501-Warrior of the Lost World

Film Year:  1983
Genre:  Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
Director:  David Worth
Starring:  Robert "The Paper Chase Guy" Ginty, Persis Khambatta, Donald Pleasence
MST Season:  5

The Movie

David Worth, director of such epics as Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Kickboxer and the blockbuster franchise film Shark Attack 3:  Megalodon, brings us this long belated sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.  Only instead of dinosaurs, there’s a doughy guy on a talking motorcycle.

The movie is not about anything in particular.  Typical post-apocalypse bull:  The world is a waste and the people in power are evil because they’re “The Man.”  Guy and his talking motorcycle are recruited by Star Trek:  The Motion Picture babe Persis Khambatta (with a freshly grown head of hair, no less) to take down You Only Live Twice/Halloween/The Great Escape acting powerhouse Donald Pleasence (also with about as much hair as we’ll ever see him with).

Not a lot to be said about this production, which is filmed on the cheap and seemingly as fast as possible.  Fight sequences and accompanying foley are especially amusing, as most punch effects sound as if they come straight out of a Three Stooges sound box.  The whole film is dreary, and watching it paired with its synthesizer score is a sought after cure for insomnia, so if there really was much noteworthy about this movie I probably slept through that part.  Mostly I just saw Mad Max with a fraction of the budget and an even smaller fraction of the skill.

Personally I was hoping Donald Pleasence and Persis Khambatta would get into a heated debate about who was sexier with a bald head.  Persis is bangin’ both with hair and without, but personally I’m Team Donald.

The Episode

The fourth season ended on a high note, with a group of classic episodes coming out one after another and ending with the most infamous movie ever featured on the show.  This fifth season premiere can’t top that, so it’s good they didn’t even try to “Out-Manos Manos.”  Instead they just pull a daffy post-apocalypse sci-fi movie out of the abyss and just have a good time with it.  Warrior of the Lost World isn’t painfully bad, though it is unmistakably a poor movie.  It feels like a relief to not have the SOL crew wincing in horror and just play with a slightly familiar lead actor known as “The Paper Chase Guy,” moderately known lead actress Persis Khambatta, and dependable friend to both good cinema and bad Donald Pleasence.  Fun is to be had with this episode, as the bots hero-worship the massive motorcycle crunching Megaweapon and also have fun with the absurd looking extras in the post-apocalypse climate.  The best joke for the latter happens toward the end during an odd pan across the entire extras cast and Tom Servo tries to recognize them in an impressive list of celebrities gazing.

Host segments are mostly dry.  I come away from this episode remembering the Invention Exchange more than anything.  The Mads present “The Square Master,” an exorcise tool that is hilarious in how useless it is.  Joel’s Bitter-Sweet Hearts are just as funny as well (“It’s blue!”).  The “Warrior getting a license permit” is wittier than it is actually funny.  Slot cars and apocalypse discussion mostly just bring smiles.

Warrior of the Lost World gives the game-changing fifth season of the series off to a cracking start.  While it’s not enough to earn classic status, it’s an episode to watch often.

Good

The DVD

Warrior of the Lost World was brought to DVD via Shout Factory on Volume XVI.  The episode had great audio and video presentation, as well as an interview with writer/director David Worth, who is not in denial of how poor his movie is.  He seems like a good chap, telling stories about the rushed script and the people who only did the movie to get a month in Rome.  Worth also proclaims an admiration for the show and says he loves the episode, which is fantastic.  He also presents a slideshow of production photos.