Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XIV
Starring: Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Trace BeaulieuDirector: kevin murphy
Studio: Shout Factory
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Running Time: 360 minutes
DVD Release: February 3rd 2009
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DVD Review
From 1988 to 1999, the crew of The Satellite of Love skewered bad movies and in the process made them masterworks of comedy. Now comes their awe-inspiring 14th collection of the most hilarious episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Join Joel, Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot as they supply their own playful brand of commentaries on some of the most misunderstood masterpieces of cinema : Mad Monster, Manhunt in Space, Soultaker, and Final Justice.
Bonus Features:
* Brand new interview with Soultaker star and mst3k favorite Joe Estevez
* Brand new interiew with Final Justice star Greydon Clark
* Mike, Tom and Crow on the espn show Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker
* Original Mad Monster trailer
* 4 limited-edition mini-posters
User Reviews
Yet another reason for "Misties" to Rejoice - Rating: 4/5
Our family first caught the Mystery Science Theater 3000 bug on the SciFi Channel shortly before the show was discontinued. Since then we've fed our MST3000 habit with the periodic releases of their compilations. I confess that we prefer the episodes that feature Mike and bots over those hosted by the show's founder Joel. Volume XIV includes two episodes hosted by each. Regardless of who hosts the episode you can count on funny skits, ironic commentary on the absurdly bad films, and often trenchant observations on social trends that were current when the episode aired. Even our least favorite MST3K episodes are better than most live TV these days.
Oh the humor! - Rating: 5/5
I am really happy I got this volume because, frankly, I missed many of these shows when they first were run. So for me it was like discovering MST3K all over again!
Mad Monster, Show 103, is the third MST3K played on the Comedy Channel, before it was renamed Comedy Central, and also has a episode of Commando Cody And The Radar Men From The Moon. It is one of those I missed. MST3K was brand new and it took a few weeks before people started to turn on the TV every week to watch. Like most of the first films, Mad Monster is in Black and White, a bad sci-fi film about a scientist who finds out how to turn men into monsters. Well, in this case a werewolf. But funny enough that wolf looks more like a coyote. But why nitpick on the small stuff?
Manhunt In Space, Show 413, was also one of the shows I, somehow, missed. It comes with a General Hospital episode. Both the movie and the short are in Black and White. The movie is in fact a television series in which some of the episodes were spliced together to make a full movie. There are everything from Space Ghost references to one reference to Daleks! They also talk about Cold Light, which I thought came from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and I learned to never open the hatch without peeking out a window first.
Soultaker, Show 1001, is a very famous episode within the cult that is MST3K. Not only does it have Joe Estevez, who also starred in Werewolf, and Robert Z'Dar, who was in Future War, in the film, but TV's Frank and Joel both come back to make a appearance on the show. Such love and warmth. Too bad the film is so bad. But that's good! Because bad films are Mike and the Bots' bread and butter.
They have a interview with Joe Estevez on the DVD.
The last episode in the set is Final Justice, Show 1008, starring Joe Don Baker. Mike and the Bots have a ton of fun with this film. "Hey, you going to finish that?" The movie is full of lovely ladies, gun fights, a chase with Joe Don Baker going after a Maltese mob member dressed up as a Monk. Or is it a member of the Italian Mafia? Lots of food jokes. In fact tons of jokes all about either Joe Don Baker or Maltese men. The writer, producer and director is Greydon Clark. They even have a interview with him on the DVD!
The set came with cool mini-posters - I got an extra Soultaker poster by accident! A must for any library of MST3K or any collection of bad movies.
Another Good MST3K set. - Rating: 5/5
Other reviewers have done a better job than I could ever do, but I want to add my voice to the others so this great show will keep getting released. This is another good set of MST3K episodes (Soultaker is one of my favorite episodes) and should be purchased by any fan of the series. As I've said before, if you are a fan you would have this already, if not, I can't convince you to buy it.
If you want more from the boys of MST3K, check out www.rifftrax.com. They are still at it and are better than ever, riffing on new movies and old shorts.
My 2¢
So Bad It's Great! - Rating: 5/5
I never tire of MST3K. And there are still a lot of good movies to issue! Bring 'em on!
"Don't compare yourself, Mike. It ain't healthy..." - Rating: 4/5
Introduction
Shout! Factory moved quickly after acquiring the DVD rights for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not only did they roll out a DVD box set celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the show's debut, but they swiftly produced a follow-up, the 14th box set, retaining the numbering system started by Rhino Records. Ironically, at least one of the episodes from this box set probably would have been more appropriate in a celebratory anniversary set. However, this is not a time to quibble about box set labeling. The important question is: how are these episodes?
MAD MONSTER (1942)
(with short: an episode of the serial, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON)
This is your typical WWII-werewolf movie where a mad scientist turns his faithful but slow-witted gardener into a wolfman in order to demonstrate how to create an army that would beat the Nazis. As an added bonus the mere existence of this new species of half-man, half-wolf proves that his ex-colleagues were pathetically wrong about his mental balance while simultaneously increasing the schadenfreuden by having them brutally killed.
This is the third episode from the first national season of the show and is currently the earliest episode of the show to be released on DVD. We're early enough that Best Brains were still experimenting with how best to display the black theater seat silhouettes onto a black and white film. At many points watching the brightness and contrast shift on Joel and the bots is more interesting that what's going on in the creaky and slow-moving film.
MAD MONSTER is a tough episode to get through. I find often that in the first season the jokes aren't quite as sharp or (more importantly) as rapid-fire as we became used to in later seasons. So a dull movie like this really takes a toll on the audience.
(As an aside, this episode is so early that an apparent mistake left in the show has Joel accidentally mixing up the names of Tom and Crow in the theater.)
MANHUNT IN SPACE (1956)
(with short: an episode of "General Hospital")
This film is actually an edited-together collection of a few related episodes of "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" and is very much a product of its era. For example, the cast features a precocious and annoying kid. The bad guys are inconceivably dumb. The good girl wears a mini-skirt and the bad girl wears a slinky evening gown. Astronauts don't need to wear spacesuits, just ill-fitting helmets over a t-shirts and slacks.
The plot meanders around quite a bit, which isn't surprising given its episodic nature. The story opens with space pirates attacking helpless ships and closes with an unresolved storyline involving the invention of a Romulan-type cloaking device. Fortunately, there are many good riffs from Joel and the bots to keep the action going. Also, the short film featured at the front of the episode was an excerpt from "General Hospital". MST3k did a few episodes of this, and this take was the first one I've seen. I'm glad they put this on here, and it bodes well for future releases of episodes with "General Hospital" shorts.
SOUL TAKER (1990)
Four teenagers are involved in a fatal car accident and attempt to cheat death by having their souls leave their bodies and run very quickly away from Joe "Brother of Martin Sheen" Estevez and Robert Z'Dar who are the odd couple Angels of Death. As Death slowly catches up with them, their souls are captured in little black rings and then taken to the attic of the city hospital which apparently doubles as either purgatory or the pearly gates; the exact theology is a little unclear. Also confusing is the exact nature of the Soul Takers: are they just collecting souls who have naturally reached the end of their natural life or are they hunting down people and collecting souls for their own purposes?
This is not the worst movie that MST3k ever tackled (indeed, there's aspects of the film that I quite like), but its occasional silliness and lack of coherence make it ideal for the riff treatment. This is one of the stronger episodes from the Sci-Fi Channel era, although it's more notable among many MST3k fans for the host segments featuring the cameo return appearances by Joel Hodgson and Frank Coniff than it is for the movie-riffing.
FINAL JUSTICE (1984)
MST3k didn't only make fun of sci-fi/fantasy films and it's nice to have a non-genre offering from an era that had only a few such examples; this is less of a Spaghetti Western and more of a Spaghetti Standard-Joe-Don-Baker film. Here, Baker stars as the improbably named Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III who loses track of an international criminal while transferring him to the European authorities and must chase the crook all over the island of Malta.
FINAL JUSTICE is certainly dull in places, but is not an overwhelmingly bad film. The last Joe Don Baker movie riffed by the crew was MITCHELL, during Joel Hodgson's final episode, and they pick up right where they left off with laughs galore coming mostly at the expensive of the Baker's previous Mitchell character. This is another funny episode and I liked the gag of Mike thinking it was his time to depart the Satellite of Love since Joel's escape has coincided with his viewing of a bad Joe Don Baker movie.
Extras
This box set includes two interview subjects: Greydon Clark (writer/director/producer of FINAL JUSTICE) and Joe Estevez (star of SOUL TAKER). Both men have been associated with other MST3k-ed episodes, but they're only apparently asked about the episodes in this release. There's not a lot of insight to be had, although the pair independently come across as grateful for the extra exposure and good sports about the MST3k process (although it might be fun to see them on polygraph machines for that).
The other extra of note is a cameo appearance of the silhouettes of Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo in a 2005 episode of EPSN's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker". While it's nice to have these things out on DVD, my reaction to watching this again is about the same as it was four years ago: my mileage varied. Now, if the powers that be would release the episodes of "Talk Soup" featuring these guys, then I'd be very happy.
Stinger
This isn't the strongest MST3k box set that we've seen, but even average MST3k is worthy. Overall, I'm happy with this set and can't wait to see what Shout! Factory will put out next.
