Genre: Disaster
Director: Corey Allen
Starring: Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, Jeanette Nolan, Rick Moses
MST Season: 11
The Movie
Roger Corman’s attempt to cash in off of the 70’s disaster movie craze, Avalanche is about an AVALANCHE! Who’d have thought?
The film stars Rock Hudson as a rich jackass who builds a resort in a heavy avalanche area and insisting he was right to do so. So confident he is in everything he does he invites his ex-wife (Mia Farrow) to the resort in hopes to rekindle their love, only to have her fall for a photographer. And then...you know...AVALANCHE!
Not horrendously awful, though nothing noteworthy, Avalanche’s biggest crime is that it takes too long to get to its title set piece. Even when we do get there, it’s not well staged and it’s not worth slugging through the snow of a cliched love triangle. But even when the craziness happens, the movie’s dumbness takes full swing effect some nutty shenanigans that just kind of happen that the Avalanche had really nothing to do with (the greatest of all is the stinger for this very episode).
And yet, as goofy as the movie can be, it contradicts with an attempt at a bleak tone. The movie features so many innocents being hopelessly killed and trampling each other in a panic, including a blink and you’ll miss it shot of a child being crushed to death by ice, that I almost feel bad for laughing at it. Almost. Okay, I don’t feel bad at all.
The Episode
Avalanche might be my favorite of the relaunch season. The laughter is springboarded from how serious this movie is but also how brutally over the top it is. Jonah and the Bots seem intent on turning Avalanche into a cartoon, adding wacky sound effects where needed and just emphasizing how daffy the film doesn’t seem to realize it is. This proves to be the best approach to the film, because it needs its silliness brought to the surface when it’s trying to be serious, otherwise it’s not a very enjoyable watch.
On the host segment end, Kinga delivers the showstopper this time around with a song with her internet lover (played by Neil Patrick Harris) “So Close, and Yet So Far.” The lyrics of the song are brilliant, highlighting the alienation of online dating as hopeful lovers become incredibly infatuated without having met each other. It’s probably the best host segment of the season. I also quite enjoy the host segment where Jonah and the Bots create names for mash-up monsters/disasters. Other segments include a meh parody of Mad Men, the Bots looking up to Rock Hudson, and a lounge song by Gypsy. The Invention Exchange features a machine that creates movie titles out of simple phrases and the Mouth Vacuum, both of which are a lot of fun.
I might be a bit biased when it comes to Avalanche, because it features my name in the credits as a Kickstarter backer. But watching it again reinforces that it’s a really great episode with a lot of laughs. This movie could have overwhelmed them, much like an avalanche, but the crew glides safely to the bottom of the mountain.
Classic
The DVD and Blu-Ray
Avalanche was released on Shout Factory's Season 11 box set, released on both DVD and blu-ray, of which my copy is the #WeBroughtBackMST3K Collector's Edition offered to Kickstarter backers. The episode looks and sounds wonderful in high-definition, but contains no bonus features. It does however share a discs with the preceding episode, The Time Travelers.
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