MST3K

[matthewscott8]

So I was going to look into MST3K, I saw a couple of episodes on SyFy when I was a stripling lad, and they were fun.

My questions are:
(1) Which are the best episdoes?
(2) Are there any films they parodied that are actually good and worth seeking out without the shadowrama and chat overlay?

Wiki for anyone who has not heard of Mystery Theatre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_S ... eater_3000

[Armoreska]

So I was going to look into MST3K, I saw a couple of episodes on SyFy when I was a stripling lad, and they were fun.

My questions are:
(1) Which are the best episdoes?
(2) Are there any films they parodied that are actually good and worth seeking out without the shadowrama and chat overlay?

Wiki for anyone who has not heard of Mystery Theatre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_S ... eater_3000

Here's one of the older threads by the way: viewtopic.php?t=486&1/ (not saying you should revive it or anything)

1. See IMDb ranking? I'll take a look at my findings.
2. Yes, some russian movies without the dubbed US cut, Phase IV, This Island Earth, then there's another space movie with the Oscar nomination (Marooned), Diabolik

[albajos]

2. Would never watch a riff track without watching the real version first. It changes the tone, and sometimes it's edited down.
If you have seen the movie there is probably some jokes that makes more sense within context.

[jeroeno]

Space Mutiny

[Armoreska]

Manos and Space Mutiny are my 2 fav episodes

[OldAle1]

So I was going to look into MST3K, I saw a couple of episodes on SyFy when I was a stripling lad, and they were fun.

My questions are:
(1) Which are the best episdoes?
(2) Are there any films they parodied that are actually good and worth seeking out without the shadowrama and chat overlay?

Wiki for anyone who has not heard of Mystery Theatre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_S ... eater_3000

Do you remember some of the discussions on FG about it? I was always in the "it sucks, it isn't funny, and I hate how they edit the films" camp - and it was a camp of one, generally. I got bashed more than once for daring to piss on the show - I guess for most the idea that these films were cut up wasn't a big deal, and they only found bad films watchable with a riff track. I'm just the opposite, can't stand the concept really though I do love bad movies, I would just rather laugh at them all by my lonesome, or with friends if I still had any. And even terrible films I'd rather watch complete - it's not as if most of these are long films to begin with, they're usually taking a 75-90 minute film and cutting 10-15 minutes out.

At any rate the film they skewer in the MST3K movie, This Island Earth, is actually pretty good, certainly an above-average 50s SF film and notable for some really amazing production design in the last act. Jonathan Rosenbaum's review of this is well worth reading:

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2017/05/no-joke/

[Perception de Ambiguity]

Maybe I should preface this by saying that by now I've fallen out of love with MST3k and find that the work of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett on RiffTrax consistently is WAY better than anything they have done on MST3k, they have refined the shit out of their craft. And the early seasons with Joel I actually find terrible now, but Joel or not, I think the crew in general kept getting better over the years, so my general tip would be that if unless you just want to skip right ahead to RiffTrax that you concentrate on the later seasons for a good start, you can't really go too wrong with those. That's my opinion anyway, I'm not sure that most people agree with it.


1) My personal favorites, and most of them are also fan favorites from what I've read:

The Projected Man (Perhaps my favorite. The crew doing British accents I find hilarious without fail, and this episode is full of it. As a Brit you might feel differently.)
High School Big Shot
The Final Sacrifice
Racket Girls
The Day the Earth Froze
The Thing That Couldn't Die
Pod People
Invasion of the Neptune Men (When they do dubbed Japanese movies it tends to be good, partly because the bad dubs themselves already are a source of comedy.)
Prince of Space
The Amazing Transparent Man
The Space Children
Hobgoblins
Devil Doll
The Starfighters
The Brute Man
San Francisco International
The Deadly Mantis
Samson vs. the Vampire Women
Squirm
The Phantom Planet
Night of the Blood Beast
The Skydivers
Diabolik
The Giant Spider Invasion
Santa Claus
Danger!! Death Ray


2) As for genuinely good MST3k films, obviously 'Phase IV' had no business being on there, but that was season "0", it barely even counts. It depends if you want to know about films that just are a lot of fun to watch on their own or if you want to know about real quality cinema. For the latter there probably only is the aforementioned film although many people would also mention 'Diabolik'. 'This Island Earth' (the one used for the MST3k movie) isn't amazing but as far as American 50's sci-fi movies go it's actually an upper-tier one.

When it comes to the former it's a tough question because most of them I have only seen as part of MST3k (same as with the RiffTrax movies) and sometimes they seem genuinely entertaining in their own right, but it's difficult to say if maybe they aren't actually full of dull patches if seen without the riffing that can seamlessly bridge those.

Top rated features:

Phase IV - 8
This Island Earth - 7
Marooned - 7 (I probably was in a very generous mood with this one.)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - 6
The Thing That Couldn't Die - 6
Der schweigende Stern - 6
The Mole People - 6
Village of the Giants - 6
Gamera vs. Guiron - 6 (in large part due to the hilarious American dub)
The Day the Earth Froze AKA Sampo - ? (it seemed like it might be a decent one, but in between the English dub, the fullscreen and the riffing I found it especially impossible to tell with this one)

I also find that when it comes to the short films they selected that there are also a few that are so weird and quirky that they are actually good in their creative insanity, as far as I'm concerned. The 70's were especially rich with those (I wrote a bit about it here: viewtopic.php?t=2974& ).
RiffTrax have currently done about 300 shorts and there really are a lot of interesting ones among those, but sticking just to the ones on MST3k:

A Case of Spring Fever (1940) (The most legendary of all the MST3k shorts, which has more to do with the film than with the riffing.)
Century 21 Calling... (1962)
Mr. B Natural (1957)
Design for Dreaming (1956)
Out of This World (1954)
Robot Rumpus (1957)

[mightysparks]

THE FINAL SACRIFICE

That is my desert island film. With the riffing of course.

[outdoorcats]

All out funniest episodes that I've seen:

A Touch of Satan (legendary)
Pod People
The Final Sacrifice
Werewolf
The Creeping Terror
Warrior of the Lost World
Future War

[Armoreska]

this movie scene sure is something