That’s the one. Ehhhh no it’s pretty bad.
— Alan
Watched this last night because it is the first episode in the Netflix “season”. It’s been a long time and I had blocked out how spectacularly awful this movie is. Manos is to Mst3k what Rico Suave is to Weird Al. Sometimes the source material is so weak that even he can’t make it funny. I honestly think that when Frank and Forrester apologize to Joel, they are apologizing to the audience for how awful it is. If you watch this episode and find yourself remarking how terrible the Chevrolet training ad at the beginning is, be aware that’s the highlight.
This may be an insane claim, but I actually think that one of the reasons MANOS is so popular is that it is both really, really bad and kind of evocative and genuinely creepy at the same time. For all the crappy acting, editing, and writing, the movie has an atmosphere that a lot of MST movies don’t achieve–like a trailer park sliminess.
I think that the episode is a really good one. Fans have voted that in as top a few times, when the episode has a lot of problems. Like you said, but the movie is just so bad and slow, it is hard for them to come up with things when Torgo is not on screen. I think it is definitely a “must watch” just for the infamy of the movie, but it isn’t one of those quotable episodes like many of the others.
Have there been any leaks/announcements about what movies the reboot will be covering? I’m praying for Fateful Findings, personally, but I’m wondering if there’s a no-Flop House movies policy.
They theoretically screened an ep or two to backers at theaters with an NDA, but I’m sure you could search around to find out what was shown for that, at least.
They literally yell “Do something!” at one point. You’d be hard-pressed to find a movie with less movement on screen. A lot of lines also get repeated, as if they are trying to get another actor to respond and all the scenes were shot in one take.
Not to mention that 10 minute driving sequence.
Or 20 minute fight scene? If one can even call it that…
But that was the whole reason the movie was made!
I think you know that episode a little too well…just sayin.
Only because I just watched it a few nights ago.
FOR THE TENTH TIME. (Roughly.)
“It’s a Frank Frazetta of Frank Zappa!”
I watched Future War over the weekend as I go through all the Netflix episodes I haven’t seen before. I’m really struggling to understand what the intended audience for this is. It feels like it should be a student movie, but apparently not or how did MST3K get hold of it? Who would finance something like this, let alone air it? It’s not even something like Manos/The Room/Fateful Findings where it’s apparently driven by a deeply misguided auteur. It just seems to be a shitty script, filmed crappily with no care for how bad it looks. Why are they barricading a door with obviously empty cardboard boxes? Who cares! The dinosaur doesn’t look remotely scary. Who cares!
Woohoo, just purchased tix for the 10/12 show in DC!
Looks like Joel is just about to kick off another Kickstarter for a new season. No idea about the details, just got an email about it, it links to their original (I think??) Kickstarter site if you want to sign up for notifications -
Really hope Elliott Kalan is still on board. Don’t think he’s mentioned anything yet.
OK, so - now we can see the plan. They’re asking for $2 million to make their own ‘virtual theater’ called The Gizmoplex (plus 3 new episodes) so that they no longer need another platform to show new episodes. They’re hoping to create an app for accessing The Gizmoplex across iOS, Android, etc. Membership to The Gizmoplex would allow access to new stuff they make as well as existing episodes of MST3K. Sounds ambitious, but I’m interested.
edit: wow, the reward tiers go up to $25,000 which gets you an Executive Producer credit!
By sustainable business model for the Gizmoplex I assume they mean they’ll have advertising or some kind of monthly fee maybe?
If so, I hope they don’t have advertising. Nowadays I watch some episodes from the 24/7 MST3K channel on PlutoTV, but if they ever go to commercials I stop watching.