Ok! By a show of hands, who here has heard of Mystery Science Theater 3000? Anyone? No? Well my friend, you sure are missing out because after this MYST post you'll be watching hours upon hours of this wonderful production of comedy (As I have done without regret in the past)!
Basically, it's a show where three dudes commentate on a cheesy/bad old movies. Now, before I go in-depth about MST3K (that's how the cool kids say it), I'll go over the movie that they watched and reviewed which I subsequently watched and reviewed: Gamera!
...It's...it's basically turtle Godzilla.
No, really, that's all I can really say about the movie. It's a Japanese Kaiju film from 1965; you can't get any less or more specific than that. It like any disaster movie: scientist find some strange carvings of an ancient creature; the creature emerges and starts blowing s**t up; the world seems to be at it's end; the world leaders come together and find a way to defeat the monster; the monster is vanquished, but not necessarily killed; and there's some ridiculous subplot about someone saying that he/she "understands" the monster and that it is "alone" or "scared" or "hungry" or whatever cliched crap the writers will come up with.
That's the movie, ladies and gentlemen. This would be the end of the MYST post...had it not have been for these guys:
Like I said, if you don't know these guys you really should. They will make your boring hours of nothingness much more enjoyable.
To go further into it, MST3K was a show back in the late 80s and 90s that poked fun at bad movies using a sort of "peanut gallery" commentary (I know it's technically a show, but come on, they show the full movie for every one of them). It stars two robots, Tom Servo and Crow, along with their human friend Joel (it varies on which season).
Now, the reason why I say to go and watch these bad movies with these fellas is simple: they are like your best buds having a good with a terrible movie. They all have their individual charms, quirks, and personalities that just make you feel good inside. You get a comedy from movies that clearly weren't meant to be comedies, and you feel a sense of honest reward of sticking with it to end with these guys. You know the movie is bad, they know the movie is bad, and you all want to stay around and listen to all the funny remarks up until the credits roll.
I give this movie, on it's own:
2/10 for quality
3/10 for watchability
I give this movie, with the aide of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew:
8/10 for quality
10/10 for watchability
I hope you all enjoyed my review of Gamera with Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Fond regards,
~Grant Dunderman
October 2013
Film Studies Period 10
2 great reviews, Grant. The points you make for Captain Phillips are great. Sounds like some real solid acting; and, maybe a step forward for the director. I do remember Mystery Science being on TV when I was younger, and I should revisit it--it's a really cool idea. Actually, one of Woody Allen's first movies was basically this format. He bought the rights to a crappy Japanese movie and re-edited it with voice over and made it a comedy. Keep up the good work, Grant. Entertaining as always.
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