Mystery Science Theater 3000: STARCRASH Rewatch
June 20, 2018 10:01 PM - Season 11, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Rewatch! "'The Giving Away the Ending Hall of Fame' or 'Former Evangelist Marjoe Prays for a Better Movie!'" One of the few movies in MST history where the film's badness may, itself, be more entertaining than the riffs. Starcrash is a ludicrous mess, but still lots of fun, with its skimpy space bikini, texas-talking robot, giant mecha-amazon, Marjoe Gortner as a Jedi with the serial numbers filed off, David Hasselhoff as David Hasselhoff, and a seriously slumming Christopher Plummer. I could go on!
In fact, I will go on! The evil space count, his toadying assistant saying "There was one damn survivor!", the missiles that crashed through the space windows and guys come out of them and start firing their lasers, the optical effect space specters, the cosmic brain space judge, how Stella seems thrilled and surprised by everything, Marjoe playing with his space ring, Plummer's monologues, and, of course:
"Imperial battleship... halt the flow of time!!!"
Thanx to oneswellfoop for the Rocky and Bullwinkle-style alternate titles!
In fact, I will go on! The evil space count, his toadying assistant saying "There was one damn survivor!", the missiles that crashed through the space windows and guys come out of them and start firing their lasers, the optical effect space specters, the cosmic brain space judge, how Stella seems thrilled and surprised by everything, Marjoe playing with his space ring, Plummer's monologues, and, of course:
"Imperial battleship... halt the flow of time!!!"
Thanx to oneswellfoop for the Rocky and Bullwinkle-style alternate titles!
When you’re in a race to fight the big meanie, there’s no other choice: Space Bikini.
posted by valkane at 4:29 AM on June 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by valkane at 4:29 AM on June 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
MST Club's rewatch happens today (Thursday) at 9 PM Eastern time (that's 6 PM Pacific), with a pre-show movie that's to be determined starting at 7/4 PM. The show, as usual, will be at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. I hope you can make it!
posted by JHarris at 6:04 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 6:04 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Plummer is so drunk here.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:54 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 9:54 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I quite like this film I encourage any fans to seek out the unedited version which is a bit more coherent (only a bit though). One thing casual viewers may not know, Marjoe Gortner (the curly haired guy with powers) had a pretty colourful life. He started as a Pentacostal preacher (ordained at the age of 4!) In his 20's he returned to preaching to earn enough to live off for half the year when got noticed. The result was the great documentary (it won an Academy Award in 1972) about him called Marjoe (I don't see the whole doc on Youtube but there are some clips).
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:06 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:06 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Plummer is so drunk here.
Well, maybe not so much drunk as just slumming. Here's his take on the experience from his AV Club Random Roles interview:
Well, maybe not so much drunk as just slumming. Here's his take on the experience from his AV Club Random Roles interview:
CP: [Breathlessly.] Starcrash. Oh, my God. There are two things I can say about that: One, give me Rome any day. I’ll do porno in Rome, as long as I can get to Rome. [Laughs.] Getting to Rome was the greatest thing that happened in that for me. I think it was only about three days in Rome on that one. It was all shot at once. And the girl… What’s her name? Munro?posted by Halloween Jack at 6:58 AM on June 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
AVC: Caroline Munro.
CP: Caroline Munro. She was something incredible to look at. That was a great pleasure, too. But beyond those two things… I mean, how can you play the Emperor Of The Universe? What a wonderful part to play. [Laughs.] It puts God in a very dicey moment, doesn’t it? He’s very insecure, God, when the Emperor’s around.
That's a great interview with Plummer. Sadly, he didn't ask him about playing Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's drunken first prime minister.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:36 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:36 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I hope they're able to get some more Marjoe Gortner movies for S12 or beyond, he's absolutely an untapped source of MST3K-quality cheese. Food of the Gods is my dream pick for this.
The Star Crash episode was also featured in a recent episode of the excellent MST3K-in-review podcast It's Just A Show. The podcast is going on a semi-random walk through all 200+ episodes, so they've only done a couple of S11 so far, but they have some great analysis about what works (and doesn't work) across all eras of MST3K. It's worth a listen for fans.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:49 AM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Star Crash episode was also featured in a recent episode of the excellent MST3K-in-review podcast It's Just A Show. The podcast is going on a semi-random walk through all 200+ episodes, so they've only done a couple of S11 so far, but they have some great analysis about what works (and doesn't work) across all eras of MST3K. It's worth a listen for fans.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:49 AM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Food of the Gods is my dream pick for this.
I think its sequel is even more crazy. Sadly they may have to bleep that scene.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:51 PM on June 23, 2018
I think its sequel is even more crazy. Sadly they may have to bleep that scene.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:51 PM on June 23, 2018
I am also a big fan of this movie, and highly encourage everybody to watch it in its gleefully cheesy entirety.
"Oh El!"
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:13 PM on June 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
"Oh El!"
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:13 PM on June 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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or... "Hassel-On, Hassel-Off"
or... "Christopher Plumming the Depths"
or... "Hamilton Camp's Failed Audition to Become an MST3K Bot"
or... "More Like a New Dope, Amirite?"
or... "Zarth, No Relation to Darth, Honest!"
or... "The Flow of Time Didn't Halt - It Just Seemed to Take Forever"
or... "Where's a TARDIS When You Really Need One"
or... "Who Needs a Full War When You Can Just Crash Into Something... THAT's Where Bin Laden Got the Idea!!!"
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:04 PM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]