Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Pod People [VHS]

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Good? This episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is the BEST! It ranks perhaps even above, Ator, Attack of the-the Eye Creaters, and even infamous short, Mr./Ms. Be-Natural. The Amazing Collasial Episode guide called it a fan favorite. Kevin Murphy noted how he wanted to kill this movie. The movie itself is a spin off from ET, perhaps? No one is really sure. It starts of in a misty wilderness with three poachers. Then we are in outer-space, (viewing something). Then it goes to some cheap rock band playing a stupid song which is excellently mocked by bots. Then the crew decides to take some nature shots of deer and wild life. We are then transported to the gentle loveable (extremely annoying) star? of the show Tommy's house. The thing from outer space crashes These little short hairy monsters (that are actually kind of cute) come out and kill the poachers. But Tommy finds one while serching for more "specimens" which are really CENTIPEDES! He names him Trumpy, we unfortunaly have have the plot of a horrible movie. But it was Tommy's kitten "Mittens" that stole our hearts. He attacked Trumpy's nose in one scean but obviously no one on the camera crew saw. I will give you Misties a personal guarentee that this movie is sucessful bashed!! And the songs they sing will stick in your head for a long while and make you laugh when it's inappriopriate and embarass you. This is probably the best episode ever done. It also has the best segway of all-time when Joel, Crow, Tom, and Gypsy sing a re-take of the movie's rock group song. "Hidous partrol now?" There's too many funny parts in this movie to tell in this review, but I guarentee you'll love it! END

This is one of the best MST3K Episodes ever. The Riffs during the movie are great as always (the renaissance guy; HUZZAH!, Trumpy Likes Potatoes, etc.). But what makes this episode really shine are the host segments. How can you go wrong with Crow playing a new, New Age Yanni Lick, or Tom and Crow flying all over the SOL as a result of Trumpy's Magic. And of course who can forget the two songs from this classic, Hear the Engines Roll Now (IT STINKS!) and Clowns in the Sky. We Miss you MST3K!

I have never laughed so hard. Even the thought of this movie causes me to begin to giggle. Unlike most MST3K episodes, Pod People has no dead joke-less spots--just tiny pauses in which you begin to take a breath, only to have it knocked out of you by another joke. Watch it!

I'd give it six stars if I could - this is absolutely the best episode of MST3K I have ever seen, hilarious from start to finish! I laughed all the way through it, so hard that my ribs hurt at the end.

As far as plot goes, well, at least the filmmakers made a valiant attempt to have one. In fact, it seems they tried several times. They tried with a terrible rock band, singing a strange song that sounds like it involves "Flying over trout". They tried with a spooky little kid named Tommy, who likes cuddling with monster eggs to hatch them. They tried with a couple of poachers (one who seems to be straight out of a Ren Fest - "Huzzah!" -, the other who just has a passion for killing things). Sadly, it seems things just didn't work out. They never did manage to come up with an actual storyline.

What they DID come up with was a very goofy breed of aliens, that look like the ill-favored love children of Alf and Mr. Snuffleupagus. The star alien, Trumpy, having been hatched by little Tommy, impresses his human pal by eating a lot and making objects fly around the room in a most upsetting way.

Someone also felt that synthesized music must be an integral part to this film. So much so, in fact, that a forest scene features high-pitched beeps that sound nothing like birdcalls, but are clearly meant to (Tom Servo refers to them as Syntho-Birds). The soundtrack is also rich with sleepy new-age music, and this inspires Joel and the Bots to create their own new-age works, during one of the host segments.

The riffs are so good that it's hard to choose a favorite, though I am especially fond of Crow's brilliant voice-over, as Trumpy slowly examines Tommy's collection of pets - "Kitty is like a potato... Little wingéd potatoes... This potato's got big ears..."

This is the perfect episode to own, whether you're a longtime MSTie or a newcomer to the crazy world of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Buy it now!

"Pod People" was the first MST3K episode I ever watched, and remains my very favorite. While kind of confusing at first, it all comes together eventually. Joel and the bots comment that it seems to be made up of three different movies. The first part involves two poachers, one who looks like he belongs in a Renaissance Festival ("Huzzah!") and another guy who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Magoo ("I'm doing a one-man show: Lesley Neilson, Lesley Neilson, Lesley Neilson!") A little redheaded kid is in the movie later. He collects all kinds of creepy-crawlies and rodents. When he stumbles upon "The Gates of Hell", he finds an egg, and puts it in his bed. "Oh, he's trying to hatch the egg. What is he, Horton?" When "Trumpy", an alien with a elephant-like snout hatches, he and Tommy turn his room into a mix between Mary Poppins and Gumby. Also, a [terrible]band sings a stupid song. "Hey, it's Greg Brady!" "Young Republicans- they're so hip!" "Lyrics by Mrs. Johnson's kindergarten class!" Add a whole lot of fog and an airhead named Laura, and you've got Pod People.

Pod People is probably the worst movie that I have ever seen in my entire life, but fortunatly the only time I've ever seen it was with Joel, Crow, and Tom Servo ! They absolutly rip this movie to shreds ! The high points : The Renaissance Festival guy ( his last words were: HUZZAH! ), Trumpie's "magic" ( wow Trumpie, you can do STUPID things ! ), the "scary" monster ( "He looks like a cross between a pig and a bear." A pear? ), the studio skit ( flying over trout, wind in my eyes, my sister's ready to go ! Hear the engines roll now ! ) , "Smucker's Raspberry Preserves", and the classic skit where Joel & Co. make fun of the stuff Trumpie does in Tommy's room ( Wow, you really are magic,Trumpie ! ) Classic stuff ! " Goodnight, Chief ! " " Goodnight, McCloud ! " P.S. Get "Mitchell" , too. Another side-splitting MST3K !

If you desire to have a migrane headache, I recommend this film to you, UnMSTified.

If you want your sides to hurt from non-drug-induced hillarious laughter, I reccomend the MST3K'd version of this cess!

What is it with Spanish film making? Why are they so [weak] that they take the worst of Hollywood and make it even more terrible than the originals? Let's make the European people suffer, then export this [stuff] to the rest of the world! Cave Dwellers is another prime example.

The music score of this monstrosity sounds like it was composed by some Orwellian music-oscillator. Many sub-plots revolve around your brain while watching it. Perhaps they got the idea from "Marathon Man." Yet, in "Marathon man," all the subplots come together into the climax of the film. Pod People's sub plots never do that and they will just leave you in lethargic suspense, with an Excederin headache.

SPOILER:

The classic example of the above.

We get to suffer through a main plot of a weird Lost In Space type of "family," then some unrelated poachers, then a stupid stinky popular singing band. These different plots cut in and out of each other and revolve around the movie till your brain is similarly revolving.

In the singing sub-plot, Joel and the 'bots are hillariously singing along, modifying the lyrics to what the movie is all about, "Idiot Control." Then there cuts in a scene of that stupid house in the mist of the forest while the oscillator whines new age music. Then the poacher scene cuts in with the nonsensical dialogue between the poachers, while Tom Servo makes up a funny conversaton between some deer. You get to see Joel and the 'bots being put under the anesthesia of it all as they doze off to sleep. Suddenly it cuts back into that band playing loudly. Joel and the 'bots are rudely shocked awake and yell a post-nightmare wake-up scream!

Ahhh, Trumpy, the one redeeming feature of the film! I bet "Mitchell" would love to have Trumpy around to vacuum the potato chip crumbs from the inside of his couch! The special bond between Tommy (can you hear me) and Trumpy hit the soft spot in my heart. Yet the 'bots riffing of Trumpy left me in a quagmire as all the subplots of the movie did. Because I was both slightly offended by the 'bots cruelty to Trumpy, while at the same time I was laughing my head off at tne non-stop lampooning of Trumpy, especially by Crow! That kitty was the real star, as it played continuously with Trumpy's trunk, as Trumpy eyed his smorgasbord. Crow kept cracking jokes of all the nice "potatoes" that Trumpy had to eat!

...

Be prepared to also be confounded by the beginning and the ending of this trollop. Much like "Cave Dwellers," the beginning and ending scenes are from another movie. However the beginning scenes roughly paralell what [stuff] u are going to see in the movie, however be it that the creatures are entirely different and the eggs are also different. They look like giant golf balls with lights in them.

Tommy: "Trumpy, do you know what play is?
Crow: "It is when I break you in half!"

Get this movie and convert the world to the cause of our robot friends on the Satellite of Love!

This movie, is the best MST3k out there. At all. End of story. The movie "the Pod People" is worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space. Or any Ed Wood movie for that matter. An Alf looking creature (Trumpy) and his brother, go an a killing spree. Some poachers and naive teenagers must stop them. That's the story line. The characters (and directers) do some really daft things. It is winter, then when they drive to the neighboor's, it's SPRING! (as the bots put it, the two season drive). Why the hell was there a man with an "I'm a Virgin" shirt on commenting on a crappy rock band? WHY? Why does the credits at the beginning show something *not* at all in the movie? WHY? Why does the man who finds the alien eggs SMASH them all? (as the bots put it: He's an LAPD officer!)Those are just the tip of the iceberg. The really sweet material is the sheer riffs. To Look for: "McCloud!", "Huzzah"!, "Look, the camera man looked through the wrong lens!", and many more. But the ultimate riff: "It's called evil kid". Also, the special effects are 1950's ish. Mary Poppins made things float better than Trumpy did. Just see this movie at all costs.

As I write my review, the average customer review for this one is 5 Stars. That says it all right there.

I laughed so hard during some parts of this show that I was crying. The way that Trumpy was able to magically alter the kid's room, making his "Simon" game go wacko and all of his clothes come flying out of his closet, was hilarious even without Joel and the Robots' comments.

When they were commenting on the movie, I laughed even harder. My favorite line was after the lady told the teens to let the girl who had fallen off a cliff get a good night's sleep, Joel commented, "Yeh, that's what cures a crushed spine!"

There was TERRIBLE music in this one ("Ringo did some bad stuff, but this? "..."It stinks!"), so Joel and the Robots were about to do a few Yanni licks on their synthesizers during a break.

Never a dull moment in this one. If you want to see if you might like MST3K, watch this one first. This is what it's all about!

This movie is one of the worst ever made, but in the hands of the capable MST3K crew, it's a laugh a minute.

"The Pod People" is a movie whose plot is so muddled that it's hard to even explain. An atrocious rock band, torn by the womanizing lead singer, go on a retreat to an isolated location. There they add to the body count created by an unfathomable alien, some heretofore-undiscovered terrestrial life form, or A.L.F. on a bad-hair day -- take your pick. The movie is so incoherent that you can't tell even if people are being killed or simply transformed somehow.

But it doesn't matter. The MST3K gang milks tons of laughs from this turkey. The parody of the band's recording scene is just heavenly. Don't miss this one!