"MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 XV." (VARIOUS DATES. NOT RATED. SHOUT! FACTORY. $59.99. FOUR DISCS.)
There's so much to absorb from this wacky 6-1/2-hour set of shows from this long-running (11 seasons) TV series, in which a man and his robot pals, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, are forced to watch terrible, low-budget movies. They respond with sardonic wisecracks and glib asides.
It's tough to decide which is worse -- the schlock movies or the comedy-musical segments the characters throw in for added madness. In the end, it's the putdown commentary that makes these unwatchable movies watchable, and die-hard fans won't want to miss this 15th DVD combo.
"The Girl in Lovers Lane" (1959) features the show's creator, Joel Hodgson, and robots yukking it up as Jack Elam freaks out the folks in a small town and two drifters search for personal identity while a killer terrorizes women. Also made in 1959 is the Mexican fiasco "The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy" from the series' second season, considered vintage for the flippancy of the cutting remarks. In "Racket Girls" (1951), a wrestler named Peaches Page slams not only her opponents but also the cheap hoods who exploit her, and the wisecrackers have as much fun slamming her and her non-supporting players.
And what are Adam (Batman) West and Tia Carrere doing in the voodoo-revenge 1986 TV movie "Zombie Nightmare"? At least Carrere can ask forgiveness because it was her first film.
Bonuses include interviews with "Zombie" co-stars Frank Dietz, John Fasano and Jon-Mikl Thor; "Behind the Scenes: MST3K Scrapbook Scraps I and II"; "four mind-numbing color mini-posters" and a sneak peak at something called "Hamlet A.D.D."
-- John Stanley
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit the San Francisco ChronicleVideo Patrol
Post new comment