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Raise your hand if you´ve ever watched a bad movie with friends and spent the entire time making smart-aleck comments about the film. Whether it is the notorious "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "DC Cab" or "Pearl Harbor," there is no better way to enjoy a pathetic attempt at entertainment than to sit down with a few friends, pop open a couple beers and inject your own brand of humor. It is a lot of fun and we have all done it on more than one occasion. Creator Jeff Hodgson took this bad-movie watching pastime and created the cult television show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and struck a funny bone in all of those who find "USA Up All Night" and other cable outlets for bad cinema quality Saturday night entertainment. The long running television show´s creator handed over the reins to the show´s head writer Michael J. Nelson in 1993 and in 1996 the show jumped to the big screen.
The general premise of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (MST3K) is that the evil and mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) has created a vicious set of experiments to push humanity to its limits. By subjecting Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson) to the absolute worst films every created, Dr. Forrester hopes to break Mike´s spirit and those of his robotic friends Crow T. Robot (Beaulieu), Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Gypsy (Jim Mallon). Mike and his crew inhabit the orbital space ship "Satellite of Love" and are held captive and must view each of these horrendous films under the command of Dr. Forrester. However, instead of breaking Mike and his friends down, they simply sit in the front row and make caddy comments about the film and inject their own dialogue into the difficult to watch films.
The cinematic version of "MST3K" keeps the general plot of the television series intact, but slightly changes the formula and the film-within-a-film that is mocked in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" is shortened and the theatrical release of "MST3K" is actually shorter in length than the episodes of the television series. The film begins with Mike running on a human sized hamster wheel and drinking out of a familiar looking beverage canister. His run is stopped short when Tom Servo asks Mike if he has noticed a loud rhythmic pounding inside of the ship. When they investigate the noise, Mike and Servo find Crow singing and trying to reach freedom by digging through the ships hall. This results in a comical exchange and Crow realizing he has done something bad. Their time is cut short when Dr. Forrester sends them into the screening room to watch "This Island Earth."
I won´t get into the plot or story of the film-within-a-film. This is of unimportance in the grand scheme of things and what is important is the levity and humor brought to the screen by Michael J. Nelson and his costars as they make light of the poorly written story, cheesy special effects and other inherent flaws in "This Island Earth." The writers and actors are at the top of their game and while the film often feels like an abbreviated version of the television show, their mockery and impromptu feeling dialogue is absolutely hilarious. The included scenes that help flesh out the relationship between Crow, Servo, Mike and Dr. Forrester are a little heavier in the film than they are in the television show and the film does try and make the characters more than just silhouetted figures in the lower right corner.
The additional focus on the characters and the Satellite of Love and the shortened length (most episodes ran 90 minutes) are not the only differences between the small screen and the large screen incarnations of MST3K. One of the great attractions of the television show was the obscure pop culture references and more ´intelligent´ bantering between the three shadowy figures watching the film. The producers of the major motion picture made the command decision to water down the humor and make "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" to be a little more accessible to the average theater-goer and reduced the ´nerd factor´ significantly. Even with this change of direction, "MST3K: The Movie" is one of the more intelligent comedies to hit the big screen during the Nineties.
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[release]23756[/release]