Film Year: 1979
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Director: Michael Bay...er, I mean Robert S. Fiveson
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johannson...damn, what I really meant was Peter Graves, Dick Sargent, Tim Donnelly, Paulette Breen, Keenan Wynn, Frank Ashmore
MST Season: 8
The Movie
In 2005 the latest Michael Bay movie was The Island, a movie about clones living on a clone farm where clones were harvested for their organs by the people they were cloned from. Soon clones escape into the world outside of their home after they become suspicious.
Pretty much anybody who watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 said in unison "Heeeeeeeey...wait a minute..."
Yes indeed. This is the exact same premise as a movie featured on the show called Parts: The Clonus Horror (originally titled simply Clonus). The filmmakers even filed a lawsuit and won! Good for them! Though I'd hesitate to say this premise is also very similar to an episode of Sliders called My Brother's Keeper. I wouldn't suggest suing them though, because I don't think they have any money.
For me, Parts: The Clonus Horror is a prime example of having a clever idea but really no idea of how to execute it. The film was an independent picture that didn't really have any resources to do anything genuinely expansive with the project, and instead the best they can do is having long drawn out discussions over the premise instead of letting it play out. It's by no means the most exciting movie ever made, and if you were to watch it you'd need to be in the mood for an idea rather than a story.
The Island had pretty much the opposite problem. It had the opportunity to utilize an endless budget to explore this idea properly and turned that sci-fi premise into an action movie, when it really didn't support that much action. But that's what you get when you take a story about naive characters and hand it to Michael Bay, who made a career out of making the most non-naive movies possible.
Which one was better? Well, The Island looked pretty. Chase scenes are more entertaining that stilted attempts at theme discussion, I guess. Neither is a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I guess between the two I'd rather watch The Island because it feels like a more complete movie, in a way. But as shameless as it was at ripping Clonus off, I respect Clonus more.
For me, Parts: The Clonus Horror is a prime example of having a clever idea but really no idea of how to execute it. The film was an independent picture that didn't really have any resources to do anything genuinely expansive with the project, and instead the best they can do is having long drawn out discussions over the premise instead of letting it play out. It's by no means the most exciting movie ever made, and if you were to watch it you'd need to be in the mood for an idea rather than a story.
The Island had pretty much the opposite problem. It had the opportunity to utilize an endless budget to explore this idea properly and turned that sci-fi premise into an action movie, when it really didn't support that much action. But that's what you get when you take a story about naive characters and hand it to Michael Bay, who made a career out of making the most non-naive movies possible.
Which one was better? Well, The Island looked pretty. Chase scenes are more entertaining that stilted attempts at theme discussion, I guess. Neither is a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I guess between the two I'd rather watch The Island because it feels like a more complete movie, in a way. But as shameless as it was at ripping Clonus off, I respect Clonus more.
The Episode
I think it's debatable as to whether or not Parts: The Clonus Horror is suited to Mystery Science Theater. It occurs to me on this viewing that while the movie is a lackluster production of a hard sci-fi premise, it's talkier and more political than most films you'd find on the show. For the most part you have to really pay attention to the movie in order to follow it, and when you have three wisecrackers in between you and the movie it gets to be tiring to even try. Maybe I'm slow in the head, but it took me a while to warm up to this episode at all.
I've gotten to the point where I appreciate this episode more than I used to, but the movie selection still leaves me cold. There's no beating around the bush, I'm just not enthused by this movie. Now, the riffing on the other hand can be quite good at times. There's some good stuff here where they play up the naivety of the clone characters to extreme levels, including our main character who they portray as whiny and infantile. Also, the "crotch fire" scene, where a love sequence is unfortunately framed to make it look like our male lead's genitalia is smoking, is pretty killer. But when our boys push this movie it just feels like a brick wall of dialogue. It just feels like it can't be moved, and watching this episode just tuckers me out.
I do quite like the host segments, which has the Mads visited by three omnipotent "space children" (no relation to The Space Children movie from the ninth season episode). There is not much time spent on the Satellite of Love during the host segments, choosing instead to focus on Pearl, Bobo, and Observer's lackluster parenting skills. We see them failing to play games with the children, failing to entertain them, and giving them "the talk." Just about all the segments are quite funny.
Parts: The Clonus Horror has it's fans, and I can understand why. The episode has good qualities and if the movie shown didn't weigh heavily over my head I might even be among them. In the end, it's not an episode I was excited about watching again. It was also not one I was excited to be writing about. That tells me something about my opinion of it.
Average
The DVD
This episode was on Rhino's final full collection of episodes, Volume 12. Audio and video were solid, and there's an interview with director Robert Fiveson as well. He discusses a bit about the independent process to make the film but rarely about actual production. He mentions his initial hesitance of letting MST air the film as well as why he embraced the idea. He also discusses his lawsuit with the makers of The Island, as well as thanks MSTies for their support during the process. There is also a theatrical trailer for the film.
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