In High School, nearly every Saturday at Sion‘s house meant three things for me: GURPS, Swiss Cake Rolls, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. We were big fans of the show, and kicked off many a game session with a bad movie. Of course, when the show went off the air (with an excellent finale) we were all upset that there would be no more MSTing.
Now, it seems the guys behind it cannot stay away from mocking bad movies. First they reunited for RiffTrax, which were audio tracks you downloaded and played at the same time while playing popular movies in a regular DVD player on mute, allowing them to make mock popular movies that they would never have been allowed to use on MST3K.
But if you want the full MST3K experience, their new project is the closet you can get: The Film Crew. While I haven’t tried RiffTrax yet (due to it costing money), I fired up the old Netflix to check out The Film Crew as they make fun of Killers from Space. Here’s how it compares to MST3K.
If you can believe it, this is MST3K on an even smaller budget. The setup, as far as I could glean from the one I watched, is that Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy are members of “The Film Crew” who are ordered by boss Bob Honcho to add commentary tracks to old films. They are dressed up as mechanic-like workmen in a factory setting. I’m not sure if one of the other Film Crew releases has a pilot that explains the setup, but it’s a fairly minor detail anyway: you come into it knowing that they’re going to make fun of a movie, and for many people, that’s enough.
Then when the movie starts, it’s like classic MST3K. The three (who played Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo) make fun of the movie. In fact, because it’s the same actors, it sounds nearly identical to MST3K. Their personalities and the style of their humor is the same. The only big difference you’ll notice is no shadows over the screen for the three characters- which wouldn’t be as interesting anyway without the puppets. The good news is, the humor is entirely intact. If you enjoyed MST3K, especially the later seasons, then you’ll like this. Since it was made more recently, there’s some gags from more current references. And just like MST3K, the kind of language used is only what you’d find on basic cable. They opted not to include profanity (which you can do on a DVD-only release), which leaves it open to a wider audience.
There was one break in the movie, which was the “Lunch Break.” There was the kind of gag you’d have expected, well, during one of the breaks on MST3K. There was also a short introduction piece and a short ending piece.
The movie itself is Killers from Space, but as they point out, there is no killing, and very little in space. It stars Peter Graves, who, well, doesn’t put in his best work in this movie. References to Graves make up a lot of the jokes: there’s a really amusing string of Mission: Impossible jokes, for one. Graves is a test pilot who discovers that he was abducted by aliens, who are distinguished because of their large, bugged-out eyes. No one believes Graves, and he must stop the aliens. As always, the plot of the movie being mocked isn’t important.
So what’s the final verdict? Die-hard MSTies will love that there’s more out there, but might be a bit disappointed that the old Satellite of Love story isn’t continued, and there aren’t as many movie breaks that were the icing of the old series. New viewers will like it if they like the concept, but are probably better served watching the classic MST3K DVDs first, and then watching RiffTrax. I hope the new series does well, and I’m glad to see they haven’t lost their comedic edge.
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