The Magic Voyage Of Sinbad / The Day The Earth Froze (1962) Review

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(More customer reviews)A little necessary background:
SADKO is a Russian fable about a harpist living in Novgorod who charms the Sea King and winds up rich. He also winds up sailing overseas to sell wares and, during a storm, is forced overboard where he once again charms the Sea King with his harp and is compelled to chose a wife from among the King's maidens before finding his way home to happily-everlasting-ness. (This has been turned into a famous opera by Rimsky-Korsakov called SAKDO.)
KALEVALA (pronounced: kah-lay-vah'-lah) is a Finnish epic poem compiled by Finnish poet Elias Lönnrot. It is at the heart of the Finnish culture and very familiar and dear to them. A few characters crop up thru out the poem. As does the magical Sampo which would spare the owners the rigor of work.
Which brings me to the movies:
THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD was a Soviet Union's filming of SADKO dubbed by American Capitalist running dog Roger Corman into a Sinbad story. So now Sinbad is a tall, stocky blonde with heavy fur clothes to keep out the heat. The city of Novgorod substitutes for an Arabic city. But, even more ludicrious is the effort by the Soviet filmmakers, halfway thru the country's failed experiment in Socialism, to turn Sadko into a self-sacrificing proletariat (christians and liberals will be turned on by the message, too).
I can still recommend this film because the cinematography perfectly evokes a fairy tale, and the story can be enjoyable if you manage to put away your sophistication and see it thru a youngster's eyes. I saw it as a young teenager, and the scene with the Bird of Happiness with Rimsky-Korsakov's SONG OF INDIA filling my ears is one I recalled for all these years and caused me to search for the film until I finally found it again.
While the Finnish poem, KALEVALA, has very little plot spread diffusely thruout the enormous length, THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE pulls the threads together. There's something uneven about the plot. It is slow in spots, then engrossing in other spots. It is however, like the movie above, a visual delight, despite the (very obvious) skimpy production values.
I saw part of this film mocked by the Mystery Science Theater folk, but I kept thinking how I'd like to see the film without the intrusive teasing. I was very happy to find it on DVD and see it in its pristine form.
However, the cast credits are a hoot. They actors listed in the movie must be the voice dubbing actors (or they're entirely made up). Curiously, Amazon lists a different and more authentic-sounding cast (altho, they say the story is based on "Norse/Scandanavian mythology" -- which would be a surprise to the non-Scandanavian Finns).

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Alien From L.A. (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)I remembered seeing this on Mystery Science Theater 3000 a long time ago, so I thought it might be interesting to get the original movie and see how it stands up.
It doesn't.
We start with Kathy hanging out on Malibu Beach (wearing a big oversized T-shirt), getting dumped by her boyfriend. Then she gets a letter informing her that her father (who she hasn't seen in 10 years) has been killed. He was an archaeologist working in Africa. He had a theory that Atlantis was a giant spaceship that sunk to the center of the Earth after a volcanic eruption. So, Kathy goes to Africa and ends up falling down the same bottomless pit her father fell into. (It's about 30 feet deep, all the way to the center of the Earth!). Anyhow, she finds Atlantis and the government puts a price on her head - they don't like "aliens" from the surface. So various people chase her around while a couple of guys she meets defend her.
Overall, this movie is just silly and boring. Imagine "Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone", except instead of being done for a teen audience it's done for an audience of nine year old kids. You can't take any of the action the least bit seriously because it's all done in such a silly way. Really, this would make a great double-bill with "The Goonies". What the heck is the point in hiring a supermodel to star in a film for little kids?
Overall, very disappointing. If you wanna see Kathy, but one of her exercise videos instead. They're much sexier than this silly thing.

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Eegah Review

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(More customer reviews)Everything you would expect from a 60's b-movie, except no nudity. There's some swimsuit and bra shots, but thats it.

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Danger: Diabolik (1968) Review

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(More customer reviews)Once upon a time films were made with low budgets and heaps of imagination, and this is one of them. Though given a whopping $3M by the ego-maniac Dino de Laurentis (King Kong the atrocious remake) the genius Mario Bava brought this 60s beauty in at $400K. Even converted into today's hard currency it would be hard to conceive of a modern day director either struggling out of bed for such a miniscule sum, or ever bringing a film in under budget. Instead Bava treats the eye and the mind to a dazzling psychedelic modernist fantasy.
There seems to be a common notion that many directors of the past were somehow more stupid than the giant intellects of the cinema of today and that they had no comprehension of what they were doing. Bava knew exactly what he was making with this movie version of a popular European comic and that was to make a film that was fun.
Pitted against a world of old stilted politics, bumbling police and chalk-stripe-suited Mafia villains Diabolik, a cool ultra-thief with an underground lair to be envied by Dr No and every other evil genius, outwits his pursuers time and time again with a manic laugh, a delicious girl-friend and his 'n' hers Jaguar E-Types.
This film is a two-hour trip; the score is superb and the images have a vivid organic feel unachievable with today's over-processed CGI FX. If you love the visuals of Barbarella you'll love this. Bava, though, has a more cynical view of the world and in one scene presents us with a nightclub where villains ply the "innocent" hippies with drugs making them dance in hysterically funny ways that is just as an incisive critique of that era as it would be of some rave scenes today. Some things just don't change.
Sure if you want to adopt the brave stance of the post-modernist and assume the sophisticated position of The One Who Laughs At Bad Old Films then you'll get some kind of kick out of this. But you won't get anything like the kick you will by just relaxing into the brilliantly-lit mad world of Mario Bava where nothing is quite what it appears and baddies win - almost.

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The suave, psychedelic-era thief called Diabolik (Law) can't get enough of life's good - or glittery - things. Not when there are currency shipments to steal from under the noses of snooty government officials and priceless jewels to lift from the boudoirs of the superrich. The elusive scoundrel finds plenty of ways to live up to his name in this tongue-in-cheek, live-action caper inspired by Europe's popular Diabolic comics. He clambers up walls, zaps a press conference with Exhilaration Gas, smacks a confession out of a crime lord while freefalling with him from an airplane, and pulls off the heist of a twenty-ton gold ingot.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Box Set) Poopie, Manos: Hands of Fate, The Gunslinger (1957) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great movie pack, I'd highly recommend for anyone. The Crawling Hand threw me a little, because it was such an early episode. Tom Servo's voice was different (different actor), there was no TV's Frank, but the humor was still the same ("No zombies. No zombies allowed.") Meanwhile, the Wild Wild World Of Batwoman had no point and went nowhere fast. Towards the end, Servo finally yells out, "END!!! END!!!" Also has great lines like, "That's 40 pounds of butt in 30 pound butt-capacity pants." And The Beginning of the End has all sorts of great references and lines, "HEY FRAAANK!" Definitely a worthwhile buy.

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RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you really miss the songs from the MST3K crew, then there's good news!! Kevin Murphy does the title song before the movie and it's Hilarious!! Then there's the movie, a typical outerspace tidbit from the 50's. The silly plot is about two hoods who get rocketed to the moon along with scientists (the lone female on the spaceship wears Pearls and earrings with her outerspace jumpsuit!). They land on a planet with female-only aliens who just happen to be pretty women in skimpy outfits and high heels. The head honcho is called "The Lido," for some unknown reason and her crown looks more like a chandelier on her head. The best actors are the tacky giant puppet spider and rock creatures who move faster than the stupid humans who are trying to escape them. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett do a reasonably good job. The movie and commentary are tame so it's family-friendly.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Creeping Terror/Bloodlust/Sidehackers (Box Set) (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)Taken individually, these three MST3K episodes are quite good (I've reviewed each episode more thoroughly on each video's own page). If you want a volume discount on purchasing MST videos, this is the way to go.
I have to say that, were I putting together a 3-pack combo, I don't know that I would have chosen to put these particular ones together. 'Sidehackers' was the second show in Season Two -- early MST, in other words. 'Creeping Terror' and 'Bloodlust,' however, aired back-to-back in Season Six. I might have substituted a Season Four episode for one of those, or replaced 'Sidehackers' with another Season Six show to make the combo a tight focus on one season.
But nobody asked me.
Whatever the reasons these three were put together, you won't go wrong with any of these three episodes. While not the absolute best shows of any of their seasons, they are all above average. And given how tremendously good an 'average' MST episode was, 'above average' is definitely worth the price.

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Rifftrax: Planet of Dinosaurs - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Review

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(More customer reviews)How Mystery Science Theater 3000 missed skewering this movie is a mystery to me. The Rifftrax trio of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett do an outstanding job of tearing this movie apart, much the same way that the stop-motion dinosaurs tear their victims apart. One pointless shot of the sun in the sky elicited this memorable comment. "Hi. This is God. Watch me mess with these chuckleheads!" The only way anyone can sit through this movie of space shipwrecked survivors wandering around aimlessly, periodically stopping for rest periods, and occasionally getting killed, is by enjoying the riffs of the Rifftrax trio.

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RiffTrax Shorts Volume 2 - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Rifftrax is a spin-off or sequel to "Mystery Science Theater 3000" where three of the writers/performers from that show sell both mp3 files of movie mocking commentaries (which you sync up manually with the big studio's DVD release) and straight-to-DVD features where the commentary has already been synchronised up with a movie (usually a low-budget, public domain film) . I have found the feature length Rifftraxs to be hit-or-miss; some of them are great, but others leave me a little cold.
However, this is the second release they have made of commentaries over old industrial training shorts. These short films are a hold-over from the old MST3k days, and the shorts they tackled oftentimes resulted in producing some of their funniest material. Where would MST3k history be without Mr. B. Natural, Coily the Spring Sprite or a Date With Your Family?
And like Rifftrax's first volume of short films, the riffers do a great job of selecting nutty, bizarre material and interspersing quips, puns and observations into the already full sea of non sequiturs and nonsense.
Due to a variety of circumstances, I had actually previously viewed some of these short features in their original unmolested form before Rifftrax had added their commentary. So not only was I looking forward to watching their take on these, I also knew exactly how goofy, confusing and strange some of their starting material was.
This single DVD collection puts together nine short films which had previously been for sale via the Rifftrax website.
1) ONE GOT FAT. A bicycle safety film in which the protagonists are small children wearing disturbing, distorted ape masks. Charmingly, all but one of the kids are horribly killed or maimed by ignoring simple safety precautions while bicycling to a picnic. The precocious child then eats the lunches of his fallen peers in lieu of mourning.
2) LUNCHROOM MANNERS. School children watch a rude and clumsy puppet (Mr. Bungle). This short and lightweight demonstration causes all the children to radically alter their entire behavior for the rest of their lives.
3) EACH CHILD IS DIFFERENT. An instructional film intended for elementary school teachers. If not for the merciless mocking, this would be an incredibly depressing experience. Adults are taught that individual children may have horrifically dark, bleak and disturbing home lives.
4) WHY DOESN'T CATHY EAT BREAKFAST? A film which asks a question and then refuses to answer it. An absolutely pointless film as far as I could tell. This short is paired with PETALUMA CHICKEN which is equally confusing, featuring a chef attempting to make the world's largest omelette with help from an oversized spoon and women who do aerobics in a giant bowl. Two utterly incomprehensible movies.
5) ACT YOUR AGE. A high schooler caught defacing a desk decides to chart his way towards maturity with the help of statistics and focused polling of his family and peers.
6) HARM HIDES AT HOME. A normal suburban crossing guard is tracked by a U.F.O and given strange alien powers. She becomes Safety Woman, whose abilities are limited to providing her neighborhood children with lessons about fire safety coupled with instant teleportation. Given the description, you'd think the producers were trying to use humor to provide kids with a valuable lesson. But for some reason, the film takes its alien-enhanced heroine very seriously.
7) COFFEE HOUSE RENDEZVOUS. I'm not exactly clear on who this film is aimed at, but its message is that coffee houses of the '60s are a great place for young people to hang out. Features frequent close-ups of coffee and also a lot of sounds coming out of some kind of musical instruments.
8) ARE YOU POPULAR? I've watched this short two times now, and I still don't see how it answers the title question. Instead, it solemnly informs teenage boys that if they wish to date teenage girls, they must schedule their encounter some time before the evening in question. I wouldn't have thought it would take ten minutes to make that basic point.
9) GOOD HEALTH PRACTICES. The distillation of every food health film you've ever seen. Disturbingly, this must contain the most references to urination and defecation than any other film of its era.Usually, the more outrageous or ridiculous the short, the more fun was to be had from MST3k/Rifftrax. The films here are certainly absurd and Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett get in a lot of excellent jokes. They aren't merely rehashing the jokes from their MST3k days, but it certainly has a very familiar flavor.
(One thing to note is that unlike some of the other straight-to-DVD Rifftrax, here there is no option to view the material without the riffing commentary. Given that most of these films are available freely on-line that probably won't be a problem for anyone dying to hear every available line of dialog in its original unscathed condition.)

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RiffTrax: Swing Parade - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)did you ever want to get in the heads of the 3 stooges?
well, mike, bill and kevin try:
curly's a shaved ape, moe is dangerously bi-polar and larry is in the middle. but he's also fine.
plot alert: no one gets killed in this film, but i think a mule does go blind.
if you like great musicals with excellent choreography, than this is not your film.and if you want to see the 3 stooges at their best, again this is not your movie.
however, if you enjoyed 'mst3000'(imo, the best tv in the history of tv)
than give this, and all the rest of these rifftrax a look see.
hey, they're funnier than 99% of what's on the 'boob toob.'


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Mystery Science Theater 3000: Creeping Terror Review

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(More customer reviews)No movie comes close to being as bad as The Creeping Terror.
At many points, it seems as the director refused to shoot scenes more than once. There is a point in which a hair is stuck to the camera, several other major video problems, and several times when the actors fall for no apparant reason.
The whole plot of the movie is the monster going around eating people, most of whom are making out at the time. The monster creeps up to them extremely slowly, none of them attempt to run, and then either the people climb into the monster, or they instantly appear halfway inside of it.
There is basically no dialogue in the movie. Whenever people are talking, the narrator just explains what it is they're talking about.
Most of the scenes in the movie are completely pointless, and some are unrelated to the rest of the movie. While the monster is eating a group of people who are conveniently standing in a corner waiting to be eaten, it for some reason flashes several times to a scene of two men fighting. All of the other scenes are long and unnecessary, and involve people doing very little for several minutes, then getting eaten by the monster.
There are also some things that just don't make sense. At one part, a man suddenly explodes for no apparant reason, and it is not explained later in the movie.
I've seen a lot of MST3K episodes, but none of them come even close to being as funny as The Creeping Terror. Most MST3K movies are boring and have little plot, but this movie is actively horrible, as if the people making it were complete idiots, or just didn't care at all how it would turn out. Mike and the robots don't even have to make that many comments, because the movie is just so amazingly and obviously bad, although the skits are funny as well. I think everyone should see this movie.

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RiffTrax: Little Shop of Horrors - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)The old MST3K crew of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett take on one of Roger Corman's cheesiest movies (is that possible?), by riffing this one about a man-eating plant. Some of the guys' best comments are directed to the hapless store clerk, Seymour; Audrey the always-hungry plant; and a very young Jack Nicholson. Some riffs hit the mark but the guys miss a few choice moments, especially between Seymour and Audrey. This is the original black and white movie and NOT the musical, so be prepared for it to be really cheaply made. Also, you will never see the guys in any way. You will only hear the riffs while the movie runs.
For one of the best, check out Rifftrax, "House on Haunted Hill." RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000!

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The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 10 (Godzilla vs. Megalon / Swamp Diamonds / Teen-Age Strangler / The Giant Spider Invasion) (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)The latest MST3K 4-disc set contains a good variety of episodes from seasons 2, 5 and 8. Two episodes feature Joel Hodgson as host and two have Mike Nelson as host. Three episodes are from the Comedy Central years while one is from the first season on the Sci-Fi Channel. Here is a synopsis of each episode:
212- GODZILLA VS. MEGALON
This extremely silly Toho picture from 1973 is a blast whether you love or loathe Godzilla movies. Its original Japanese title is Gojira tai Megaro. It is simply goofy beyond belief! The people of Seatopia, who live under the ocean, decide that it's time they controlled the surface world as well, launching an all out assault on surface dwelling humans. Their main instrument of destruction is Megalon, a large monster with big spike-like arms and a star-shaped projection on his head. Godzilla comes to the rescue, assisted by a man-made robot named Jet Jaguar that can change its size to become gigantic. Together, Godzilla and Jet Jaguar teach Megalon and the Seatopians a lesson they'll not soon forget.
This is a GREAT episode and includes some of the BEST host segments ever, including the "Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy" sketch, the `Bots get new arms sketch, the `Bots argue over whose monster is the "coolest" sketch, and the HILARIOUS translation of the Jet Jaguar fight song during the final host segment. The scene of Godzilla dropkicking as if flying through the air during the opening titles in later seasons of the show comes from this episode. This is a must-see episode!
503- SWAMP DIAMONDS (plus short: WHAT TO DO ON A DATE)
This is a 1955 Roger Corman "classic" starring Beverly Garland and Mike "Touch" Connors before his fame with Mannix. Beverly Garland leads a gang of escaped female convicts to a cache of diamonds and they kidnap the innocent Mr. Connors and his girlfriend along the way. A policewoman goes undercover inside the gang hoping to recover the stolen diamonds. Beverly Garland turns in the usual good performance and looks great doing it in spite of the mediocre film quality.
Host segments in this episode focus on the dating short as Servo tries to get up the nerve to ask Gypsy for a date. There's also a hilarious bit based on the "This Side of Paradise" episode of the original Star Trek series.
514- TEEN-AGE STRANGLER (plus short: IS THIS LOVE?)
This is the second episode of MST3K to be hosted by Mike Nelson after the departure of show creator Joel Hodgson. The main feature is a small independent film made in 1968 West Virginia about a serial killer in a small town and it looks every bit the amateur film. Highlights in this episode include Mike Nelson transforming into Mikey from the movie and the hilarious "The Janitor Song." The short is also a winner with some of the oldest looking "young people" you're likely to see on film; this is really funny stuff!
810- THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION
This movie is a 1975 monster flick from Bill Rebane, the same man who brought you Monster A-Go Go! This film is ever so slightly more competently made than Monster A-Go Go and actually features a couple of well-known actors: Barbara Hale of Perry Mason fame and Alan Hale, Jr. who was The Skipper on Gilligan's Island and also the sheriff in the film The Crawling Hand which was featured in MST3K episode # 106. The movie is really goofy fun, with large spiders everywhere, sleazy and gross yokel-type characters less appealing than the spiders, and a small car dressed up as the biggest and cheesiest looking spider of them all. The scene where Barbara Hale's character does an odd tumble down a hill is worth seeing all by itself and there's plenty of other good material here as well for the MST3K writers. This is certainly one of the more fun episodes done after the show moved to the Sci-Fi Channel. The amusing host segments are based loosely on the classic SF film Invasion of the Body Snatchers rather than on the film featured in the episode.
This DVD set also contains the following extra features:
-MST3K Video Jukebox with 15 songs from the series
-Photo Gallery
-Outtakes consisting of about 15 minutes of the best moments from "Poopie 2"
This is a great set any MST3K fan, film buff or comedy aficionado would enjoy, with a wide variety of film genres and seasons of the show represented here. Join Us! Movie Sign!

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Rifftrax: Shorts-tacular Shorts-stravaganza - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Review

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(More customer reviews)What do you get when you combine 10 old shorts with wisecracks from MST3K vets Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy & Bill Corbett? Two Hours of sidesplitting entertainment, that's what. As with "Wide World of Shorts", Rifftrax has dropped the "Volume" theme of the first two DVD releases.
The shorts run the gamit from self image and cat habits to fears of swimming and middle-aged strippers. Highlights start with "If Mirrors Could Speak", where three kids wearing disturbing clown make-up discover that bad behavior, selfishness, and depression can be cured by looking into a mirror with a pompus attitude. Three other elementary school shorts, "Primary Safety in the School Building" promotes properly tied shoes and walking on the right side of the hallways can save lives, if not your dignity. "Playing Together" says proper play is good, improper is really bad and "Kitty Clean Up" where a young girl takes her pet cat to school and the cat somehow doesn't go nuts, a true miracle.
"How Much Affection" focuses on the concerns of middle-aged high school students and how far they are willing to go. And speaking of how far;

Two shorts deal with the joys of catching syphilis. "Damaged Goods" and "Know for Sure" which features a bad Italian stereotype and two well known actors, Tim Holt ("Magnificent Ambersons", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre") and Ward Bond ("The Searchers", "Wagon Train").
Of course the most bizarre and pointless short is also the most ripe for the Rifftrax crew, "Your Chance to Live: Technological Failures" which somehow suggests that technology is good even if lots of folks have died from it.
On the downside, some of the shorts have the "YouTube Strobe Effect" notably "Playing Together". It's troubling, but not too distracting.
The riffs are funny and almost always on target. At times they crack each other up. Bill Corbett in particular shines by going back to his old "Crow" days and just ripping away at the stupidity of the films themselves. I heartily recommend this collection to all Mystie/Rifftrax fans out there. Enjoy!

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)While various MST3K episodes have circulated over the internet and from companies like Rhino, the MST3K movie has long since disappeared from DVD shelves. Now, rather than rent a copy from Netflix and then "lose" it so you can keep one (or pay extravagant prices on Ebay), Universal has rereleased this great film to the delight of fans everywhere.
So what makes this different from any normal episode? Well, first of all it's set between the sixth and seventh seasons (right after the departure of TV's Frank and before Pearl joins as a regular), so Doctor F has the bad guy side all to himself. Fortunately, Trace is more than capable of making his every moment on screen a blast (there's even a funny "mini-origin" monologue that starts the film off to catch everyone up to speed). The set is finally expanded here and we get to see more of the ship finally. But, strangely enough, this is actually SHORTER than any of the episodes you see on television. This was done because the studio was afraid people who weren't familiar with the show would get bored in the theater--but of course, why would they go see it if they weren't familiar with the show in the first place?
The movie they choose to riff is "This Island Earth", which I always thought wasn't such a bad film anyway. However, Mike and the Bots do manage to squeeze in some great lines throughout. Definitely worth the time!
One small warning: they do use a few more colorful words here than they did on television. Not often by any means, but they sneak a couple in here and there.
I'm so glad we're finally seeing this gem return to DVD! Don't know what brought it on, but thank you!

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RiffTrax: Reefer Madness - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)REEFER MADNESS (1936) was rediscovered and became a cult film in the 1970s because of its unintentional humor, its over the top attempts at blatant propaganda and its general and inherent silliness, which makes it the perfect candidate for Rifftrax. Rifftrax (a spin-off featuring three of the writers and stars from the great movie-mocking TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000") usually uses recent films as its sandbox, but for their DVD releases they've been going with the only films whose DVD rights they likely could get their hands on: cheap, old stinkers that have fallen into the public domain. Personally, I prefer making fun of the more obscure or the older films that haven't stood the test of time, so I'm more than happy with these direct-to-DVD releases.
The first time I watched this DVD, I was actually a little disappointed. This had less to do with the witty comments from Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, and more to do with the film itself. REEFER MADNESS has had a certain reputation for a long time and you can't walk very far on a college campus without tripping over a copy of it. However, I had never seen the film before, and I probably had a mental image in my mind of a far far sillier, more outrageous film than this piece of celluloid could possibly be expecting to provide.
However, I gave it another chance, and that second viewing was a much more pleasant experience. The first time, the reefer and drug jokes seemed very repetitive. But the second time the jokes had a more rounded feel. (This sort of reaction is something I had a few times with the old "Mystery Science Theater 3000" show. Every so often, I would be indifferent to an episode before warming to it after a repeated viewing.)
Still, this isn't the strongest release I've seen from Rifftrax which is a pity given the film they had to work with. Of course, an average Rifftrax/MST3k is still worth a look for fans and the uninitiated alike.

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RiffTrax: Plays with Their Shorts- from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Review

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(More customer reviews)Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, & Bill Corbett riff their way over nine historic and hysteric shorts in the appropriately named collection "Rifftrax Plays with Their Shorts". While the subjects are wide ranging, a "patriotic" theme rears it's head in three of the shorts.
We begin with a collection of stock footage of American cities and landmarks tied together with confusion narration in the really lame and confusing "What it Means to Be an American". A mousey teen must listen to her creepy Mom in "Going Steady?", while her so-called boyfriend is hitting up on other mousey teens.
"Understanding Your Ideals" can get confused with "Highway Mania" as they both deal with cars...in a way. "A Circus Wakes Up" is exactly that, unfortunately. A big highlight is "Teenagers on Trial" as pre-teen angst challenges Al Capone as America's biggest criminal threat. Although some of the footage is priceless as a teen girl downs a highball and has an expected reaction...mind if we ask a few questions?
A condecending narrator overwelms America's female contribution to the war effort in "Women in Blue". Farm animals are humiliated in "Wing, Claw, & Fang" and we end with the Zsa Zsa Gabor of the 1930's Constance Barrett, who doles out make-up tips in "Constance Barrett's Daily Beauty Rituals".
Like "Shorts-A-Poppin", the Rifftrax crew is at the top of their game with some great riffing in all the shorts. The sole extra is an "alternate riff" of the first five minutes of "What it Means to Be an American". Funny stuff for sure and well worth it for your collection.


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