Product Details

• Actors: Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Marjorie Eaton
• Directors: Jack Pollexfen, Joseph V. Mascelli
• Writers: Joel Hodgson, Jack Pollexfen, Dean Dillman Jr., Frank Conniff, Mike Gandolfi
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Rhino / Wea
• VHS Release Date: October 21, 1997
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304612702
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,561 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While some might question the comic potential of a movie concerning grave robbing and forced brain transplants, Mike Nelson and his 'bot pals Crow and Tom Servo mine plenty of laugh fodder from 1963's The Atomic Brain in this fifth-season episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In addition to the usual rapid-fire patter and pop-culture references (Mike: "[The Silence of the Lambs'] Jame Gumb only dreamed of what this guy's been able to accomplish"), the boys also present a light operetta that accompanies the film's herky-jerky score, as well as chin puppetry from Mike (which terrifies the 'bots). And in a MST3K first, the disembodied Magic Voice (Mary Jo Pehl) steps into the spotlight and duels verbally with Atomic Brain's unctuous narrator (Bradford Dillman). Also included is the original accompanying short, a grim educational film from 1955 entitled "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" A raucously entertaining entry in this Peabody Award-winning series. --Paul Gaita

From the Back Cover

It's Mystery Science Theater 3000, America's only show that makes fun of really bad B movies from the comfort of a spaceship floating above Earth. Mike Nelson, along with his mechanical companions, wisecracking Crow and well-read chick magnet Tom Servo, make suffering through Hollywood's worst films a breeze. Adding their own dialogue, barrage of witty remarks, and an occasional colorful skit, the next hour and a half will fly by like it were only 90 minutes. There's no ushers with flashlights, crying babies, or women with big hair to spoil the fun.
The Atomic Brain proves that reanimating zombies can be fun, but if you can also transplant an animal's brain into their skull, that's a party! Unfortunately some of these experiments go wandering off barefooted for a quick snack. But, as Mike points out, that just won't do 'cause, "Hey! No shoes, no brain, no service." Anyway, this nutty doc finds the perfect babe to slosh his rich, crusty benefactor's brain into. Problem is, nothing will make this old hag look good with her poor posture. I mean, it's so bad that as she's walking around all bent over, Crow starts humming the theme music from Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. As if that weren't enough, don't miss Tom Servo getting toasted in a meteor shower during his weatherman assignment.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Excuse me, could you tell me where my accent is from?", March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Atomic Brain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is perhaps not THE best MST3K episode, but it is still absolutely hilarious, and well worth the price of purchase for any MSTie. The host segments are great, and they include Mike's excellent chin-puppet performance (which the 'Bots find more disturbing than amusing), and Magic Voice's creepy run-in with the voice-over guy from the movie. The riffing is, of course, excellent, a personal favorite being the lyrics the SoL guys add to the weird theme music that accompanies some characters ("She's old... she creaks... she goes... downstairs...").

"The Atomic Brain" does feature lots of brains - human brains, dog brains, cat brains - though I'm not quite sure where the "atomic" part came from. The basic plot consists of a crazy old rich woman (Mrs. March) who has decided she wants to live forever, and the way to do this is to have her brain transplanted into the body of a young woman. Her wishes mesh perfectly with those of a mad scientist (Dr. Frank) who is working on the development of brain transplants. He's (rightly) been drummed out of respectable medicine for being a nutjob, and needs a patron to support his work. Thus, a strained partnership is forged, as Dr. Frank's work is supported and carried out in Mrs. March's mansion, with the understanding that he will eventually perform the transplant on her.

As potential recipients of her brain, Mrs. March hires three attractive 20-something women - from Mexico, Austria and England, if they're to be believed; Mike suspects they're all from Nebraska, which seems likely, given how poor their accents are. The Mexican girl is ruled out right away, as she has a West-Virginia-shaped birthmark that Mrs. March finds unappealing. She's handed over to Dr. Frank to be used as he sees fit.

Poor Dr. Frank's early experiments don't go so well. A dog's brain in a human man proved to be a mistake ("In hindsight, an obvious mistake," to quote Servo), and now his implantation of a cat's brain into the Mexican girl (whose name I've forgotten), only results in a birthmarked young woman who eats live mice and meows.

The cat-girl mistakes the English lass (whom Mrs. March prefers as her future body) for a catnip toy, and scratches out her eyeball, so Mrs. March is forced to settle for the Austrian by default (she warms to the idea, though it does take her a few scenes to get over the disappointment of losing the English woman, who by her own admission has "the same measurements as Marilyn Monroe").

The movie continues in a similarly silly vein, with brains being exchanged like scented candles at a Yankee Swap. I won't spoil the ending for you; suffice to say, it is ambiguous and goofy (which is to be expected).

All in all, a very funny episode, and one I'd recommend to both seasoned MSTies and newcomers. Buy it, watch it, love it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a horror of a movie, all right., November 27, 2001

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Atomic Brain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The makers of 'The Atomic Brain' no doubt wanted to create a work of bone-chilling horror. But unfortunately, all they came up with was mind-numbing weirdness. And that makes this fine fodder for Mike and The Bots (M&TB) on the Satellite of Love.

MST3K riffed on a number of failed horror films in its decade of life, and this is a fairly typical example of the genre. It's not so much creepy as queasy, especially with the film's obvious fascination with beautiful and vulnerable young women. As always, M&TB make the most of a bad situation.

As I've noted in some other reviews of MST releases by Rhino, 'The Atomic Brain' is not one of the absolute best MST eps (in my opinion). However, several of the host segments in this episode are worth mentioning, including Mike's chin puppet and The Bots' satire of the Mads in the invention exchange.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh the absurdity!, December 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Atomic Brain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The narrator of "The Atomic Brain" tells us that scientists today are solving the riddle of brain transplantation. Hence, the plot: a rich old woman seeks to have her brain transplanted into the body of a beautiful young lady. To this end she becomes the sole patron of a depressed scientist, who works out of a laboratory in her basement, bombarding dead girls with radiation and performing crude interspecies transplants. The brain of his favorite cat ends up in the skull of a Mexican maid. Success! The rest, as they say, is history. Don't miss this one.