Philaflava.com ::

Been a while since we've had one of these and I've been on a huge MST3K kick lately, so Philaflava, we've got movie sign.

Favorite episodes? Mike or Joel preference? Looking forward to the upcoming Shout Factory release that has both The Day The Earth Froze AND Gorgo?

I haven't seen them all but I like the Master Ninja episodes the most.

MOVIE SIIIIIIGN

I think I'm in the minority, but I prefer Joel to Mike, though both are great obviously.

Some of my favorite episodes are Cave Dwellers aka Ator 2, Pod People, Robot Holocaust and of course Space Mutiny.

Always been a Joel guy too, although Mike has grown on me over the years. Still fucking hate Pearl though.
I got on a MST3K kick a couple years ago, bought about 15 of the sets, probably watch about 2 episodes a month.

Don't really have a favorite episode, but the Gamera ones are all fucking awesome. And Devil Doll when Crow turns Servo into a piece of toaster strudel and you actually see Servo as a strudel silhouette when they're watching the movie.

Its overdone to death, but "The Last Sacrifice" is one of the best.

I had a roommate in college who's nickname was Rowzdower, incidentally.

I really need to rewatch more. One of my favorite shows growing up despite how increasingly difficult it was to keep tabs on it, what with the bouncing around syndication and all.

Oh, I don't go map findin'-behindin'.

When I look at online lists most people prefer Mike but I get hints of his being a right wing asshole from him. The guy seems to hate everything. I need to watch some more.

I haven't seen it in years but there was one they did over a cop drama that's title was the main cops last name...that shit was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Blockhead wrote:I haven't seen it in years but there was one they did over a cop drama that's title was the main cops last name...that shit was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Mitchell from season 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_%28film%29

Joel's last episode by the way

Blockhead wrote:I haven't seen it in years but there was one they did over a cop drama that's title was the main cops last name...that shit was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Mitchell. Here's a comp I found of some of the best moments -

I prefer Sci-Fi era Mike as my favorite as the chemistry he had with Bill Corbett who took over for Crow I think lead to the funniest dynamic of Mike's good natured observations next to Corbett's bluer work.

That said, the sarcastic cynicism of Joel was great too, especially in season three when he would just be hilariously cruel toward the child actors.

I look at it like:

Sci Fi Mike > Joel > CC Mike

Haven't seen them all either but I haven't come across a bad episode yet. Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

I always assumed fans preferred Joel to Mike, I like em both. I do prefer Trace Beaulieu Crow to Corbett Crow but not by a whole lot.

battlecatmeowstab212 wrote:

Blockhead wrote:I haven't seen it in years but there was one they did over a cop drama that's title was the main cops last name...that shit was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Mitchell. Here's a comp I found of some of the best moments -

aleph wrote:Haven't seen them all either but I haven't come across a bad episode yet. Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

I always assumed fans preferred Joel to Mike, I like em both. I do prefer Trace Beaulieu Crow to Corbett Crow but not by a whole lot.

I think the fans are 50/50 on Mike / Joel because they do bring a different style humor to the show. I love them both, personally.

Del Toro's Treehouse of Horror intro reminded me of the Robot Monster, which is also a great episode.

I don't remember which movie they were watching, but I know it had something to do with some old man in a cave and when they came up on him Joel goes "I had jello today".

Funniest shit ever!!!

aleph wrote:Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

Manos is widely regarded as one of the best MST3K episodes ever, actually.

So anyone have any movies that they lampooned that you think didn't deserve it? This Island Earth, Phase IV and especially Danger: Diabolik are legitimately good movies.

Tommy Bunz wrote:

aleph wrote:Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

Manos is widely regarded as one of the best MST3K episodes ever, actually.

So anyone have any movies that they lampooned that you think didn't deserve it? This Island Earth, Phase IV and especially Danger: Diabolik are legitimately good movies.

Danger: Diabolik and Parts: The Clonus Horror are cool flicks, and some of the genre ones like Gorgo are as respectable as the genre gets, but This Island Earth is pretty goofy. I wouldn't call it legitimately good by any stretch, I think its reputation in that regard is a bit exaggerated because it was used in the MST3K movie.

Tommy Bunz wrote:

aleph wrote:Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

Manos is widely regarded as one of the best MST3K episodes ever, actually.

It's one of the best, but I want to throw out there incase anybody here in this thread has never seen the show and is curious or hasn't watched it in a few years that Manos is NOT a good place to start. It's pretty excruciatingly rough as a film, so jumping right to it is like showing someone who's never seen a Monty Python film Life of Brian.

I'd say the best places to start are with arguably the best Joel episode Pod People:



and arguably the best Mike episode Werewolf:

battlecatmeowstab212 wrote:

Tommy Bunz wrote:

aleph wrote:Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

Manos is widely regarded as one of the best MST3K episodes ever, actually.

So anyone have any movies that they lampooned that you think didn't deserve it? This Island Earth, Phase IV and especially Danger: Diabolik are legitimately good movies.

Danger: Diabolik and Parts: The Clonus Horror are cool flicks, and some of the genre ones like Gorgo are as respectable as the genre gets, but This Island Earth is pretty goofy. I wouldn't call it legitimately good by any stretch, I think its reputation in that regard is a bit exaggerated because it was used in the MST3K movie.

There were a lot of people that were upset that MST3K riffed it when the movie came out, so I'd say its reputation superceded the show.
Its not a great movie in a technical sense now, but it stands shoulder to shoulder with other cult sci-fi classics of the time such as Forbidden Planet, Robinson Crusoe From Mars, Planet of the Vampires, Invaders from Mars and the OG War of the Worlds.
Just because it comes off a bit goofy now doesn't make it a bad movie, its part of the appeal.

Also, I agree that Werewolf is a great episode. Always get mad though that they had to edit out all the nudity for the show.

I liked the Soultaker (was that the name?) episode featuring the film which had Martin Sheen's brother. Reading up on it I found out that MST3K had edited it to make it worse or something, I think. I didn't know they did that. There's also that Time Warriors/ Time something one with the ultra super low budget film featuring a Van Damme stunt double who is definitely channeling VD. It starts of pretty funny but then the cheap vibe of the film is kind of suffocating and claustrophobic even though I usually eat b movies for breakfast.

shadowmaster wrote:I liked the Soultaker (was that the name?) episode featuring the film which had Martin Sheen's brother. Reading up on it I found out that MST3K had edited it to make it worse or something, I think. I didn't know they did that.

That doesn't sound like something they would do. Where did you hear this?

And yes, it's Soultaker and it's on Netflix. The other one is Space Mutiny, I believe.

battlecatmeowstab212 wrote:

Tommy Bunz wrote:

aleph wrote:Even Manos Hands of Fate wasn't unfunny.

Manos is widely regarded as one of the best MST3K episodes ever, actually.

It's one of the best, but I want to throw out there incase anybody here in this thread has never seen the show and is curious or hasn't watched it in a few years that Manos is NOT a good place to start. It's pretty excruciatingly rough as a film, so jumping right to it is like showing someone who's never seen a Monty Python film Life of Brian.

I haven't seen it in a long while but the movie seemed to inspire such incomprehension that I remember the jokes were sparse. I'd have to see it again though, I'll bet I'd like it more now.

battlecatmeowstab212 wrote:

shadowmaster wrote:I liked the Soultaker (was that the name?) episode featuring the film which had Martin Sheen's brother. Reading up on it I found out that MST3K had edited it to make it worse or something, I think. I didn't know they did that.

That doesn't sound like something they would do. Where did you hear this?

And yes, it's Soultaker and it's on Netflix. The other one is Space Mutiny, I believe.

I probably read that thing about the editing when looking into Soultaker. Through IMDB reviews of the OG film and boards and then other sites linked to any articles or threads that came up. They may not have edited films to specifically make them worse but I did read comments by the creators of at least one film that MST bought the film and edited it to suit their show. I'm not sure how true that is but it wouldn't surprise me.

Well they edited out some of the more boring bits, or if its far too long they remove major stuff etc

Like it says on Mitchells wiki a main character just disappears. It just works out sometimes

yeah pretty sure they only edit for nudity/language and to make it fit their time slot. Not every shitty movie is magically 75 minutes long.

I do love in Devil Fish how they impose the MST3K logo over a brief glimpse of a guy's balls from beneath his shorts as he's climbing down a ladder.

Tommy Bunz wrote:yeah pretty sure they only edit for nudity/language and to make it fit their time slot. Not every shitty movie is magically 75 minutes long.

I get that, fair enough. The interview or quotes I came across were definitely biased since it's their film. Although they seemed to insist that their original cut wasn't quite the train wreck it seemed on MST3K and they had no power since they didn't own the rights. Could see both sides being true in varying degress.

I've always preferred Mike to Joel, but its most likely because I was introduced to the show during the Sci-Fi years.

Corbett was always my favorite. A friend of mine sent me a text referencing Final Justice the other day that simply read:

"...Listen to that guitar solo...I think its Eric Clap... ...Yeah Eric Clap." ...I was dyin.

The hate and clowning for This Island Earth is entirely unwarranted. It encapsulated everything that was dope about fifties sci-fi.

As for entertaining shows lampooning the films I love, Exploitica was probably the best and funniest of the lot.

Found a deal on two MST3K sets I was missing and nabbed them both. Got Volume 11 and the 20th anniversary collection (volume 13).

Some of these I had worn out on now decade old VHS tape trades, so I'm glad to finally upgrade:

ring of terror, indestructible man, tormented, horrors of spider island, first spaceship on venus, lazerblast, werewolf and future war