1304-Munchie

Film Year:  1992

Genre:  Comedy, Fantasy

Director:  Jim Wynorski

Starring:  Loni Anderson, Andrew Stevens, (Jennifer) Love Hewitt, and Dom DeLuise as MUNCHIE!

MST Season:  13

Host:  Jonah

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

Despite the waves it made when it landed, cinephiles may have preferred Gremlins wasn't as impactful as it was as the knock-offs soon began.  But the cult fans got a little something for every corner when that happened, including MSTies who would go on to get a fan favorite episode out of the movie Hobgoblins.  Personally, while I don't have any nostalgic fondness for Gremlins myself (I watched it once as a lad and didn't care for it, haven't seen it since), I can't imagine my life without Critters.  Knock-offs would continue with the likes of Ghoulies and, more relevant, a film produced by Roger Corman called Munchies.

Munchies is a goofy little movie about a little creature found in a Peruvian temple who is taken back to the States by an archeologist looking for links between the ancient civilization and aliens.  The creature is put in the care of his care-free, aspirational comedian son and his attractive, independent girlfriend.  Shenanigans ensue, resulting in the creature getting kidnapped and chopped up into little pieces, which regenerate Reptilicus style into multiple little hungry and horny creatures who burst onto the town and wreck havoc.

I have no real information as to how successful Munchies was considered as a movie, but the film was pretty low budget and it did spawn a franchise...of sorts.  Five years later this movie happened.  I don't know what to think about that.

Doing the whole Alien/Aliens thing backwards, this movie scales back to just one Munchie.  Well...I guess he's a Munchie.  He says his name is "Munchie," even though "Munchie" was just a name that was made up on the spot for a nameless creature in the original and never brought up again.  His relationship to the Munchies in the previous movie is a huge mystery, as he seemed to be loose in civilization as early as 1970 (in a prologue that is cut out of the MST version), while the primary Munchie from the previous movie was trapped in a temple in the late 80's.  This Munchie does seem to have some ties to the Peruvian origins of the other Munchies, which is kept pretty vague.

But I digress, the story of this particular movie has a kid stumbling upon this Munchie, who is less a crazy hungry animal and more of a mischievous magical imp.  The boy befriends Munchie, who promises him that with his powers he can change his life for the better, from getting rid of his mom's scummy boyfriend, to dealing with school bullies, to getting the girl of his dreams, even down to just eating pizza for dinner.  But as Munchie tries to help out, he begins causing even more chaos.

How we got from Munchies to this movie, I'm not certain.  I don't understand it and I'm not sure I want to understand it.  Munchies is rated PG, but it's a pretty raunchy PG.  Throughout the movie, the young leads have sex, many lewd comments are made and innuendos are referenced, while there's also a very lengthy scene in which the Munchies watch a pair of girls playing miniatrure golf, bend over repeatedly, have their skirts raise up above their behinds and expose their underwear clad booties to the world.  I mean...if I heard this movie was a hit with kids, I wouldn't be surprised, but to scale back to a movie only meant for kids seems to destroy why they liked it.

Not to mention the fact is the idea of this being a sequel is a huge question mark in general.  The Munchie of this film kinda looks like the original Munchies, just bulked up, made cuter, and given a stupid Dick York haircut, but to say they're the same thing is a bit of a stretch.  The original Munchies were small creatures that just tore shit up because it was in front of them.  This Munchie is a bit more sentient and has magical powers.  They're both mischievous, but in different ways.  If I were to come up with some sort of convoluted headcanon for this movie, it would be maybe this Munchie is a fully grown adult with formed skills while the other Munchies were just adolescents.  But that's thinking about this too hard.

Getting away from trying to figure out what makes the Munchies franchise tick, Munchie kinda bites.  It's an oddball kids comedy made for cheap laughs.  I'll admit I did enjoy certain scenes, as there's a fantasy funeral scene early on in the film that I actually thought was pretty funny on its own merits, but for the most part the movie plays out like a schlocky version of The Wonder Years with the Great Gazoo as a side character.  It's not entirely charmless, it's just devoid of wit.

Munchie himself is voiced by Dom DeLuise, replacing the 80's voice acting legends of Frank Welker and Fred Newman who voiced the characters in the first film.  On paper this seems like a lateral decision, but Dom DeLuise without good material is just a large voice coming out of a little puppet.  80's sex symbol Loni Anderson is here as well playing the worried mother of the piece, with her primary storyline being that she's dating a scumbag and slowly learns she's dating a scumbag.  Said scumbag is shown to "get his comeuppance" at the end of the movie as he gets arrested by some cops after trying to capture Munchie for some reason .  I do feel like pointing out that while this guy is a dick, for most of the movie the only actual thing he does to annoy anybody in this movie is try to get into Loni Anderson's pants, and if you could get arrested for that then 98% of the fanbase to WKRP in Cincinnati would be in jail right now.  Rounding out this curious cast is a very young Jennifer Love Hewitt playing the young lead's romantic interest.  Having grown up in the 90's, it's hard to not have formed crushes on the cast of Party of Five.  This kid was just ahead of the curb.

Believe it or not, Munchie has a direct sequel called Munchie Strikes Back, which came out two years later.  For whatever reason this was the more successful version of the Munchies franchise and actually formed a direct continuation featuring the same Munchie character from this film.  That movie couldn't get Dom DeLuise back to voice Munchie, but it did manage to keep director Jim Wynorski.  It's probably hard to lose Wynorski once you get him (he has also directed sequels to cult classics like Deathstalker, Swamp Thing, Sorority House Massacre, and 976-EVIL), though he does win some points for being the helmer of the film Chopping Mall.  Munchie is no Chopping Mall.  It's not even Munchies.

The Episode

Way back when I reviewed Carnival Magic in season 11 I remarked how I felt that particular riff suffered from Netflix's rapid joke pace because the movie demands reaction in addition to scripted commentary.  Pleasantly Munchie seems to be a course correction on this, because the movie seems to be selected to provoke a reaction.  Munchie is an off-putting puppet, and Jonah and the Bots don't like him.  He pops up at random periods and they always jump at the sight, because they just want him to go away.  In a way, Munchie is almost like a feature length Mr. B Natural, if Mr. B were less gender-identity-questioning and more of a horrifying hellbeast.  On the flip side, I was also a bit hard on the Mr. B Natural short when I reviewed it because it never really amped up its riffing outside of reacting to Mr. B jumping around.  It's a fan favorite short so I know I'm in the minority on that, but I'd rather find a balance between the two when dealing with something bizarre and out of left field.  I always felt Design for Dreaming should be the template over Mr. B Natural.

So where does Munchie lie?  I think it comes really close to achieving that balance that I hope for.  The introduction to Munchie terrifies Jonah and the Bots, who don't understand what they're seeing.  GPC jumps in and sees their expression and orders them to abandon the theater.  My one problem with this bit is that it threatens to be an endless string of noise for the sake of noise, when a slower build-up through layers of terror might have been more effective.  It might have been funnier if they had an unsure reaction of unease when he's introduced, only to ramp up their screaming when he bursts out in his number of "Hello My Baby!"  Instead they just jump into screaming and they do it through the entire scene, which is a little tiring.

The entire episode doesn't suffer because of this, though.  It's actually a bit of a minor victory because this movie could easily be a disaster for the show if it wasn't approached properly.  Treating it like a horror movie in the guise of comedy is inspired, because comedy is traditionally hard on this format.  And Munchie is an aggressively cringe one of random catchphrase parroting and pratfalls, so I wasn't anticipating much to work with here.  Jonah's crew works hard to enunciate lame gags and punctuate them with their own jokes that are far more clever and funny.  They hit at a surprisingly high rate, taking gags like lead character Gage's award show fantasy where the winner is "La La Land!  Oh not again!" to just hearing the random nonsense coming out of Munchie's mouth, where Servo asks "Is that a joke, Jonah?" only to have Jonah respond "I don't know."  Crow at one point notes how strange the preppy school bully is in this movie, remarking "Wait, he dresses like that and he's eager to get to class?  How is Gage considered the nerd in this movie?"

And of course there is Munchie.  He's the ace in the hole.  Their resentment of this character is always good for a laugh or two.

That resentment leads to one of the best host segments of any of the Jonah episodes, where Jonah and the Bots evacuate the theater at the sight of Munchie and are trying to collect their bearings, asking themselves if it's worth finishing this movie.  Kinga interrupts, ordering them back in the theater.  Jonah hesitates for a moment, then just flat out refuses, leading to golden interplay between the two where Kinga threatens to shut off the oxygen to the Satellite of Love and Jonah calls her bluff.  The whole idea of oxygen being shut off to the Satellite if they refuse to enter the theater isn't a new one, as Dr. Forrester shut off Mike's oxygen to make him bow during the opening to This Island Earth while Pearl had it shut off while Mike tried to take a break during Invasion of the Neptune Men.  Kinga's method is simple but effective, as she just grabs a hose and squeezes it, leading to Jonah immediately suffocating (How little air is there on the SOL?  And how does he eat?  And other science facts?).  It's such a delightful delivery of a classic concept, and the entire cast is in top form throughout.

Another golden segment is the return of Dr. Donna St. Phibes, played by the returning Deanna Rooney, who I'm so happy they've asked back as she was a Gauntlet highlight.  Here she explains the evolutionary history of a Munchie, though sadly she never brings up the Munchies from the previous Munchies film (instead opting for Gremlins, Ghoulies, Critters, Hobgoblins, and even Leprechaun).  Also returning is Waverly and Growler, who we also haven't seen since last season.  They've actually applied for Bonehead positions in Moon 1.  I do wonder if this is setting something up, but it's a slight skit which is fun.  Mega Synthia also gets her first line in the series, then is quickly shooed off.  Yvonne Freese has barely been featured so far and we're four episodes in!  The Invention Exchange involves a zombie treadmill and Jonah coming up with ways for rock musicians to be less wasteful with their instruments.

Munchie is a blemished product that sits a bit on the edge of greatness.  The positive is I think this is probably the funniest episode with Jonah's crew since Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.  I also think that it's the best episode of the season yet, taking that crown from Beyond Atlantis, which was an on-fire debut for Emily's cast but Munchie feels more like a polished achievement.  What's holding me back a little bit on Munchie are mostly little moments where they sit a bit restrained and don't hit an opening or do it in a way that isn't the kill shot it could be.  But I didn't have Munchie pegged as being a choice that would have inspired an episode that is this funny and the fact that I laughed as much as I did is a testament to just how great the new cast and crew is.  I hope there are many more seasons so they can cement themselves in its legacy like they deserve.

Good

The Livestream

Munchie is the first episode to fully debut after the opening of the Gizmoplex to the public, which means no pre-release screenings and  it's available to all MSTies, fully finished, right now.  There is only one livestream event to cover for this one (thank god), and it plays out a little bit differently than what we had seen previously.  The first thing to notice is that the stream has little bookend host segments wrapped around the episode where we get to see what Emily and her Bots are up to on the Simulator of Love.  They don't have anything to do with the episode itself, mind you, they're just funny little bonus skits featuring our new cast that are exclusive to the livestream.  The first has Tom Servo and Crow hunting down a "critter" on board the Simulator, which predictably turns out to be Emily.  The second has Emily and Servo discovering Crow's lifeless husk and being distraught because they assume their friend is dead.  The second is better than the first, though I'd contend it would have been better to save this one until a latter live stream as Emily would have more than one episode of history with Crow.  They're both highlighted with some solid writing and both are very funny, especially as the weeping Emily and Servo eulogize their friend and Emily cries "He was the best of all of us!" and Servo's choked response is "Debatable!"  Kelsey Ann Brady's Crow at one point gets a potshot at those who criticize her voice as she responds to Servo's voice change to allergies with "I sound different in a way that's noticeable but you get used to it really quickly!"

Also included is a new preview trailer to the next episode, Doctor Mordrid, which has new footage of host segments and riffing.  It also confirms it will be Emily's next episode, and this is my favorite movie selection of the season so I'm hoping it's a great one!

The post-episode livestream begins as producer Matt McGinnis puts together a "support group" of writers/stars who claim that this movie broke them.  These folks include Jonah Ray, Hampton Yount, Rebecca Hanson, Deanna Rooney (making her livestream debut), and Matt Oswalt (who is sharing a space with Jonah, Rebecca, and Deanna, so he isn't completely crashed from the stream this time).  Absent from the festivities is Felicia Day, who also wrote on this episode and everyone on stream claims also hates this movie.  There are no issues with muting or crashing feeds this stream, but like always there has to be something wrong.  That tech issue turns out to be hot mics, as Jonah, Rebecca, Deanna, and Matt O all enter the stream holding mics too close to their face, causing an earful of throbbing bass.  They try to compensate for it by holding the mics further away, to mixed results.  Matt O has the most problems, because it's hard to hear what he is saying half the time.  The guy can't catch a break!

Matt McG then goes on to say this movie is bad, but he thinks the worst movie of the season is The Bubble (which is the movie Joel has been touting as "The New Manos" for over a year now).  Nobody present wrote on that episode, but Jonah claims he was present when they recorded riffs for the episode (I believe he directed all the episodes he didn't star in) and says he thought the movie looked "fun."  The Bubble is one of the few movies this season I haven't seen outside the series, so I can't comment on what Joel and Matt see in it, but what reactions I can find online state the movie isn't great but nobody really claims it's "Manos bad."  But while Joel is not present for this stream, he does message a little potshot to Matt McG saying "I don't get all the bellyaching for Munchie, but then again I had to write for Castle of Fu Manchu."  The man has a point.

But talk does often turn to how much these people hate this movie.  To be fair, this is nowhere close to being the worst movie I've ever seen, but then again I never had to write comedy over it.  Everyone talks about what specifically they hated about it, and it does seem to always fall back on writing for it was tough.  It's revealed that it was one of the last episodes they had to write, everyone was drained, and they were given this comedy movie to do, which isn't a great format for layering another comedy on top of.  And then there is Hampton, who just hates Dom DeLuise and how he never shuts up.  This does lead into Jonah discussing the difficulty of riffing the film also falls on the fact that the film has so much dialogue, especially when DeLuise is onscreen.  Jonah also professes his disappointment on hearing the title of this movie and thinking they were riffing the original Munchies only to find out it was this movie instead.  Matt McG does reveal that he screened Munchies right before this movie but chose Munchie because he thought the puppet would get better reactions.  He also neither confirms nor denies whether or not they're considering Munchie Strikes Back for next season, to which Jonah implores him to just "Say no!"

Streaming questions do get more playful, as everyone is asked what they would do if they found a Munchie puppet in their house, which leads to a colorful story of Jonah receiving a promotional Chucky doll for the new Chucky TV series and how it spooked his wife Deanna (this Chucky doll can be seen in previous livestreams).  They also discuss their favorite Gremlins knock-offs, of which Jonah talks about enjoying Ghoulies before the conversation is completely derailed by the greatest Gremlins knock-off of all time, Critters, which also evolves into talking about Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  Deanna also talks a bit about her role as Donna St. Phibes, while Matt O has a hilarious story about a birthday cake with Munchie's face on it that they happily sliced up (at a restaurant Loni Anderson is a regular at to boot).

This is a pretty rowdy stream full of people venting pain.  We need to understand them and let them express their sorrow and rage.  And as long as they keep it entertaining, I'm happy to hear it!  This was a fun stream, hot mics aside.  I can hardly wait for Doctor Mordrid in two weeks just to experience another one!