Customer Reviews

The Film Crew: The Giant of Marathon

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A Film Crew movie with an actual budget, "The Giant of Marathon" stars the well-oiled Steve "I'm not Hercules in this one" Reeves. Unlike most Italian sand `n sandal epics, you can actually follow the plot of this one...most of the time...as Steve wins the Olympics, tries to bag a blond hottie, wrestles a bit, gets hit on by a Vulcan hottie, throws things, runs a lot, and finally wins the day, I think. It helps that the film is well produced even if some of the dubbing is poor.

The riffs by The Film Crew are top notch from the get-go and perhaps the best of all four DVD releases. Some of the references are a bit racy for the kiddies, but that's to be expected I suppose.The skits are fairly good, although I must admit that the picture of Bob Honcho (which is different from the other DVDs) is just too funny for words.

The Bonus Features include a sincere apology from Mike who still manages to insult a lot of people. And "commentary" from a Walter S. Ferguson who sounds suspiciously like Mike Nelsen as he describes different roles he played in the film. It's better than the feature in "Hollywood After Dark" and that's about it.

This is the final DVD of "The Film Crew" experiment, we'll see if they sell well enough for more of the DVDs to be produced.

Tidbits:
- This film is presented in the "widescreen" format.

- The actual title appears to be "The Battle of Marathon" which makes more sense since Steve Reeves is pretty big but hardly a giant.

- Although no one wears a bra, perhaps some of the men in this flick should...

Like many other MiSTies out there, I was sad to see Mike and the 'Bots fall to earth in the last ever episode of MST3K and while I kept up with Mike's work with Legend Films (he provided hilarious commentary tracks) I held out hope that one day the show would be revived in some fashion, perhaps hitting the live college circuit. I was thrilled to discover that Mike, Bill and Kevin would once again be back in front of the cameras (or at least in the bottom right corner of your screen) doing what they do best, shredding the worst B-movie drek to crawl from Hollywood. Of the four DVD's the Film Crew have released The Giant Of Marathon is by far the best. Oh...by the best I of course mean the WORST, The film itself could be described as a bunch of lunkheads stumbling around ancient Greece for 90 minutes. You could easily compare it to the very best episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (not an unfair comparison given the pedigree here). While it's true you no longer have those sillouhettes to keep you company throughout these cinamatic travesties, the warped sense of humor is still there. I've even grown fond of the wraparound host segments now that the "characters" of Mike, Bill and Kevin have been established over the four Film Crew DVD's. I hope they can continue to make these as each DVD is certainly worthy of several viewings. I've bought 'em all and I'll line up for the next one.

Now the question remains: What's Joel doing these days?

I'm a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I was a little late to the Film Crew party. I heard about the series back when it was announced but for some reason it flew under my radar.

Recently I read some good reviews of the series, especially ones that compared it favorably to the seasons of the sci-fi channel run of MST3K. I decided to break down and pick up a couple. "The Giant of Marathon" was the second one I popped in.

I'm a fan of the Hercules episodes of Mystery Science Theater, so I figured this one would be right up my alley. However instead of a mythical epic, this is a historical epic detailing the turmoil in Athens leading up to the first battle with the Persians climaxing in the battle of Marathon. Now, I've read my Herodotus and I'm pretty sure that all the stuff that happens to Pheidippides in this movie didn't come from history.

In contrast to most of the Hercules movies most of the action in the film is loaded to the final third. For most of the first half or so you get lots of political maneuvering and dialogue. Now the movie is dubbed, so the voice acting is pretty lousy. This makes these long talky scenes particularly painful.

Once the action kicks in, things get better, with lots of laughs being generated by the horrific stage fighting, the horse abuse and the extended underwater battle that looks like "Thunderball" BC.

This movie appears to have a pretty large budget, so there are some impressive sets, costumes and lots of extras. The ship battle is probably the most impressive in scope. There are actually a number of ships on screen and lots of extras doing battle in and out of the water. It's fairly impressive to tell you the truth.

One of the strange things about the film is the fact that there are a lot of mostly naked men running around in it. Now, I know that most of the sword and sandal films have lots of oiled up half naked guys in them, but usually there is a voluptuous evil queen or sexy slave girl to balance it all out. Not so much in this film. Sure the main girl Andromeda is curvy and pouty, but she's hardly in the flick. Instead you get an extended scene of two hairy men wrestling or lots of underwater scenes with guys in what appears to be diapers swimming around. I'm not kidding.

Of course all this fodder give the Film Crew plenty of ammo for lots of homosexual humor. They end up going a bit overboard, but at the same time the movie seems to be really courting it. Seriously the amount of bare man flesh is really odd for a sword and sandal flick from the 60's.

For me this adds up to a pretty average outing for the Film Crew. The movie is pretty slow for the first half. They do a good job with what they are given, but it isn't until the battle of Marathon really kicks in that the jokes start flying. The last twenty minutes or so of the film are absolutely hilarious (even the scenes with the horse abuse. Warning to animal lovers, these look pretty brutal and while the Film Crew makes light of it, try not to think about it too much).

There are three host segments. The intro has the Film Crew discussing the film with Bob Honcho. During the lunch break Bill uses everyone's lunch to recreate the battle of marathon for Mike. Kevin is not amused. The finale has everyone creating super goofy hats (with Kevin's being the most disturbing of all), and Mike insulting ancient Persians.

This leads to the extras, which include Mike apologizing for insulting ancient Persians but insulting Italians instead. This continues with Mike digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself with Kevin and Bill trying to bail him out in the end. It's actually pretty funny. There is also a mini-commentary by an extra from the film (who sounds a lot like Mike). It starts off goofy and ends up going right over the top for some good laughs.

I have to admit it, I was a bit disappointed in this episode. I think my love of the Hercules episodes raised my hopes a little too high and the movie was just too slow in the beginning. Like I said the last 20 minutes are top notch material, but it's a little dull getting there.

The Film Crew consists of three alumni of the great movie-mocking TV show, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. The premise for this project is not that Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are trapped in an orbiting satellite; instead, they're three lowly employees at a DVD distributor, charged by their boss to create a commentary track for every movie they release, no matter how obscure or painful.

This is the fourth (and -- so far -- final) release from The Film Crew. When the list of four films was initially announced, this was the one I was most looking forward to as it was the only movie I had actually seen in its original form. THE GIANT OF MARATHON isn't a completely awful film. I think the worst thing that could be is that it's simply dull in the non-battle sequences.

Steve Reeves stars in this sword and sandal movie. While Reeves had played Hercules in two other films, here he is portraying Philippides -- the Greek soldier who is said to have run the entire 26.2 miles from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of victory. However, you won't have to tax your mind too much with the difference; the character of Philippides is virtually identical to the Hercules character from earlier films.

I had been anticipating this DVD and I ultimately was not disappointed. The Film Crew's jokes at the expense of the production are very funny. I'd say that this disc and KILLERS FROM SPACE were the strongest two of the four in terms of quality comedy.

I'd like to see more of these straight-to-DVD releases from The Film Crew, although from what I've read on the Internet that doesn't seem likely. Just getting these four discs released seems to have been a hassle with the distribution rights bouncing away from Rhino Entertainment and (eventually) into the ownership of Shout Factory (note that whenever the characters mention the name of their boss, the dubbing says "Bob Honcho" while their lips say "Bob Rhino"). With these three ex-MST3k members now seemingly wrapped up in their work with RiffTrax, GIANT OF MARATHON may be the last outing we see in this incarnation of movie mocking. And that's a damn shame.

Here we have Steve Reeves, playing a character who isn't Hercules, but only by name as he is Phillipides the best athlete in Athens. He eventually leads the Greek army in a huge battle against the Persian army. There's plenty of bad dubbing, backstabbing by an evil dictator who has an issue with women as he just slaps them around for no reason in some scenes. The battle at the end is actually fairly impressive given that this film has an actual budget unlike other films they riffed as "The Film Crew" and on MST3K.

This is a very, very funny episode and is the closest fans will ever get to MST3K again. Mike, Bill and Kevin provide their best material and are on top of their game throughout the whole film. There are so many memorable lines in this one. Kevin: "Atheian women always have nice jugs", "He's her director of hospitality". Mike: "This was the pre-turnbuckle days you had to use the floor to bash someone's head in", "You will stay for the entree", "I'm allergic to aging skanks." Bill: "Huge, huge testicles", "The original Bow-Flex.... farming". My personl favorite was Bill saying: "Hurl yourself stupidly at someone, thats a good tactic."

The extras include:
An apology from Mike Nelson
Select scene commentary from an actor named Walter S. Ferguson, who sounds a lot like Mike Nelson.

This is my favorite of the Film Crew DVD's, its constantly funny and always makes me laugh.

Hands down, this is the best Film Crew movie. The Hercules-type movies of MST3K were always good. The Giant of Marathon is a good one to have on your DVD shelf as it is worth watching more than once. If watching grown men in diapers unnerves you, you might want to take some Valium to calm you down before viewing.

Another Italian-made Greek epic, this one hosted by the Film Crew. Some great laughs, since this material was really easy to dub. Not as good as classic MST3K, but that's a difficult standard to meet. I especially loved Mike's apology in the DVD extras!

Much of the reason MST3K worked so beautifully was that the premise (poor shlub stranded in space with two wiseacre robots) made the central absurdity of the whole concept just click. As a fan of the series only slightly less devout than Pat Robertson is towards Jesus, I'll start by acknowledging how much I appreciated that the core SciFi-era riffing team of Corbett, Nelson and Murphy did their level best to give MSTies everywhere at least something approximating a revival/reunion.

The problem is that, with Jim Mallon owning the full rights to the old show and apparently being (to quote the popular insult quite often thrown about in the classic era) a dickweed about any chance at a proper reunion, the Film Crew gang is forced to come up with a weaker replacement concept: three schmoes working in the basement of a company run by a honcho named Honcho, who require them to riff on movies. Meh. Still, at least the Film Crew HAD a framing concept of some kind going in, whereas the other post-MST project, the Joel-led "Cinematic Titanic," stumbled on that account and didn't really establish one until three episodes in.

The riffing itself takes place as simple voice-overs, so it's like watching the old show, simply without the "Shadowrama" silhouettes of the gang in front of the screen. Yes, in its best moments, this comes pretty dang close to recapturing the magic. As you're simply hearing the voices, you can just imagine Mike, Crow and Servo back to their old tricks again -- an illusion occasionally shattered when you hear them refer to each other by their real names.

But here we run up against another disappointing issue: Guys, where the heck did that awesome RAPID-FIRE RIFFING that made the best MST3K episodes so gut-bustingly hilarious go? The riffing here feels very uninspired at times, with long pauses between each wisecrack. Often the jokes just mock some obvious things onscreen, like a nude statue in the background with prominent genitalia. No mistake, when the guys are on, they're on, as in the opening few minutes of the movie. But quite often, they miss prime riffing opportunities. Frequently I would wonder, "Why didn't they say something THERE? It was wide open!" They're on their game at times, and way off at others. It's uneven and never as consistently hysterical as the best of the original show.

On the whole, MSTies will want to own this, mainly to support the guys, and for the fact that, yes, here and there are snatches where the old lightning strikes. As a fan, I'm glad to see new material from them, even if this show feels at times like an MST3K knockoff that oddly happens to star the cast of the original. It's a shame that only four episodes were produced, too, because with a little time to work out the kinks, and get back into a comfortable writing groove, the Film Crew eventually could have gotten around to creating new direct-to-DVD episodes that would easily have been the equal of the better SciFi MST episodes. But if this is all we're getting, there's just enough here that works all right for fans to be appreciative.

I never feel quite right unless I don't get at least a few of the references made in MST3K and this reprise of the franchise, and that's why I was glad to see Mike, Bill and Kevin return to top form in Giant of Marathon. Although I enjoyed "Hollywood After Dark," it felt a little thin on the good one-liners and too relaxed compared to MST3K...I laughed, but not much out loud. This one, on the other hand, shows that the old gang still has a lot of comedic gems up their sleeves. It starts out a little slow, but the pace quickens throughout, and near the end I was frequently huddled over in extended episodes of guffawing (there's a several minute sequence that begins with Bill's line "Excuse me Anasazi Indians, coming through..." where the entire team is on fire). The references are often more topical, but there are still quite a few obscure ones that sent me to wikipedia for a good half hour. If you're an MSTie like me and are looking to see the gang return to their former splendor, check out Giant of Marathon!

Well, of course it's not but that's how I like to think of these videos. Do what I did and print out a picture of their MST3K silouttes, cut it out and adhear it to the lower-right corner of the screen and you'll almost swear 1t's 1999 again and you're watching a new Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode -- enjoy!