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(More customer reviews)This fifth collection of episodes from the TV comedy, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (the program where a silhouette of a man and two robots in theater seats provide comedic commentary for rotten movies), contains four episodes from the Sci-Fi Channel seasons. Mike Nelson is the host, Billy Corbett does Crow's voice, and Pearl Forrester is the evil scientist holding the crew of the Satellite of Love hostage. Some fans aren't fond of the host segments in these later seasons, but there are some occasional funny ones. The riffing, however, is good as ever, and has changed to an angry, sarcastic style different from the Joel years.
(This is the second collection in a row of Sci-Fi Channel episodes. Although some of these episodes are hilarious, I hope Rhino turns to some of the early seasons in later collections to keep balance.)
Disc 2 has a great extra: a half-hour interview with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy (who wrote for the show for all ten seasons, and played Tom Servo for nine). The interview covers the show's origin, history, and the process of making an episode. Both men are incredibly funny and have a great time reliving memories. For fans, this interview makes the collection a must-have on its own. (As with the last collection, Mike Nelson also does a brief intro to each episode.)
The episodes all good, and one is fantastic:
BOGGY CREEK II: AND THE LEGEND CONTINUES. Episode #1006. This 1983 movie is actually the third Boggy Creek flick. Since the producer of the first film had no involvement in the first sequel, he ignored it an declared this "Boggy Creek II." Based on a legend of a Bigfoot-like beast in Arkansas called the Fouke Creature, "Boggy Creek II" isn't much of a horror movie; it's more like a PBS nature film with some gross backwoods characters and some mild tension. Mostly we watch a bland college professor (writer/director Pierce) and his students, two semi-hot chicks and a scrawny guy who never has his shirt on (and happens to be Pierce's son) stare at equipment and get their vehicles stuck in the mud. Crenshaw, a forest hermit, is one of the most disgusting characters to appear in an MST3K movie. It's a decent episode. The highlights are the ludicrous series of flashbacks -- one of which is so gross that Mike and `Bots can't believe it -- and the sickening character of Crenshaw. There's also a funny sketch that makes fun of the flashbacks.
MERLIN'S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS. Episode #1003. Sounds like a cute kids' film, right? Eee-yikes, what a nasty surprise! More like an episode of "Tales from the Darkside"! In this 1996 film, Grandfather (Ernest Borgnine) tells Grandson stories about Merlin setting up a shop in modern times, to `spread wonder.' But what happens instead? An obnoxious reviewer ("My reviews can destroy cities!") gets hold of Merlin's spell book, demonizes his cat, ages, meets the devil, breathes fire, and tries to bleed his wife to death. The next story is an edited version of an earlier film from the same director called "The Devil's Gift" (the source is obvious, since Merlin never interacts with these characters). In this stinker, a demon-possessed monkey toy from Merlin's shop tries to slaughter a family. The flick is nasty, but once Mike and the `Bots get into the inappropriate rhythm of it, the episode has tons of laughs.
TIME CHASERS. Episode #821. The best episode in this collection ironically contains one the better movies that MST3K took on! Late in season eight was when the Sci-Fi Channel shows were at their best, and with"Time Chasers" they create a masterpiece. "Time Chasers" was shot in Vermont by David Giancola during the summer of 1990 on a budget of $150,000. Giancola shows genuine talent, and the script is a clever story of time paradoxes, where the inventor of the first time machine tries to undo the mistake he made when he sold the invention to an ambitious company. But the budget kills the movie: the actors are awful (the villain is played by a dairy farmer), the "good" future is a mall, the "bad" future is a slightly trashy alley, and the villain's corporate headquarters are in a branch library! (Actually, the Rutland Opera House.) It's impossible to take it seriously, and the MST3K boys have a blast with it. This episode also has one of the better set of host segments: a time screw-up causes Mike to be replaced by his tough-talking brother Eddie (his comments in the theater are REALLY mean). A great episode!
THE TOUCH OF SATAN. Episode #908. Director `Don Henderson' is a pseudonym for Tom Laughlin, who a year after this 1970 horror picture had a major hit as the star and director of "Billy Jack." Laughlin was an awful director even before "Billy Jack," and here's the proof. As a director, his major technique is making his actors put huge pauses in their dialogue, and the MST3K boys rip this apart: "They're just pausing out of spite now!" The plot has a wandering scrawny guy fall for a girl on a farm, but she turns out to be a witch. There's also a cranky grandma who enjoys pitch-forking folks. It's less interesting than it sounds, and there isn't much witchcraft, magic, or Satan, but this is a funny episode because Mike and `Bots really nail down the film's tone. In an interesting change, the character of Pearl Forrester is absent; she's replaced by a baby-sitter (long-time prop mistress Beez McKeever) who's looking out for Brain Guy and Prof. Bobo.
This isn't as strong as some of the earlier Rhino collections of MST3K, but it's on the level of the previous volume of Sci-Fi Channel episodes. "Time Chasers" and the interview are worth it on their own, but you get three pretty darn good episodes along with them.
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The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 5 (Boggy Creek II / Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders / Time Chasers / The Touch of Satan) (1988)
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