Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) (Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie (DVD))

Name: Brett Bligh

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Product:	Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie (DVD)
Date:	23/08/00 (509 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good-natured humour, the chance to see a 1950 dud ‘classic’ treated with no reverence whatsoever, a laughably Evil comedy villain before the Austin Powers craze even existed.

Disadvantages: one or two pointless and rather dumb host segments, the lack of nerve in continuing the obscure vein of humour used very successfully in the series.

Almost every cinema-goer has at one time or another been subjected to such a travesty that they either left or desperately wanted to. But what if you couldn’t? What if a mad scientist were forcing you to watch terrible movies in an attempt to see what would make you crack? And what if, whilst sitting through interminable hours of bad movies with only two robots for company, your only defence was a sense of humour? (Plausible, eh?).

This was the premise of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a (primarily science fiction) comedy series, which ran in the US from 1988 to 1998 and over time gathered together a dedicated bunch of fans who referred to the show as MST3K and themselves as MiSTies. And in 1996, Universal made a movie version!

As with many long-running series, the cast changed over time, and this film, as you would expect, makes use of the TV show line-up that was current in 1996 when the film was made: the big, dumb ‘hero’ of the piece is Mike Nelson, who sits with robots Tom Servo and Crow in the theatre to watch the movie broadcast up to them by Dr. Clayton Forrestor, the instigator of the experiment (but, curiously, without the aid of his brilliant henchman, ‘TV’s Frank’, in this film). Since this movie is basically a big-budget version of the TV-series format (which is no bad thing, by the way, and I don’t see how else they could have done it), they watch a particular film, and the one chosen in this case is a true gem: the 1950s Universal ‘classic’ This Island Earth.

Bizarrely, compared with an average TV-series episode, the MST3K movie actually has a short running time, with the version of This Island Earth shown being heavily edited down. This leads me to conclude that the missing sections of the film were probably those for which the writing staff couldn’t find sufficient mainstream gags to keep their perceived cinema audience laughing, and this is one of the faults I wou
ld pick with the film; compared with a TV episode the film lacks the sheer nerve to be obscure, to say things which they know the vast amount of the audience are not going to get because they’ve never heard of the people or events being discussed.

In the TV series, long stretches of the films they watch which are not suitable for the more obvious ‘riffs’ are covered over with such in-jokes, which I, personally, take great pleasure in attempting to decode. There are far too few attempts at genuine obscurity in this film, which especially comes across in the ‘host segments’ (the name given to those sections which are not situated in the theatre): in the TV series these contain some of the most ridiculous, bizarre and occasionally unbelievable sketches ever committed to the small screen, but in the film an attempt to woo a more mainstream audience (including the opening scene which attempts to explain the premise) results in sketches which are frankly naff in comparison, and which in a couple of instances are hardly sketches at all.

However, enough of comparing the film to its TV incarnation; what is it actually like as a film in its own right?

Having now shown this film to several friends who were not devotees of the TV show, I now have sufficient reason to believe that a complete newcomer will find this movie very enjoyable and very, very funny (in fact, most of the people I have shown this film to have since taken up watching the weekly small-screen version). A general observation, however, would be that this is a movie best watched as a social event: get a load of friends round and have a few drinks whilst viewing to create a suitable atmosphere, and this movie will, like pretty much any episode of the series, absolutely blow you away. If you do watch it alone, then at least make sure you are in the mood to laugh beforehand; this film is a collaborative experience between Mike and the Bots (the viewers) and y
ourself (the viewer of the viewers), and you have to be willing to take part in that experience or the film simply will not work for you.

It could be said that this is a movie about the pain of watching movies. If so, then I must be an absolute glutton for punishment as I have sat and watched this film more times than any other piece of cinema in existence. This movie, however, is sufficiently layered and subtle in places, that I can remember discovering new jokes even up to the 10th or 11th viewing, and on this basis I recommend Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie wholeheartedly, despite is undoubted flaws.

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