kills the beanbag chair (which was a reference to Joel's unseen experiment in Rocketship X-M) / singing the end theme

Grade: 4 out of 5

Note: If we do fund enough for shorts in season 13, I think it would be dandy if they did a couple of episodes of that old Hercules cartoon from the 60s (I still have that song in my head, all these decades later... "Softness in his eyes, Iron in his thighs!" - sounds sexy.)

[Mighty Jack]

1109 - Yongary, Monster of the Deep

Capsule! Capsule! Capsule!

This Korean giant monster flick was an easy watch (they've certainly picked a lot of peaches for this season). There are colorful characters (the kid who uses science to hurt both man and beast) and goofy sequences to play with, from the honeymoon scene, to the rocket launch (the comments about being up-side-down, the hermit, and the helmet packed with marshmallow fluff), to the monsters humiliating death (bleeding out the ass... oh the indignity). Oddly enough, unlike with the Beast of Hollow Mountain, it's not the monster attack that's the funniest part of the ep - there's good material there, but the set-up was actually funnier.

On the negative, Servo's flying is overused, just because you can fly doesn't mean you always should.

Best Riffs: "Guess whose dressed like your grandma" - Servo as honeymoon wife | "Commander Audrey Hepburn watches the launch." - Servo | "We're here, we brought the snow queen!" - Crow | "Just put the baby in the bag, let's go!" - Servo | "Hey keep it down, can't you tell I'm trying to sleep in this toilet!?" - Crow | "Toilet's broken" - Crow as Icho, looking filthy (funny toilet humor in this one)

Best Host Segments: The experiments, tiny desk, and Hitler coffee, the rest were m'eh.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

[Mighty Jack]

1110 - Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

Rifftrax covered this one, but it was pulled before I could buy and see it (some have speculated that Joel (or Netflix) was behind this, but there's no evidence to support that claim). Onward - many folks rank this up there with Avalanche as the season's best. And it's good, though not as consistent as the former, as it cools off in its second half. Still, the 'dirty water' sequence was a gas, so it's not like it went into the toilet (yeah, that's a call-back to Yongary. lol)

The hammy jackass antagonist from Deathstalker plays a hammy jackass in a crab hat here, there's Bo Svenson as Kor the Drunk, er, Conquerer, and the movies MVP, Gulfax (if Chewbacca had sex with a Hostess Sno-Ball, the resulting offspring would be Gulfax). The kid's quest puts him on the path of an insect woman, a gnome, a cyclops, and a mermaid, so there's lots to quip on. Funny Riff references include the Muppets Miss Piggy, Games of Thrones, and Gordon Ramsey.

Lastly, I'm finding the host segments are not carrying their own weight, this was another group that underwhelmed.

Best Riffs: "How do you lose a whole kingdom?" - "Check in the car. Did you guys leave it in the car?" - Jonah & Crow | "Child Bridezilla!" - Jonah | "On the plus, this water kind of tastes like pork, so that's a nice surprise!" - Crow

Best Host Segments: None

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 (it dropped a shade with this viewing)

[Torgo]

Apr 18, 2021 15:06:38 GMT -5 Mighty Jack said:

(some have speculated that Joel (or Netflix) was behind this, but there's no evidence to support that claim).

I doubt it. The movie was owned by Roger Corman back then, and it wouldn't be the first time he challenged a riff of something he owned. And if Rifftrax had a legal agreement for the film for the film, I doubt anybody on the reboot's end has the sway to make them just kill it after fees had been paid and the work had been done. Rifftrax's Wizards has licensing issues written all over it.

Currently the film is owned by Shout Factory after they bought the New Horizons library. Who knows whether Rifftrax is interested relicensing it from them, but currently it is their decision.

[TV's Cowboy]

Plus considering both Rifftrax and the Jonah era MST3K have done the first Ator movie(and technically No Retreat No Surrender through the live show) I don't think they care about getting dibs. After all look at Santa Conquers the Martians.

[Mighty Jack]

Was it pulled around the same time MST did theirs? I'm wondering where that idea came from, since yes, they've shared movies before

[Mighty Jack]

1111 - Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II

Special Guests: Grant Baciocco as the voice of the Punt Bunny, Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester, Bill Corbett as Brain Guy, Kevin Murphy as Bobo

Wizards is a sequel that's not really a direct sequel (though Lana Clarkson's playing a character she originated in Barbarian Queen - maybe Corman was trying to build a sword & sorcery universe, like Monsterverse, or the Marvel universe... eh, probably not).

One of the lesser experiments (when viewed in 2017) is now... still, one of the lesser experiments of the season. The flick is "trying" to be a comedy, which is a tough row to hoe for Riffers; not impossible, but rarely totally successful. I wouldn't say that the ep is a complete disaster, the sequence where Tyor is seduced by a sorceress was peppered with funny riffs (but the movie ruins the mood when a bad guy punches that woman in the face). David Carradine brings some laughs (Samurai Manos? Ralph Wiggum hair) and Jonah's "Fury Road" logic was cute - I'll credit the guys for doing their damnedest to keep this ep afloat, but the movie's a major drag.

Random thoughts: The rainy day opening recalls a similar bit in Teenage Caveman, from season 3, and Mary Jo receives a writing credit.

Best Riffs: "This must take place before eyebrows were invented" - "If I had eyebrows I'd be raising them now" - Crow & Jonah | “Why can’t we make something useful, like...” - “A fast-forward button?” - Tyor/Jonah | "I'm going for the sword now..." - "The hot tub told me to" - Tyor/Servo | “Caedmon really puts the ‘can’t’ in ‘incantation.'” - Jonah

Best Host Segments: Punt Bunny was a riot, Patton's pained reactions were priceless. And nice to see the return of the sci-fi era Mads

Grade: 2.5 out of 5