FanFare

Rewatch! We return to the life and times of our favorite flying giant turtle monster. Gamera protects Expo '70, held in Japan that year, from a monster attack. This is the longest MST3K episode of all, since they were required by the licensor not to cut it. It's also been less than a year since the first time we saw it. It's one of a small number of the first generation of Gamera films that the original run of the show didn't cover. (Another is Vs. Viras.) Previously.
posted by JHarris on Jun 22, 2023 - 1 comment

Rewatch! Joel Robinson returns to the SOL to riff this movie about a private paranormal investigator who works the seedy demonic underworld of Mobile, Alabama. It's a bit like Constantine, and while it's very low budget it's a fun movie! Released in 2019, at the moment this is the most recent movie MST3K has done. Of particular note, a couple of months ago the makers held a Kickstarter to make a sequel and appealed to MSTies to help fund it, and they were successful! Previously.
posted by JHarris on Jun 15, 2023 - 0 comments

Rewatch! Emily and her bots are handed this Doctor Strange knockoff (word is it was originally written as a Strange movie), where an occult wizard guy, who also owns an apartment building in New York, fights evil by the behest of a pair of giant eyes. Not actually too bad, this is one of a genre of MST movie I like to call a very indie film, although not nearly as indie as something like Manos or Carnival Magic. Previously.
posted by JHarris on Jun 8, 2023 - 2 comments

Rewatch! While a sequel to the horror movie Munchies, Munchie has little to do with it, and isn't even a horror movie, but a fantasy comedy about a kid who gets a magic gremlin-like pal, voiced by Dom DeLuise, who tries to help him out but keeps messing things up. This is a notably bad movie, compounded by terrible special effects for Munchie. Good luck with this one. Previously.
posted by JHarris on Jun 1, 2023 - 1 comment

Rewatch! Some ne'er-do-wells seek to steal a fortune in priceless pearls from a island tribe who are the last remnants of an undersea race. Things don't go well, but at least everyone is laughing in the end! A highlight of the season, the movie starring Sid Haig as archetypal scumbag East Eddie. Previously.
posted by JHarris on May 25, 2023 - 0 comments

"Crank Up the Carnage." While it looks kind of like the thing The Asylum would make now, this movie in fact was made back in 1993, and has some decent stop motion robot effects. The movie is similar in many ways to Robot Jox, from the same director, but their stories are unconnected. In the future the world has been divided into two factions, the "North Hemi" and the "Eastern Alliance." A war was fought between giant robots, but now only one is left, and it's currently being used as passenger transport and tourism. There follows a plot involving "Centros," perfidious Eastern Alliance military leaders, and of course at the end a giant robot fight. It's a real mess. In MST3K's story, Kinga and Max's damaged Kingadome has been saved by a financier from the future named Dr. Cabal, who tells them, for their venture to be a success, they must find a second host to subject bad movies to.... Premiered Friday early to Kickstarter backers, it is not currently possible to watch officially; its official premiere will be on May 7. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Apr 5, 2022 - 9 comments

Rewatch! Ray Dennis Steckler, a.k.a. "Cash Flagg," was one of the more infamous Z-list Hollywood directors, and he was responsible for this film, which is something. A guy gets hypno'd by a carnival fortune teller into becoming an insane killer. The fortune teller's assistant Ortega is a sight, and immediately became the Torgo of the Sci-Fi Channel era of MST3K. Lots of the movie is just time spent watching bad performances on-stage at the carnival, pointless and unabridged. This movie is one of the worst in the show's history. Previously. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Mar 10, 2022 - 2 comments

a.k.a. Santo en el tesoro de Drácula, Santo and Dracula's Treasure. "A COLORES!" El Santo, the Silver Mask, is a luchador who likes to dabble both in Super Science and the supernatural. He's invented a time machine that sends a young woman back into a past life, which was turned into a vampire by Dracula, while he watches. But never mind the infernal terror, El Santo learns about the great treasure of Dracula's family, and he wants a piece! But so does the mob! There's a lot of movies in this movie. The episode is missing ending credits, and way a bit marred by technical difficulties, but it was shown last night, and was pretty good! Kinga and Max escape the storage room of Moon 13 by exploding it, causing a cave-in. So they're currently set up on Moon 1, on the lunar surface, and opening Kinga's newest venture, the Kingadome. It contains the Gizmoplex, which in the show's lore is a physical place, but it's also the website the episode can be viewed by backers of last year's Kickstarter, here. A more general release will come in May. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Mar 5, 2022 - 17 comments