Shout! Factory brings four more new-to-DVD episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in volume 22, including two Sandy Frank imports from Japan (Time of the Apes and Mighty Jack) as well as two Mike-era episodes (The Violent Years and The Brute Man), along with some fun special features.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXII
Studio:Shout! Factory
US DVD Release Date: December 6, 2011
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 360 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles: None
In the not too distant future, next Sunday, A.D.....
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was the brainchild of Joel Hodgson, a former prop comic and frequent guest on Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman. Basically an extension of the popular hosted movie format made famous by Vampira and Elvira, the original premise was that Joel (and later Mike Nelson), along with his robot companions Crow and Tom Servo, were sent into space, orbiting the planet and forced to watch bad movies by Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu). The show first aired on local Minneapolis-St. Paul UHF station KTMA in a very crude form in 1988, but was picked up by the Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central) as one of its first series a year later. The series survived for seven seasons, then moved to Sci-Fi for three additional seasons, finally falling out of first-run orbit in 1999.
Volume 22 is the tenth set of episodes to be released by Shout! Factory, and with this set they go back to tradition by offering up two Joel episodes long sought-after by fans of the series as well as two Mike episodes. One other thing fans will be pleased about - the inclusion of the Turn Down Your Lights (where applicable) title that appeared at the beginning of most Joel-era episodes, and has been missing on many of Shout! Factory’s previous releases.
US DVD Release Date: December 6, 2011
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 360 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles: None
In the not too distant future, next Sunday, A.D.....
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was the brainchild of Joel Hodgson, a former prop comic and frequent guest on Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman. Basically an extension of the popular hosted movie format made famous by Vampira and Elvira, the original premise was that Joel (and later Mike Nelson), along with his robot companions Crow and Tom Servo, were sent into space, orbiting the planet and forced to watch bad movies by Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu). The show first aired on local Minneapolis-St. Paul UHF station KTMA in a very crude form in 1988, but was picked up by the Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central) as one of its first series a year later. The series survived for seven seasons, then moved to Sci-Fi for three additional seasons, finally falling out of first-run orbit in 1999.
Volume 22 is the tenth set of episodes to be released by Shout! Factory, and with this set they go back to tradition by offering up two Joel episodes long sought-after by fans of the series as well as two Mike episodes. One other thing fans will be pleased about - the inclusion of the Turn Down Your Lights (where applicable) title that appeared at the beginning of most Joel-era episodes, and has been missing on many of Shout! Factory’s previous releases.
The Joel-era episodes are two of the four remaining “Sandy Frank” movies to be released on DVD. The set begins with Experiment #306, Time of the Apes, an incomprehensible mess of a movie that mashes a full season of episodes from a Japanese television series that was inspired by Planet of the Apes, where two annoying children and a female scientist manage to have themselves accidentally put into cryogenic sleep, only to awaken in a future run by apes. The ape make-up is truly awful, even by 1970s standards, resembling coconut quarters glued to the actor’s faces, which barely move when speaking dialogue. The riffing is very good, but not quite up to some of the Gamera episodes.
The second Joel-era episode is Experiment #314, Mighty Jack, which is even more incomprehensible than Time of the Apes. Sandy Frank once again takes an entire season of a Japanese television series that is a knock-off of the James Bond movies and edits it down to a 2-hour television running time. Many of the miniature effects are reminiscent of the later Gamera films (Joel and the ‘Bots even get to chant “Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat”), and you never really understand what is going on in the story (which Joel and the ‘Bots frequently mention). The episode also features one of the cleverest songs that for some reason was never included on either volume of the Clowns In The Sky song compilation CDs, Slow The Plot Down.
Disc three brings us a Mike-era episode from season six, Expeirment #610, the Ed Wood scripted The Violent Years, a 1956 exploitation film about a spoiled, neglected teenage daughter who forms an all-girl gang that robs, steals, and sexually assaults young men. But the real treat from this episode is the short Young Man’s Fancy, about a young man who is more interested in household electronic gadgets than the advances of a young woman. If the short looks familiar, it was used quite extensively in Steven Soderbergh’s concert film Yes 9012-Live. The riffing in the short is more spot on, while Mike and the ‘Bots seem to be enjoying the feature a bit too much. The highlight of the host segments is when Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank perform the song Living In Deep 13, trying to soften their image.
Finally, Disc Four brings us the mediocre Experiment #702, The Brute Man, about a disfigured man (Rondo Hatton) who takes revenge on his friends who he believes caused his condition. This is a very dark film, and at times the riffing feels out of place or just plain uncomfortable. Thankfully, the episode begins with one of MST3K’s best shorts, The Chicken of Tomorrow, a film on chicken farming, that includes callbacks to such classic episodes as #303, Pod People.
Video: 3 out of 5
As I’ve stated in my previous reviews of these sets, judging the video quality of an episode of MST3K is difficult. The movies are usually in fairly bad shape, with sub-par transfers that the series’ producers had to contend with.
The only fair thing to do is to judge the host segments, and the quality improves as you get later into the series. Disc one has an overall softness to it, but colors are consistent. Disc two fairs much better, with greater detail and color fidelity. Discs Three and Four are excellent, with increased detail and well-defined colors.
Audio: 3 out of 5
As with the video, the audio quality is best judged by the host segments and the actual riffing during the movie. All four discs include a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, encoded at 192 kbps. Dialogue is intelligible and overall the tracks have good fidelity.
Special Features: 4 out of 5
As with Shout! Factory’s other MST3K boxed sets, the menu designs on each disc are themed with the episode, with decent CG animation, and are very funny. Also included in the set are a set of original comic book style mini-posters for each episode, identical to the DVD covers. All five discs come housed in THIN-Pak keepcases within a paperboard sleeve, encased in a special edition tin box.
Disc One (Time of the Apes):
Introduction by August Ragone (5:23): The author of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters discusses
how Time of the Apes came to be.
Mystery Science Theater Hour Wraps (5:12): Mystery Science Theater Hour was a short-lived hour-long version of the series for syndication (splitting each original episode in half), with Mike Nelson, in his Jack Perkins character, bracketing each episode.
Disc Two (Mighty Jack):
Introduction by August Ragone (7:05): The author of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters discusses
how Mighty Jack came to be, and suggests that if Sandy Frank had made a movie out of Season Two instead, it would have been really wacky.
The DVD Menus of MST3K (6:57): Robert Guillory discusses the evolution of the DVD menus on the Rhino and early Shout! Factory releases, while Dave Long discusses the more intricate animated menus he created for the more recent Shout! Factory releases.
Disc Three (The Violent Years):
Interview With Delores Fuller (24:04): Ted Newsom interviews the actress and one-time live-in girlfriend of Ed Wood in this archived video.
Interview With Kathy Wood (18:16): Ed Wood’s widow, Kathy Wood, is interviewed in 1994 by Ted Newsom. She discusses how she met Ed and her life with the director.
Disc Four (The Brute Man):
Introduction by Mary Jo Pehl (4:22): Pehl discusses the episode, why she thinks it’s not one of their better episodes (because of its dark content, but also due to the fact that the episode was written almost entirely by herself and Paul Chaplin), and the oedipal overtones between Pearl and Clayton Forrester in the skits.
Trail of the Creeper: Making The Brute Man (30:01): Another fascinating featurette produced by Ballyhoo Pictures on the legend behind Rondo Hatton, the making of The Brute Man, and the tribute to Rondo Hatton in the film The Rocketeer by make-up artist Rick Baker.
The Making of MST3K (1997) (22:41): Produced for the Sci-Fi Channel, this featurette takes a behind the scenes look at this “popular cult series.” While this is a fun special, why it was included on a Comedy Central-era episode seems a bit odd.
Overall: 4 out of 5
Shout! Factory continues to put a lot of much-appreciated effort into their MST3K sets, and the show’s fanbase will again likely not be disappointed with this release, especially since this set contains two episodes that fans thought they would never see released, and can now dispose of their worn-out VHS recordings. The special features are also a lot of fun, making this a must-have for fans of the series.
Interview With Delores Fuller (24:04): Ted Newsom interviews the actress and one-time live-in girlfriend of Ed Wood in this archived video.
Interview With Kathy Wood (18:16): Ed Wood’s widow, Kathy Wood, is interviewed in 1994 by Ted Newsom. She discusses how she met Ed and her life with the director.
Disc Four (The Brute Man):
Introduction by Mary Jo Pehl (4:22): Pehl discusses the episode, why she thinks it’s not one of their better episodes (because of its dark content, but also due to the fact that the episode was written almost entirely by herself and Paul Chaplin), and the oedipal overtones between Pearl and Clayton Forrester in the skits.
Trail of the Creeper: Making The Brute Man (30:01): Another fascinating featurette produced by Ballyhoo Pictures on the legend behind Rondo Hatton, the making of The Brute Man, and the tribute to Rondo Hatton in the film The Rocketeer by make-up artist Rick Baker.
The Making of MST3K (1997) (22:41): Produced for the Sci-Fi Channel, this featurette takes a behind the scenes look at this “popular cult series.” While this is a fun special, why it was included on a Comedy Central-era episode seems a bit odd.
Overall: 4 out of 5
Shout! Factory continues to put a lot of much-appreciated effort into their MST3K sets, and the show’s fanbase will again likely not be disappointed with this release, especially since this set contains two episodes that fans thought they would never see released, and can now dispose of their worn-out VHS recordings. The special features are also a lot of fun, making this a must-have for fans of the series.
