1202-Atlantic Rim

Film Year:  2013

Genre:  Action, Science Fiction

Director:  Jared Cohn

Starring:  Graham Greene, David Chokachi, Treach, Jackie Moore

MST Season:  12

The Movie

It is the near future where mankind has been at war with Kaiju, monsters who have been entering our dimension through a gateway in the middle of the ocean called the Breach.  To combat the Kaiju mankind has built Jaegers, large humanoid machines built to fight monsters with our own monsters.......

Oh wait, this is the Asylum knockoff version.  Um, giant monsters awaken in water.  Mankind has giant humanoid robots because of course they do.  Now they fight, and hopefully come under budget.

TONIGHT WE HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO RENEW THE ARMAGEDDON DUE TO LOW RATINGS!

That's not too close to the more famous line, right?  We won't get sued?  Good.

On this episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 we enter the Asylum.  Asylum is a production company that specializes in very cheap movies released directly to home media.  They are the group responsible for mini-cult hits like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus and Sharknado.  But their bread and butter is by creating movies on the cheap and in a hurry to piggyback off of a blockbuster that is currently in theaters, which has been dubbed a "mockbuster" since Asylum started making such movies.  Transformers begat Transmorphers.  Snakes on a Plane begat Snakes on a Train.  Paranormal Activity begat Paranormal Entity.  War of the Worlds begat War of the Worlds because the novel is in public domain.  Similarly, Sherlock Holmes begat Sherlock Holmes (except this one has a DINOSAUR!).  As I'm writing this, they're advertising a mockbuster of Godzilla vs. Kong titled Ape vs. Monster.  I think you get the idea.

This one is a mockbuster of one of my favorite movies of the 2010's, Pacific Rim, a film directed by Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro which was a loving homage to giant monster flicks and mech cartoons from Japan.  The movie is absurdly fun, and one that I could put on during a rainy day and get a smile from.  Asylum's mockbuster of Pacific Rim is, of course, titled Atlantic Rim.  And it also involves giant monsters rising from the ocean and soldiers piloting giant robots fighting them in the middle of a city and at the bottom of the ocean.  Except replacing Del Toro's trademark creativity with generic crap.

Atlantic Rim is typical of Asylum productions, limited time and resources made by filmmakers who are just interested in getting the shot and moving on to the next one.  Actors are delivering stilted dialogue and are given no sense of direction to their craft except "Say the words, get a paycheck." (Though in a minor defense, Graham Greene at the very least seems like he's trying to earn that paycheck.)  It wouldn't surprise me to find out that maybe some or all of Atlantic Rim's cut were first usable takes, with no desire to reshoot another take once the script has been read aloud, causing every character to look bored and disinterested in the film's own plot.  Sets are used, redressed minimally, and reused as different locations haphazardly, making almost every set in the movie look exactly the same.  CGI is cheap, cartoony, and crummy, lacking dimension and weight, and any sequence featuring action or thrills never really features either.

One thing that really bugs me about this movie though (among the many things that should be bugging me) is the half-baked scripting, which keeps introducing plot points that should have an effect on the movie's status quo but never do.  In the third act, the film introduces a love triangle between the three robot pilots, which should create tension but doesn't.  Instead it's brought up and dropped within the span of two minutes and never mentioned again for the rest of the movie.  The third act also gives the pilots a neural transmitter link to their robots, which does very little to upgrade both their experience or the storytelling, because all this means now is that the actors have to wear a stupid looking crown on their heads for the rest of the movie.  There is no thought or purpose put into any of this, and is just throwing concepts into the movie because it needs tropes to feel like an actual movie, I guess.

Probably the most interesting legacy about Atlantic Rim is that while Asylum always seemed to dance around copyright infringement enough to the point where any studio who decided to sue them probably wouldn't succeed, the existence of Atlantic Rim seemingly pissed Warner Brothers off enough that Asylum finally got sued for their mockbusters.  I don't think the lawsuit led anywhere, but Asylum did retitle the film Attack from Beneath for future reissues, probably because they already squeezed their money out of the Pacific Rim hype and thought it wasn't worth the effort to keep the title.  That, however, didn't stop them from making a sequel, Atlantic Rim:  Resurrection, which was released to cash in off of the sequel Pacific Rim:  Uprising.  Say what you will about Asylum, but they have balls of steel.

The Episode

I can't tell you how many times during my fanhood of this series that I've heard variations of "They should bring Mystery Science Theater back and they should watch those shitty SyFy original movies or those Asylum ripoffs!"  Then Atlantic Rim was announced, and the tune changed from that to "WHYYYYYY?"

It's incredible how many fans of a show where the premise is to show bad movies get upset when they watch a bad movie.

Ever since Atlantic Rim was announced for season twelve, I've been hearing oh so many complaints about it's inclusion and reasoning for why movies like it shouldn't be used.  And honestly, most of them are complete nonsense.  Let's go through the most common ones real quick:

1.  "Atlantic Rim is too new for the show!"

There are a couple of reasons why this doesn't hold water.  First and foremost, MST3K never described itself as a "We only make fun of OLD movies!" show, and to claim that's what it is is a complete misread of the show's intent.  Secondly, this statement takes the classic series and makes it out to be fresher than it is.  MST3K riffed several movies that were just as freshly released as this film.  Atlantic Rim came out around five years before this episode aired, and taking that span of time and applying it to all the movies the show riffed, the following movies were riffed within five years of their release:  Robot Holocaust, Alien from L.A., Outlaw, Time Chasers, Werewolf, Quest of the Delta Knights, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, and Future War.

Saying a film needs to be of a certain age in order to be featured is pressuring the show to be enforcing a rule that it never really had.  Granted it's the first movie of the 21st century featured on the show, but the show was off the air for eighteen years.  They likely would have plucked a few by now if they had never been cancelled.

2.  "Asylum movies are too tongue-in-cheek!"

This is a complaint that I heard more before the episode's release than I do today, but I'll address it anyway because it was very common back then.  This is incorrect, and it sounds like an assumption one would make after seeing five minutes of Rifftrax's Sharknado 2 live show on PlutoTV.  The Sharknado series is an anomaly, not the rule.  Sharknado grew in popularity based on its stupid premise, and the films became more comedic to play up the crowd that was watching them.  Most Asylum films are not that humorous, and most of them are straight-faced.  Atlantic Rim is one of the straight-faced ones.

3.  "Asylum movies are intentionally bad!"

This is sort of the backpeddled response after the previous one proved to be false.  While it's a bit closer to the truth, it's a bit off-the-mark.  Implying something is "intentionally bad" is to say that they're going out of their way to be terrible on purpose, which is way more effort than Asylum puts into their films.  Asylum movies aren't "intentionally bad," they just don't care if they're good.  Asylum is a film company that comes up with titles, orders a script to be written in a hurry, and then shot swiftly to be completed in time for a release date, likely to piggyback off of a larger film that is being released.  They are apathetic to what the final product is, they just want a product so they can make money.

In all honesty, Asylum's business model isn't all that different than Roger Corman's.  They both dealt in utilizing resources to make cheap movies and release them quickly, whether they're good or not, often to ride with a trend that they believe will make them money.  Corman himself wasn't even above titling his movies to be similar to a trendy recent movie.  Gunslinger, for example, is obviously titled so to remind people of the Gregory Peck film The Gunfighter, and It Conquered the World was on the tails of It Came from Outer Space.  If one wants to side with Corman and claim he made a more enjoyable product, made movies that at least had a little bit of heart (sometimes), and had a better eye for talent (people like Joe Dante and Ron Howard started directing under Corman), no real argument here (though Corman did make some doozies in his day).  But we need to call a spade a spade.

4.  "I prefer bad movies that have heart.  Asylum movies have no heart!"

Now this is a point I agree with, but this is a pet peeve and not a legitimate criticism of the episode itself.  That's just asking MST to cater to your own personal comfort zone, and I don't feel they should always do so.  I hate Moon Zero Two and Catalina Caper, personally, both as films and as episodes.  But I have no desire to punt them away from the series.  The thing about MST is that each episode caters a different experience that different people will respond to.  Many fans hate Hamlet, but I think it's a worthy experience of an episode.  If it were suddenly deleted from MST's lineup just because fans thought it was a bad film choice, that denies people who respond positively to it an experience that they themselves enjoy.  You don't have to like Atlantic Rim as a movie, just know that it's use is to craft an experience that maybe isn't for you.

The real reason this movie shouldn't have been riffed that nobody brings up:  This episode's existence means they paid Asylum for it's use, which means Asylum can use that money to fund more movies like this.

That's the reason you should be pissed!

All of these are really just excuses circling around the idea that they just didn't like the movie and they're mad at the show for making them watch the movie they knew they wouldn't like.  It's weird to me that in MST's long history more fans aren't more prepared or tolerant of this kind of situation.  That being said, if the movie just drags you too much and you want to call time on this one, cool.  No hard feelings.  I myself will never conclude that there is any particular movie that should never be on the show, because if MST thinks it can make a positive experience out of a lousy movie, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and see what experience they have in store for me.  Nobody really talks about how Atlantic Rim works as an episode, people normally fall back on just how much they hate the movie, and if they're ever asked about the riff, it's generic "Not even MST could save it" commentary, most of the time.  It's often frustrating, because Atlantic Rim is a funny episode that always gets kicked over petty nonsense.

The experience created by this episode is geared toward 90's kids.  Jonah and the Bots latch onto the simplistic nature of the movie, because it's almost like a generic Saturday morning cartoon.  And this riff is very infused with a 90's cartoon experience.  They connect the premise to Power Rangers early on with an ingenious quip of "Go Go Dour Rangers!"  There is a quality Beavis and Butthead reference, where one of the characters screams "FIRE FIRE FIRE!" resulting in Crow doing a dead-on Beavis laugh before saying the trademark catchphrase "Fire!  Fire!"  There is a point at the end where there is an explosion in space, causing Servo to growl "BEAST WARS!," which is absolutely perfect if you're a Transformers fan.  And, of course, there are more Transformers riffs where that came from, including a reference to Asylum's own Transformers mockbuster Transmorphers.

"Less than meets the eye!"

The riff continues to be a delight even when they aren't playing with 90's pop culture.  The characters in the movie are pretty ridiculous, and they have fun latching onto their dimwitted personality traits and exaggerating them, like they normally do.  However, one thing Atlantic Rim has going for it is that the personality traits are so absurd that what the crew projects onto them almost falls perfectly in line with the film.  I love the moment when the lead character finds out his best friend kissed his girlfriend, then saying they were drunk when it happened, causing Crow to respond "Whoa whoa, hold on...you guys got drunk without me?"  And the absurdity of the logic in Asylum pictures comes under fire often as well, especially during the rescue of a little girl from a burning building, for which one of the characters decides he needs to be armed for at some point, then change his mind and holster his weapon, causing Jonah to note "Oh great idea.  Put the gun away while you're looking for a missing child!"  There is even a moment with a curious looking extra playing a pilot, causing Servo to look carefully at then ask "Joel Hodgson?"  They also take note of how sets are reused, to be seemingly a brand new area but looking exactly the same.  Especially a bar set, which the last time we saw it was wrecked and "on fire" (in a fake, computery sort of way), which is later cleaned up and back open for business by the end of the movie.

"And the movie ends as it began...as a garbage fire."

The host segments continue Kinga's Gauntlet, but nothing really continues from the previous episode, except for Kinga's gloating.  There is no real progression to note except they're watching their second movie, although the movie does have an opening teaser which will come into play later in the season but has little relevance to this episode.  Although, the host segments here are pretty solid.  The "Get In Your Mech" song toes a very strange line, where it's trying to be both terrible and fun at the same time, as it's awkwardly sang with random lyrics that don't go together.  But the rhythm is catchy, and I like how Jonah and the Bots are totally into the beat by the end.  Later on, the crew gets into a "bro-off" and start telling braggart stories that constantly use the words "Bro" and "BOOMBOOM!" similar to the main character in the movie.  The Invention Exchange features a fun to look at Inflatable Air Dancer Organ and the hysterical and disgusting Supposi-Stories.

But a lot of this episode is going to ride on the shoulders of whether or not you can stomach the movie, because Asylum movies...I'd say they're not everybody's cup of tea, but the reality is that they're a cup enjoyed by very few (though SOMEBODY must be buying these movies).  But this notion that Atlantic Rim shouldn't be on the show?  Complete, as the movie would put it, "Bull butter!"  My ass, it doesn't.  And those who go along for the ride will find that there are a lot of strong quips targeted at a cheap, fake looking movie with little effort put into it.  To be honest, the experience of Atlantic Rim isn't all that different than Future War.  The one thing I'd probably give Future War over it is that the dinosaur puppets are more charming than the crappy CGI in this movie, but I came out of it laughing all the same.

Good

BOOMBOOM!

The DVD and Blu-Ray

Atlantic Rim was released on Shout Factory's Season 12 DVD and Blu-ray sets, and my copy is a special Pledge Drive Edition sent out to people who donated to a pledge drive just before the twelfth season aired.  The Atlantic Rim disc features no special features, but it shares disc space with the preceding episode, Mac and Me.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXIII DVD Retrospective

Release Date:  March 27, 2012

Buy It Here!

Episodes Included:

King Dinosaur

The Castle of Fu Manchu

Code Name:  Diamond Head

Last of the Wild Horses

Well, there's one good episode here at least.  Last of the Wild Horses is a must see episode for all MSTies, with outstanding host segments and very funny riffing, including Dr. Forrester and Frank in the theater!  The other three don't work up the same enthusiasm.  Code Name:  Diamond Head tops the rest of the pack, as its good points outweigh the other episodes, while King Dinosaur is watchable and Castle of Fu Manchu is...Castle of Fu Manchu.  It's one of the most incomprehensible episodes, and that brings the recommendation of this set down.

Average Rating (out of 4):  2.25

Three of the episodes look and sound great, while Code Name:  Diamond Head has quite a few blemishes throughout.  Special features start out the excellent Life After MST3K series, which chronicles the adventures of the cast after leaving the series throughout future volumes, starting with this volume's subject, Kevin Murphy.  Movie related features include The Incredible Mr. Lippert (about producer Robert Lippert) and Code Name:  Quinn Martin (about producer Quinn Martin).  Frank Conniff provides an intro for Castle of Fu Manchu and there is also a feature about the video game Darkstar, which utilized the cast of MST3K.  Rounding out the set are trailers for King Dinosaur and Castle of Fu Manchu.

The box art is the traditional Shout Factory box, featuring the MST logo in the upper left hand corner and theater seats at the bottom, while the roman numerals "XXIII" are painted in purple in the middle of the image.  But as always, Steve Vance provides art for the interior cases.  King Dinosaur features space explorers Crow and Tom Servo being chased by a Tyrannosaurus who looks nothing like the Tyrannosaurus from the movie.  Castle of Fu Manchu features Servo as Fu Manchu, watching evilly as Crow drowns outside his castle.  Code Name:  Diamond Head features Crow as the hero in a Hawaiian shirt and Servo as the bad guy disguised as a General.  Last of the Wild Horses features Crow and Servo as cowboys about to beat each other up.

Disc art is the traditional episode logo against a starry backdrop, and the menus are traditional skits put together with CG and episode audio.  King Dinosaur features astronauts Crow and Servo in an alien jungle seeing a lemur get eaten by a "dinosaur."  Castle of Fu Manchu features Crow and Servo playing with a fortune telling machine designed around Fu Manchu.  Code Name:  Diamond Head features Crow and Servo playing with a disguise kit.  Last of the Wild Horses features Servo and Gypsy doing battle with Mirror Mike and Crow.

This set rounds out to be a bit of a disappointment, but there is some fun to be had with Last of the Wild Horses.  The other three episodes have ups and downs but ultimately are on the dull side.  And I don't want to call an MST set boring.  I already gave that title to Volume 12, thank you very much.  This one isn't much better, but at least there is one winner here.

323-The Castle of Fu Manchu

Film Year:  1969

Genre:  Adventure

Director:  Jesus Franco

Starring:  Christopher Lee, Richard Greene, Howard Marion-Crawford, Gunther Stoll, Rosalba Neri, Maria Perschy, Jose Manuel Martin

MST Season:  3

The Movie

Get those hashtags ready, because we have to cancel Christopher Lee.  Not only is he here in yellowface, but he's playing Fu Manchu, one of the most notoriously racist fictional characters ever conceived.  For those who aren't familiar with the Oriental Evil character, Dr. Fu Manchu is a character created by Sax Rohmer who is basically a Chinese supervillain that the almighty Caucasian must thwart and save the day so that minorities will know their superiority.  The character first appeared in the novel The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu, and continued on in thirteen novels written by Rohmer, while the character has popped up in various other media, including a Marvel Comic run where he is portrayed as the evil father to their heroic character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu.

Fu Manchu's filmography dates back to 1923, and one thing every incarnation of the character has in common is that he's usually played by a white dude made up to look Asian, from Boris Karloff to Peter Sellers.  The distinct "honor" for playing Fu Manchu the most on the silver screen goes to Christopher Lee, who starred in five Fu Manchu movies dating back to The Face of Fu Manchu in 1965 and releasing annually.  The Castle of Fu Manchu is the fifth and final of this run, and features Lee's Fu Manchu desiring a machine that can freeze the oceans...for reasons (it could do wonders for Global Warming, just saying).  In order to get this machine to work he jumps several convoluted hurdles like highjacking a castle for opium and kidnapping a doctor to give a scientist heart surgery.

The plot of the movie is all over the map, and it really isn't that interesting.  As many weird turns as this movie takes, it never seems to be actually going anywhere.  Fu Manchu always has a setback that allows him to just sit in place and wait before he can actually do anything threatening, while good guys try to stop him while he continues waiting.  The movie is almost like a trashy Bond knockoff that tries to make the antagonist the point of interest, but without Bond to brag about his evil plan to, this supervillain often seems to just out to impress himself.  Meanwhile he gets foiled because he never actually does anything.

Well, he does do one thing.  He sinks an ocean liner in the opening.  But it's really just stock footage from the Titanic based drama A Night to Remember, only tinted blue so it looks like colorized nighttime.  As if we wouldn't notice this segment was in black and white.  What assholes.

I haven't seen any other Fu Manchu movies, mostly because of lack of interest, so I don't know how Castle of Fu Manchu stacks up to the rest of the series (let alone how Lee's tenure stacks up to other Fu Manchu films).  Most accounts seem to say it was a pretty blah series, though Castle is mostly agreed to be the worst one.  The film was so poorly received and such a box office underperformer that Christopher Lee's contract for a sixth Fu Manchu film was never taken advantage of.  I don't think anybody shed a tear for it.

The Episode

Dr. Forrester and Frank are really full of themselves this episode.  They think they've finally found the trashiest, most vile film ever made.  One to break the sanity of anyone who ever watched it.  They're wrong, but it's cute that they think they're winning.  Fu Manchu might be the worst movie featured this season (there isn't a whole lot of pain to contend with it...Gamera vs. Zigra maybe...), and yeah, the yellowface is offensive, but I wouldn't even call it the worst movie seen on the show so far.  Not while Ring of Terror and Hellcats exist.

I don't have a certain mandate on what type of films can and should be used on this series.  If they think they can do something with a film, go nuts.  Give it your best shot and let my laughter be the judge.  In the case of Castle of Fu Manchu it feels like there needed to be some reconsideration.  The film is so casually paced and dialogue heavy, and most of the riffing occurs while characters are explaining the plot to each other.  This turns a movie that already requires attention to something borderline incomprehensible, and I think the host segments featuring the movie wearing Joel and the Bots down while Dr. F and Frank gloat were mostly reactionary to how the MST episode is making this already bad movie and turning it into a complete disaster.  It's way too many words and it's hard to keep track of them all.

Is it funny though?  Sometimes.  I think it's funnier when the movie isn't endless dialogue.  Silent scenes are usually the strongest scenes in the movie, which allow Joel and the Bots to flex quite well.  There is a scene about halfway through in which Fu Manchu's thugs kidnap a couple, which is so ineptly constructed that it's pretty funny on its own, and the riffing enhances the humor of it adequately.  And there are a few cute quips here and there, with a personal favorite of mine being a commentary on the dubbing of the film:  "Why are they dubbing the British?"  I also like the jab during the end credits, which are almost illegible red text on a red background, and a near-tears Tom Servo suddenly sobs "Even the credits stink!"

The host segments are more or less just the same joke of Joel and the Bots breaking down and Dr. F and Frank congratulating each other.  There are attempts at funny skits (I like those magic carpet props), but they all end in tears.  It's a cute little meta of "We're losing this time" though it would probably be stronger if the riff were better.  These segments around Manos or Hobgoblins might be more fun, but with Fu Manchu it's a bit unearned and wasted on an overall lackluster experience.  The Invention Exchange brings the Stinky Bomb, which is an excuse for Frank to dig out his Joe Besser impression.

My concluding feelings of Castle of Fu Manchu isn't that it's a bad episode, it's that they were given a movie that they didn't quite know how to approach, so they toss a lot at it and hope something sticks.  The bitter truth is that because the experience is a bit bewildering, it's hard to maintain attention to the episode.  Whenever I find this episode in my rotation, I usually stop paying attention early on and drift off, doing whatever the fuck.  And I have to work at it to maintain that attention to write this review at all.  Because of that, it's a negative experience, and I can't really justify that.

Not Recommended

The DVD

Fu Manchu welcomed us into his castle as a part of Shout Factory's Volume XXIII release.  Audio and video were good, unfortunately assuring we could watch Castle of Fu Manchu in clarity.  Bonus features include an introduction by Frank Conniff, who is very down on the selection of this movie, feeling it didn't have a clear enough plotline and that without one it can't make a good MST episode.  He's not wrong.

Next up is a seventeen minute featurette called Darkstar:  Robots Don't Need SAG Cards.  It's kind of a mini-documentary about the video game/sci-fi simulator Darkstar, which utilized Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, J. Elvis Weinstein, Joel Hodgson, Mary Jo Pehl, and Beth "Beez" McKeever (AND Peter Graves!!!) as characters in the game.  I've never played this game, but it always seemed pretty neat.  I like the footage they showed in this look at it.  And I have to say, it's great to see Trace flex his dramatic chops.

Concluding the disc is a trailer for Castle of Fu Manchu.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXV DVD Retrospective

Release Date:  December 4, 2012

Buy It Here!

Episodes Featured:

Robot Holocaust

Operation Double 007 (retitled on cover as Operation Kid Brother)

Kitten with a Whip

Revenge of the Creature

Also Featured:

Radar Men from the Moon

Volume XXV is one of the most important box sets in Mystery Science Theater's DVD history, as Shout Factory showed in one swoop that they were ready, willing, and able to walk up to the negotiation table with major Hollywood studios and come out with a win.  In the case of Volume XXV, all the films featured have been licensed by either MGM or Universal, bringing four episodes nobody would ever thought would be released on DVD, and unlocking the possibility of even more.  This was an exciting time to be a home media collector of the series, because it became clear that Shout was doing everything they could to release the entire series for collectors.

As for the episodes selected, it's a little bit of a mixed bag, but I think the Mike episodes are worth owning.  Revenge of the Creature is a must own based on being the Sci-Fi Channel premiere and Bill Corbett's debut as Crow (we actually hadn't seen a Bill Corbett episode in a box set since Volume XIX at this point), but it is also pretty funny and likely the highlight of the box.  Kitten with a Whip is almost as good, with solid laughs making the episode one of the better episodes in the box set.  The Joel episodes are a bit below par, though Robot Holocaust's movie is just funny enough by itself to make the episode worth watching.  I'm not too huge on Operation Double 007, but it's an interesting oddity of a movie if nothing else.

Interestingly Operation Double 007 was retitled on the box as an alternate title, "Operation Kid Brother."  I think the assumption is that while MGM was willing to license the film, they didn't want it to be advertised as a part of the James Bond franchise, which they are understandably protective of.  Also an interesting side note, this set came out just after the Bond adventure Skyfall hit theaters, which makes Double 007's release a cute little tie in.  Unfortunately they couldn't advertise the tie-in, which makes it almost nonsensical, but there is an effort put in.

Also worth noting is that the set came with a bonus disc if ordered through Shout Factory's website, a shorts compilation of all the Radar Men from the Moon chapters featured on the show, marking the first shorts compilation since Mr. B's Lost Shorts from Volume 6.  Watching all the Commando Cody shorts in a row can be a bit cumbersome, but it's a solid inclusion.  Though it's interesting that this set also features one of the shorts in the Robot Holocaust episode, so if you watched all the discs in one go you watched the short twice!

Average Rating (out of 4):  2.75

Audio and video were mostly good, though Kitten with a Whip sported blemishes.  The centerpiece of the set is Jack Arnold At Universal, a documentary covering Revenge of the Creature director Jack Arnold's time directing films at Universal.  This set also brings two Life After MST3K features, one for J. Elvis Weinstein and one for Bill Corbett.  Completing the special features are introductions for each episode, two by Joel and two by Mike.  Also, Radar Men from the Moon has an introduction by J. Elvis Weinstein.

The box art is again Shout Factory's stock cover, featuring the MST logo in the upper left hand corner and the theater seats down below, while the roman numerals "XXV" are painted in the center in teal.  As always, the art on the individual casings is what we're here for, each featuring artwork by Steve Vance.  Robot Holocaust features Tom Servo trapped in a spider's web as Crow charges a monster with a sword.  Operation Double 007 Kid Brother features Crow in a spy tuxedo and Servo all dolled up as his lady spy, while they stand back to back in front of a giant target.  Kitten with a Whip features Crow as Ann-Margret, threatening Servo's John Forsythe with a broken bottle.  Revenge of the Creature sees Crow and Servo as scuba divers looking up at the Gill Man towering above the logo.  Radar Men from the Moon features the original Radar Men theater poster, but with the theater seats at the bottom and the number of chapters erased and "8 1/2" written in its place.

Disc art is the same disc art most Shout sets have, with a starry backdrop and episode logos on each disc.  Menus continue the tradition of creating skits from CGI doubles of the bots and audio from each episode.  Robot Holocaust features Crow and Servo escorting Valeria to the Dark One, who electrocutes her.  Operation Double 007 sees Crow trying to mimic the James Bond gun barrel opening on a monitor while Neil Connery watches.  Kitten with a Whip features Crow and Servo confronting Ann-Margret while she fixes her hair.  Revenge of the Creature features a diving suit POV shot as we swim under water with Crow, Servo, and the Gill Man.  Radar Men from the Moon is just the regular poster featuring the Radar Men opening theme.

While the episode rating might be a little bit below the average, Volume XXV features some solid laughs, while Revenge of the Creature is an important transition episode for everyone's collection.  And the bonus disc is a minor treat if you like to collect your shorts.  And while it might be my choice for the least episode on the set, Operation Double 007 is a cute little curiosity for James Bond enthusiasts.  And if you're a Bond fan AND a MSTie, how can you resist seeing your two favorite franchises cross over?*

*Question is still valid if you're a Creature from the Black Lagoon fan. :)

Radar Men from the Moon (MST3K Sepcials)

As the Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD collection grew in size, the idea of shorts compilations started to seem a little bit archaic.  Especially by Volume XXV, which was the first volume in which Shout Factory opened the floodgates on licensing episodes from major studios like Universal and MGM, which was an omen that most of the series would indeed be released on DVD, shorts intact.  As of today, the only episode featuring a short that hasn't been released on DVD is It Conquered the World, and it's short, Snow Thrills, was never featured on a shorts compilation (though it was featured as a bonus feature on Volume XXIV).

The last shorts compilation was Mr. B's Lost Shorts all the way back in Volume 6, but Shout Factory decided it was time to revive the tradition by releasing a Radar Men from the Moon compilation as a bonus disc (through Shout's website only) with the above mentioned Volume XXV.  The selling point this time is that Radar Men from the Moon is a lengthy serial that tells a long form story, so there is something to gain from watching all of these shorts in one go.

But the downside is the same downside that watching a serial from start to finish always had:  these chapters weren't meant to be watched in one go.  Every Radar Men episode feels similar to the previous, because it was presumed distance between each so the padding wouldn't be so obvious.  Stuff like this wasn't made with home media bingewatching in mind.  They were only interested in a kid handing over their nickel every week to see a slight momentum in plot, but who cares?  JET PACKS!

Likewise, the MST3K versions weren't meant to be sat through in one go either.  Due to the similarity between the chapters, a lot of jokes are repeated, which creates some tedium in watching the entire serial in one go.  And even still, the serial isn't even complete, which cuts off halfway through chapter nine, leaving three and a half chapters out in limbo.  A missed opportunity of this disc is that it might have been interesting to see the unriffed chapters here, so we could at least see some closure.  But at least they were more committed to Commando Cody than they were with The Phantom Creeps or Undersea Kingdom.

Is the disc worth owning?  Well, I won't lie and say there isn't some interest value in watching the series go through this serial in one go.  And watching the evolution of the first season in one go is kind of neat.  That being said, if you slog through Radar Men from the Moon in a normal episode setting, this experience isn't a revelation of any kind.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter One - Moon Rocket

Original Episode:  The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy

Serials.  They sound like as delicious as a bowl of Trix, but not quite.  Nowadays they’re best known for inspiring George Lucas to make Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the dark reality is they aren’t very interesting or exciting.

The short follows Commando Cody, a super-scientist with a jet-pack (who also may or may not be the inspiration for the 1980’s retro-styled comic character The Rocketeer).  He investigates atomic energy on the moon and discovers a plot by the evil civilization of moon men to conquer the Earth.

I don’t think one can adequately review a serial, so I don’t think I should try.  Given what serials are, Radar Men from the Moon seems par for the course.  My soft spot for superheroics enjoys parts of it, while my enjoyment of storytelling makes me yearn for something more ambitious.  Since it’s only the first chapter, I’m not grunting in frustration yet, but I do know that day will come.

Shorts would of course become a mainstay in the series, however they soon discovered industrial and educational films were better suited for the format than serials.  However, the idea of riffing a serial is intriguing, offering up sort of mini-cliffhangers to try and keep viewers invested enough to watch each week.  But the nature of a serial is that they were catering to a youth culture that’s out of date, and didn’t mind/notice that what they were watching was the same each and every week.  Commando Cody is a failed experiment, but you wouldn’t know it here.  With the serial so fresh and the production so goofy, the SOL crew is firing on all cylinders.  They especially have fun poking at the logic holes at hand (“Isn’t ANY atomic activity on the moon unusual?”).  It would definitely seem like a match made in heaven.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Two - Molten Terror

Original Episode:  The Mad Monster

After narrowly escaping the Moon Men’s base, Commando Cody immediately goes back because he’s stupid.  This time he successfully escapes with the diabolical ray gun that threatens humanity, but the Moon Men are on his tail.

Second verse same as the first.  If you’ve seen one serial, you’ve seen them all.  There might be little tweaks to the costumes and set design between each, but not in format.  And if you’ve seen the first chapter of any serial, you might as well skip to the last because you really aren’t missing much of anything in between.  In the case of Molten Terror, it definitely feels as if little plot progression has been made.  Cody escapes from the evil aliens, as a brief chat with his comrades, then just waltzes back because they had to fill time for twelve of these suckers.  The rest of the short is just small pieces of people punching each other and a prolonged chase scene thrown in for good measure.

So yeah, that’s about twenty minutes of my time I’ll never get back.  It must have been boring being a kid in the 40s and 50s if this was considered entertainment.  I can only imagine paying my hard earned allowance to see a serial and realizing walking out that nothing really happened.  Sure, I got my repetitive plot lines out of shows like Transformers and Power Rangers, but at least on television those were free.

Unfortunately the riffing on Commando Cody is a brick wall. There’s so little happening combining with similar beats with the first chapter that they seem utterly lost with it.  They do introduce the “Nipple tweak” joke, which they run on throughout the serial, though the rest of the short is a bummer.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Three - Bridge of Death

Original Episode:  The Corpse Vanishes

In one of the cooler Commando Cody cliffhanger payoffs, Cody rockets out of the cavern above the molten lava that threatened to trap him.  After that it’s business as usual as Cody is threatened by the Moon Men thugs’ ambush, leading up to an exploding bridge.

Three episodes into Commando Cody and probably the best thing that can be said for it is that I’m not sick of it yet.  Don’t worry, that’ll change.  The repetition is annoying but the pulp flavor isn’t quite worn down yet.  This chapter at least has the awesome lava sequence.

Commando Cody will be taking the next episode off, but don’t worry, he’ll be back.

While they usually struggle with Commando Cody, this week’s isn’t too bad.  There’s some solid flow with the line delivery, and the zingers land on target more often than not.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Four - Flight to Destruction

Original Episode:  Robot Monster

For the first time ever our show tackles two shorts in a single episode.  This rare practice would only be duplicated three more times, with Project Moon Base, Teenage Cave Man, and The Beast of Yucca Flats.

Jumping just in time from his car in footage that was conveniently left out of the previous chapter, Commando Cody lives!  However thugs working for the moon men kidnap his Girl Friday Joan, and take her for a plane ride.  Cody pursues only to have the pilot bail out…

INTERMISSION

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Five - Murder Car

Original Episode:  Robot Monster

Of course just like last time Cody gets Joan to bail out at the last minute.  But we trade in a murder plane for a MURDER CAR in this instalment.  The thugs execute another heist and make a getaway.  That’s pretty much all there is to this one.

Two Cody shorts is twice as hard to swallow as one.  Neither of these are exciting and both are padded beyond belief.  The first short however is clearly the better of the two because it at least has a “chase to save the girl” storyline and more action.  The second one is all road chase and not much else.

We really paid a nickel for each of these?  I could have saved that money for a soda instead.

Two Commando Cody shorts means we’re in for some hurting today.  And yet while I anticipated these to be more tiresome as they went on, I actually found that the riffing improved a lot in the second short over the first.  They start out with par for the course “we’ve seen this all before” riffs but it somewhat evolves into something more playful, like mistaking an ambulance for an ice cream truck or an amusing intro where the Bots try to escape the theater (which is repeated many years later in Hobgoblins).  I’d dare say that Murder Car might be the funniest of the Commando Cody shorts.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Six - Hills of Death

Original Episode:  The Slime People

Jumping out of their cars before the fake-out quick cut, we are flung into this week’s single serving of Commando Cody.  This one features Cody’s pal Ted being kidnapped and escaping, anticlimactic padding this may be, it sends Cody pursuing the bad guys and getting into a gunfight.

I feel as if I’ve said my peace on Commando Cody many times over by now.  Serials are tiresome even when they’re spaced far apart like this.  When this chapter ends, I feel a bit irritated because nothing really happened.  And what’s worse is that I’m wise to it, because a serial is nothing more than thirty minutes of story padded out to twelve or fifteen chapters that last fifteen minutes each.  Now that we’re halfway through Commando Cody we’re getting to the most tedious chapters of the bunch, and they can get infuriating.

There are a lot of gags we’ve heard before, and a lot of lesser gags that we haven’t.  We’re further cementing that Commando Cody was far too ambitious a project for this early in MST’s run.  The monotonous stories and similar footage are really causing our boys to struggle.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Seven - Camouflaged Destruction

Original Episode:  Project Moon Base

As if the double trouble from Robot Monster wasn’t enough, here is another Commando Cody double feature to assault us!

When we last left Commando Cody he was flung off of a cliff!  Talk about an actual CLIFFHANGER!  Stupid us forgot he has a rocket pack, which he just turns on and flies to safety!  He soon discovers the bad guys have a new ray gun and goes in pursuit with his pilot Ted.  But the bad guys shoot down their plane with said ray gun.

TO BE CONTINUED…RIGHT NOW!

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Eight - The Enemy Planet

Original Episode: Project Moon Base

Commando Cody and Ted eject in the nick of time.  In the aftermath Cody returns to the moon and disguises himself as one of the Radar Men guards, and drives off in one of their lunarmobiles.

Two Cody shorts, and mostly they kind of blend in together.  At least the second has some outer space action in it, but that’s about all I can do to set them apart.  There’s not much that’s stimulating in watching two of these in a row.   I’m just kind of numb right now.

I don’t really know how they managed to riff more than one per episode not once but twice on MST.  In season one no less.  They deserve some form of applause for that alone.  These shorts are a bit funnier than usual, due to the cast’s increased confidence in the format, but that doesn’t stop them from slipping into familiar riffs along the way.  The second short is the better of the two, with the moon setting giving them more material to work with.  We have a fun and creative “Theme Song” they sing during the opening credits, and the climax is a gas, with the cliffhanger showcasing someone’s oxygen tank getting hit only to have Joel make the claim that the helium valve was released instead!  Servo exits the theater with high-pitched screams of “Help me!” that had me giggling quite a bit.

Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Nine - Battle in the Stratosphere

Original Episode:  Robot Holocaust

Commando Cody rescues his comrades from suffocation in space, and they take off for a thrilling BATTLE IN THE STRATOSPHERE!  Except we don’t get to see it because the film breaks.  Something tells me we didn’t miss much.

With this we say goodbye to Commando Cody.  We don’t get much closure on his storyline, or what passes for a storyline.  In addition to what we didn’t see in this short, there are three more chapters to this serial.  Maybe one day I’ll be curious enough to watch the rest, but that probably won’t be anytime soon.

There’s not a lot you can say.  It only lasts a few minutes and the riffing is more workmanlike than anything.  They feel like they’re pushing through it with the desire to never watch Commando Cody again.  I guess they succeeded.

The DVD

Radar Men from the Moon was compiled as Shout Factory website exclusive bonus disc on their Volume XXV collection (which also saw chapter nine featured during the episode Robot Holocaust, released in the same collection).  Audio and video were excellent.  There was an introduction by J. Elvis Weinstein, who talks about the appeal of serials being featured on the show and why it didn't work out in the end.

615-Kitten with a Whip

Film Year:  1964

Genre:  Drama

Director:  Douglas Miller

Starring:  Ann-Margret, John Forsythe

MST Season:  6

The Movie

Wow.  Something close to being a REAL movie on this show!  With brand name stars and everything!

Kitten with a Whip is the story of Ann-Margret, in one of her earliest post-Bye Bye Birdie/Viva Las Vegas roles, who plays a juvenile detention center escapee who hides out in the home of a politician, played by John Forsythe.  Upon discovering the little firecracker in his house, Forsythe threatens to call the police, but the lady lies and threatens his career to stay hidden in his home, claiming she'll be his mistress to the press and scream rape to the police.  Forsythe plays along with her demands as the situation spirals wildly out of control.

This forgotten little drama has all the bells and whistles of a Hollywood dramatic showcase, as the acting and production value are pretty solid.  If nothing else, Kitten with a Whip has pretty great cinematography that utilizes stylized blacks and angles that grow a bit unhinged as Ann-Margret goes off her rocker at various points in the film, but is able to lighten and flow softer during her calmer moments.  This is a really good looking movie.  I'm not used to saying that about a film on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

As for the drama itself, it's try-hard but it goes nowhere.  I dig the movie's jazzy noir vibe and Ann-Margret is absolutely committed to her part, though the motions don't feel that interesting.  Ann-Margret plays her role with a bit of an unbalance, as if she has no reason that she understands for her horrible actions but feels compelled to do it anyway, even with a hint of regret at times.  Forsythe mostly sits in the backseat of the movie, along for the ride and staring at Ann-Margret with anger in his eyes, but he never really does anything.

Kitten with a Whip is not a horrible movie, just a underwhelming one.  It feels like it's toying with a worthy premise that it never quite figured out.  If nothing else, it's worth watching for Ann-Margret and the style of the film is pretty groovy.  But it's hard to recommend the film on the whole.

The Episode

Kitten with a Whip is a better movie than we're used to, especially during the oddities we received during season six.  It's drama is both heavy and over-the-top, and Mike and the Bots choose a counterbalance with their riff to bring the mood lighter.  They're pretty goofy and silly here, especially during the third act, taking these dark characters and flavoring them with outrageousness.  For example, one of the antagonists during the third act is a guest Ann-Margret invites to the house, he is supposedly a delinquent like her but features a getup and attitude that hints at a preppie, so the riffers infuse him with a pompous, Thurston Howell type personality.  John Forsythe does almost nothing during the duration of the movie, so Mike and the Bots project that he must maintain his blandness at all costs.  The clash of the darkness of the movie and the wacky fun of the humor really compliments this experiment, and I find it to be a riot.  Also:  vernacular has a presence in this riff, as a lot of Ann-Margret's lingo is of interest to the riffers, especially the word "creamy."  They also play with the 60's styles and jazzy tunes.  Also Doodles Weaver.

"Doodles!  Doodles!  Doodles!"

While host segments are slight, this episode starts out with a banger, as Mike sends Crow down the Umbilicus on a covert mission to Deep 13 to bring the Satellite of Love back to Earth.  It's a wildly fun sequence that more than sets the stage for the episode.  There's not a lot to mention other than that.  Mike gives the Bots Six Million Dollar Man noises, and grows tired of them instantly.  Mike's dressed up in Victorian drag for some reason.  Kevin Murphy puts on a cat costume and tries to do a "taking the title literally" skit, where he plays the "kitten with the whip."  There is no purpose for the segment other than for Keven to act like a cat for thirty seconds.

While barely a blip in MST3K canon, Kitten with a Whip is a slight but fun episode with wacky riffing of an aggressive movie.  I can't think of any real reason to not recommend this one because it's pretty funny and easy to watch.  Pretty creamy, as the kids would say.

Good

EVERYTHING IS SO CREAMY!

The DVD

This kitten kept on whippin' on Shout Factory's Volume XXV set.  Video was repeatedly troublesome through the second half of the episode, though the audio was fine.  The sole special feature was an intro by Mike, who doesn't seem to remember the episode that well and doesn't seem to think it's a series highlight.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXIX DVD Retrospective

Release Date:  March 25, 2014

Buy It Here!

Episodes Featured:

Untamed Youth

Hercules and the Captive Women

The Thing That Couldn't Die

The Pumaman

Mystery Science Theater fans rejoice, as one of its biggest crowd pleasing episodes has finally hit DVD.  Pumaman being released in this set was actually pretty big news when it was announced, because Shout Factory had gone on record saying they were having trouble finding the rights owners to that movie.  Pumaman turned out to be owned by Rocca Delle Macie S.p.A., which is an Italian wine farm, of all things!  The Google rating is three stars out of five.  It's based on only one review, and that review simply says "asdasd."  Thanks for clearing that up!

And here I thought Soultaker being owned by a dentist was weird.

Pumaman is undoubtedly the highlight of the set.  It's just too much fun.  The Thing That Couldn't Die comes in at a solid second, ensuring the Mike half of this set is the more memorable half.  Of the two Joel contenders, I'm going to side with the first season offering of Untamed Youth being the better of the two.  Sparse riffing or not, Mamie Van Doren on the show is a lot of fun!  Hercules and the Captive Women is fine, but it's the least of the Hercules episodes.

Average Rating (out of 4):  3

Audio and video is pretty good, though Thing That Couldn't Die shows some blemishes.  On the special features end, one of the big highlights is that the set features the unriffed version of Pumaman, making it's DVD debut!  Considering this movie was probably owned by people who didn't know they owned it, this was probably a courtesy by Shout Factory, as the film likely hasn't seen a home release in decades.  The downside to this is that the print is full screen, and very flawed.  Pumaman is in need of a restoration.

Backing up the unriffed Pumaman is an interview with Pumaman himself, Walter G. Alton Jr.  He's not the only star interviewed on this set, as Mamie Van Doren herself pops in to give a few words about Untamed Youth.  Also film-related is The Movie That Couldn't Die, an audio essay by Tom Weaver about The Thing That Couldn't Die.  More MST related, we have Joel Hodgson doing introductions for Untamed Youth and Hercules and the Captive Women, and a discussion of the Nanites.  We have also have an interview with artist Steve Vance, who creates the artwork for each episode's DVD case, and it also features a gallery of his work.  Closing out the set are theatrical trailers for Untamed Youth and The Thing That Couldn't Die.

We have yet another stock art for the outer case, with Shout Factory's trademark style of the MST logo in the upper left hand corner and the theater seats down below, with the roman numerals "XXIX" painted in orange in the center.  But we turn to our special features interviewee Steve Vance for the internal individual episode art, which is much more special.  Untamed Youth features Servo jamming on a guitar while Crow is all dolled up as Mamie Van Doren and dancing to the beat.  Hercules and the Captive Women sees Servo as Hercules, battling a giant horned dragon, while Crow is helplessly trapped inside of a wall.  The Thing That Couldn't Die features Servo dressed up as the female lead, holding up the disembodied head of Crow, who hypnotizes all who meet his gaze.  Pumaman features Crow as Pumaman glaring up at Servo, who sits above the logo with the golden mask.

Disc art is Shout's traditional episode logos against a starry backdrop.  Disc menus continue Shout's playful CGI Crow and Servo skits.  Untamed Youth features Crow and Servo picking cotton in the cottonfields, while Mamie Van Doren is sexually harassed by Mr. Tropp.  Hercules and the Captive Women changes things up by turning Steve Vance's artwork into a motion menu, feturing Servo as Hercules battling the horned dragon.  The Thing That Couldn't Die switches back to the traditional CG figures and features Crow and Servo opening the titular Thing's box and sticking his head in a microwave, popping it like popcorn.  Pumaman rounds out the menus with Crow and Servo dressed up as Donald Pleasence's bad guy, and they combat Pumaman with the golden mask.

As one of the most popular episodes of the series, Pumaman is a must own episode and anything else is just gravy.  Luckily The Thing That Couldn't Die holds its own and Untamed Youth is one of the better first season entries, ensuring this is a set that delivers.  I definitley recommend it.

805-The Thing That Couldn't Die

Film Year:  1958

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Will Cowan

Starring:  William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Carolyn Kearney

MST Season:  8

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

As if the Brain That Wouldn't Die wasn't bad enough, now we got another immortal head giving us shit...

One of Universal International's last gasps of in-house horror in the 1950's, The Thing That Couldn't Die is about a group of ranchers that use their psychic youngling Jessica to find water for their ranch.  Jessica accidentally discovers a mysterious box buried beneath the soil instead.  Thinking they've struck gold, Jessica's family unearths it only to discover a disembodied head inside, which can control people at a glance.

Let's be frank, it's not very good.  The Thing That Couldn't Die feels half-baked at every corner.  It feels like half a concept cooked up with minimal effort, likely thrown together just to make use of ready sets and to have a product to sell.  The story isn't very interesting, though the film has a bit of sex appeal in its lovely leads Andra Martin and Carolyn Kearney, who will keep a red-blooded male's attention with their good looks.  Unfortunately the script doesn't really give them anything to do except be the objects of male desire.  Kearney is supposed to be the lead, but she doesn't really do anything but look pouty, yell, and change into a nighty.

The horror of the piece lies in how terrifying you find the head, which just stares at people wordlessly.  Supposedly this head is the "Thing that COULDN'T die," but in the end it dies anyway.  Rather easily too.  It doesn't really sell itself as a threat in this movie, making it one of the lamest movie monsters in Universal's long history.  I've seen quite a few of Universal's trademark horror pictures, and there is an argument that can be made that The Thing That Couldn't Die may be the worst of Universal's long legacy of horror.  It is genuinely at the bottom of the heap.

The Episode

One can feel something of a dirty mind in the writers room while writing for The Thing That Couldn't Die.  The riffs are oddly sexually charged, as it seems to pick up on the idea that one of the primary appeals of the movie is how busty the leads are, and it just wrings it for whatever laughs it can.  There are admittedly more than a few shots where the film lingers on the chest of the main actress, supposedly showing her necklace but more likely showing her neckline, and the jokes about cleavage and breasts come about.  Probably the most blatant example of projecting sex onto the film is that there are a bizarrely large amount of scenes featuring two women in bed together during this movie, to which Crow and Servo seem very ready, willing, and able to imply a Sapphic fantasy on, much to the joy of hormonal 13-year-old boys everywhere.  But the biggest laugh from any of this is when the head monster hypnotizes one of the lady leads, then Servo has him kindly ask his minion to insert him into her cleavage.  Both Bots are pretty horny throughout this riff.

Of course, while the riff tends to get pretty blue, it stays pretty funny.  The movie has no shortage of material to work with, from its terrible script to its laughable monster.  The latter, in particular, gets its share of attention, with a grand share of head gags being thrown at the film.  The characters can be pretty scummy too, and its often pointed out how greasy and unappealing they can be.  They can even turn it into campfire songs at the best of times.

The host segments find us reaching the planet of the Observers, making this the first appearance of the final Mad of Pearl's crew, the Observer lovingly called "Brain Guy" by us fans, played by Bill Corbett.  In his debut, he is one of three Observers (played by Michael J. Nelson and Paul Chaplin) who intercept Pearl, Bobo, and the Satellite of Love.  They observe (natch) and study, knowing they are superior to these lesser beings but curious about how much lesser they are.  A lot of these bits see them putting Pearl and Bobo in comforting surroundings as they prepare their future testing for them, while Paul's Observer pops up to the Satellite to study Mike in one of the most amusing segments of the episode ("I hate him...").  Paul also pops up to the Satellite again, this time as someone Mike accidentally conjures up from a memory due to a power the Observers bestow upon him, and then he promptly beats the crap out of him.  I don't know why this segment tickles me the way it does, maybe it's because the attack Paul lays on Mike is so unprovoked, and then Mike tries to conjure up different people (the Bots beg for Adrienne Barbeau, played by Bridget Jones), only to have the same result.  The sole segments that have nothing to do with the Observers feature Crow presenting a Civil War documentary and Tom Servo as an artist depicting Crow as an evil authoritarian.  They're so-so.

Concluding our early eighth season quest through the Universal International catalog, we find ourselves faced with yet another winner.  The Thing That Couldn't Die isn't the home run that The Deadly Mantis is, but it's at the very least on a par with The Leech Woman.  It's a fun episode and a great debut to the Observers, proving once again that the Sci-Fi run could be every bit as good as the Comedy Central run.  Of course, maybe five Universal International films in a row may be a bit much, but that would all come to an end soon.

Good

The DVD

This Thing didn't die as a part of Shout Factory's Volume XXIX collection.  Video was spotty, but audio was swell.  Bonus features featured Tom Weaver discussing the film's history in a documentary called The Movie That Wouldn't Die, chronicling how the film was conceived and put into production during a troublesome time at Universal's studios causing it to be a cost saving effort.  Casting is overviewed, and while poor reviews are skimmed through, Weaver points out that the film was mostly successful, thanks to a double bill with the far superior Hammer film Horror of Dracula.  Also featured is a theatrical trailer for the film.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXIX DVD Retrospective

Release Date:  November 21, 2017

Buy It Here!

Episodes featured:

Girls Town

The Amazing Transparent Man

Diabolik

Also featuring:

Satellite Dishes

Poopie!

Poopie II!

Poopie Parade of Values

This is the end, beautiful friend.

This is the end,  my only friend.

Maybe.

Shout Factory went above and beyond my expectations for amount of episodes that could be released on the format.  The minute they started tapping big name studios for physical release was the moment I knew that we were probably going much further in the series in these volumes than I could have ever hoped for.  This box set sees them tapping Paramount for the first time for Girls Town and Diabolik, and while there are three more episodes that Paramount owns the film rights to, those particular films were tied up with another third party label and weren't available for licensing at the time of this set's release, leaving the idea of a Volume XL up in the air.

For this "supposed" final volume of the series (don't be surprised if that Volume XL happens, because it seems inevitable), Shout releases the final sixth and tenth season episodes that had never seen physical release, completing those seasons on DVD.  But the bad news is that there are only three episodes on this set, mostly because that's all Shout could release.  But the good news is that one of them is the fabulous Girls Town, which is definitely worth a look.  Also here is the classic series finale Diabolik, which was our farewell to the series until 2017.  Amazing Transparent Man is also here, and it's a solid episode with a great short, so these episodes must be in any fan's collection, making this set a must-own.

But if you're upset that there are only three episodes on this set, there are some supplemental materials here that might make up for it.  There is a bonus disc called Satellite Dishes, which offers the host segments of the episodes that are unlikely to see release.  And if you bought it through Shout Factory's website, you received a limited edition bonus disc called The Complete Poopie, which featured the two Poopie! gag reels as well as the televised ad Poopie Parade of Values.  It's not a bad package, even though most of the gag reels had already been released on DVD.

Average Rating (out of 4):  3.33

Audio and video for the episodes was pretty solid, though the segments seen in Satellite Dishes were uneven.  Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster featured tape hits, while It Conquered the World had dim video and poor audio and both Terror from the Year 5000 and I Was a Teenage Werewolf look and sounds pretty lousy too, but not quite as bad.  The centerpiece features come on the Diabolik disc, which has a retrospective on the end of the series called Showdown in Eden Prairie.  Also featured is The Last Dance, which is a vintage feature-length behind-the-scenes video of the making of the final episode.  Also show related is an interview with Chuck Love, who help compose the theme to the series.  There is a mini-doc about the making of Amazing Transparent Man called Beyond Transparency, while all three films have a theatrical trailer.  There is also a documentary about the go-to DVD documentary makers, Ballyhoo, called Behind the Scream.

The box art is the Shout Factory norm, featuring the logo in the upper left hand corner and the theater seats down at the bottom looking up at the roman numerals "XXXIX" painted in orange.  And as always, the highlights are the interior case artwork by Steve Vance.  Girls Town features Tom Servo as Mamie Van Doren and Crow as a nun, as they rock out above the film logo.  Amazing Transparent Man has Crow as the Transparent Man being zapped into transparency by scientist Tom Servo.  Diabolik has Crow as the title thief climbing a rope over the film logo, up to Servo as Eve, holding a necklace of emeralds.  Satellite is mostly a portrait of the main characters of MST3K, with Joel, Mike, and the Bots hanging out on the bottom, while the group of the Mads look down at them over the "Satellite Dishes" logo (the only Mad missing is Dr. Erhardt).  The Complete Poopie features Crow and Servo wrestling with film stock and a pair of scissors.

While disc art is the standard movie logos against starry backdrop, the menus change things up for this final release.  Shout decides to ditch both the CG robots and mini-puppets and instead do menus with little cutouts of characters wagging around.  I kind of like the aesthetic of it, but like the puppets, they feel a bit limited.  But they still take the audio from episodes to create little skits.  Girls Town has Mamie Van Doren crashing the Satellite of Love bridge to sing the Girls Town theme.  The Amazing Transparent Man has Tom Servo zapping Crow with a transparency ray.  Diabolik has Diabolik tricking Mike into pressing a button that celebrates the end of the show.  Satellite Dishes features stills of the segments being presented in a little mini-theater as the closing theme plays.  The Complete Poopie has the disc title against a starry backdrop as the theater seats sit at the bottom.

By the time this supposed final volume was released Mystery Science Theater 3000 had already aired its eleventh season on Netflix, and were prepared to announce a twelfth season during that year's Turkey Day marathon.  And just before I wrote this review, they had successfully funded a new season on the Gizmoplex.  Even if this is the "conclusion" of the classic series on DVD, it's good to know it isn't the end.  But with three great episodes gracing us with their DVD presence, this collection is a must own, even if it is bittersweet.