Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Atomic Brain [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Yet again, those crazy guys and gals at Best Brains have made it possible to sit through an unwatchable movie without having to worry about your eyes and ears starting to bleed as a result of being exposed to so much boredom captured on video. This isn't MST3K's best, however - I would classify it among the least enjoyable of the experiments made commercially available for public consumption. Interestingly enough, however, this film may provide more scenes in Comedy Central's later advertisements about the show than any other experiment I know of: for those who still remember the good old days, you'll recognize the "finish it" drinking scene, the screaming nurse-like woman scene, and of course the classic Barney Fife going down the stairs scene. Crow's Barney Fife impersonation is probably the highlight of this whole MST3K movie experience, though. Mike and the bots are funny from start to finish, but there just aren't any truly spectacular MST3K moments to come out of experiment # 518 (Mike's fifth experiment after taking over for Joel).

As far as the movie itself goes, it's all about an annoying and bitter old woman who hires three foreign housekeepers so that she can pick a new body for herself - like most crabby old women, she has her own mad scientist in the basement perfecting the science of brain transplantation. Yes, it's the weirdest beauty contest of them all, as the old lady ogles and feels up her nubile young charges looking for the perfect new body for her sick little brain. Miss England wows the audience and judge with a completely ridiculous accent (which seems to come and go quite a bit) and a hip-swaying walking style that only young, healthy hips can hope to survive. Should she, however, be unable to fulfill her duties for any reason (such as having her eye raked out by a fellow contestant who now thinks she is a cat, for example), the plainer yet passably attractive runner-up will be expected to take her place. There's basically nothing atomic to see, no brains are presented for our inspection, and the whole thing simply reeks with boredom.

This experiment also features a short called What About Juvenile Delinquency? There's a lot more action (not to mention extreme close-ups) here than there is in the featured film. Unfortunately, this is one of those "What would you do?" educational films that expect you to actually think about what you have seen - I hate those. I would much rather watch some punk come to a bad end. As for host segments and skits, you start off with a special Love Letters reading by Tom and Crow, get to see Mike terrorize the bots with his rather disturbing chin puppet skills, and enjoy the sad and tragic career of Weather Servo Nine! The real highlight comes when the bots dress up and act like the Mads, then Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank respond in kind (you can imagine what happens when you put TV's Frank's head inside a fishbowl) - now that's entertainment.

A lumpy-faced scientist, with the help of a dog-faced associate, chisel their way into vaults and steal corpses...
Meanwhile, three women from different places across the globe ("all from Nebraska") try not to get other movie roles by doing their worst accents. The "British" lady is especially funny with her "jolly" and her "bloody 'ell"...Good God, does MST notice this...They pounce on their accents like comedy panthers. Well done, boys.

These three women are all going to be housekeepers for an old woman who wants a brain transplant... and lumpy scientist is just the man for the job.
Things don't go as planned and the scientist is radiated in his own machine...along with a Hot Pocket.
The old woman is transplanted into a cat intentionally by lumpy so he can have more money to further his work with...naked dead people...

So the girl is saved, lumpy and the old crazy woman are no more, and the budget for this picture is like an elevator going straight to hell. Mike and robots are hillarious in this, which had a much needed mocking coming to it. Great, great stuff.
Buy now.

If you're new to MST3K, then shame on you! Still, this is a great episode to start off with. Some of the riffs during the movie are bust-a-gut hilarious (the accents of the actresses alone are enough to send you laughing...ever hear a Southern girl try to talk British??). The host segments are great, the movie has too many funny moments to count. Spend the money on this one with no fear!

An average MST 3K, hillarious in some parts, a little dull in others, but the good parts are worth the 4 stars alone. The main focus of joke-making in this episode is the music and the horrible british accents. A great episode for MST 3K fans, but if you're new to the show, start with a better episode.

Another great episode of MST3K, although it's not the best of the episodes that are curently on video. If you would like a better one, check out Bloodlust, Mitchell, and Sidehackers.

Favorite riff-Mike: But I wanted it!

Interesting little piece of stereotyping and misunderstanding of atomic energy, with just enough nudity to draw the average male viewer. The mad scientist in the movie is suitably into his work, and the basic plot moves along well enough to somewhat obscure the characters' basic nullity. The skits had almost nothing to do with the movie, and it was at about this time that the invention exchanges were ready to be pulled (and it shows), but it was nice that Magic Voice got a chance to star for once.

The actual movie just didn't make the most of its cast (With a zombie, a dog-man, and a cat-woman around, why pay all that attention to an aging gigolo?), but I think this one paid off at least average all the same. Could have done with more mad science stuff and somewhat less pronounced accents.

"In retrospect, an obvious mistake."

In The Atomic Brain, there is no atomic brain. A terrifically funny one. A woman wants her brain in the body of one of three young girls specially selected. Oh, boy. Not to mention the eating of a live mouse during the film.