Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Shorts, Volume Three [VHS]

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

 

 

I love MST3K and especially the shorts. This collection features 7 rather dated and odd snippets of life in the last century:

Speech -- Using Your Voice: The host of this educational short for executives who don't know how to speak in public is a bit of a car wreck, but nothing too gut splitting here.

Aquatic Wizards: Nothing to see here. Not even skin. But there's a few good lines sprinkled around.

Is This Love?: Featuring what must be the oldest college co-ed ever, it's the prudes versus the swingers. Okay, but not too high on the amusement scale.

Design for Dreaming: This is the bright gem of the tape -- a bizarre mix of modern dance, push-button appliances, and autos of the future. "Ahhhh! The bridge to the future is out!!!!" Very very funny, almost as good as my fave, Mr. B Natural (not on this tape). This short alone is just about worth getting the video.

The Selling Wizard: Yikes! Plastic magic scary smiling woman selling freezer units!

Out of This World: Why an angel and devil would care about a bread salesman is beyond me. A few good moments and laughs.

Once Upon a Honeymoon: If someone can explain what the point of this short is, I'll give them money. Some funny spots.

So, that's them. Nothing too hysterically funny, but well worth the few bucks for the tape. A must for any die-hard Satellite of Love junkies.

MST3K Shorts Volume 3 is inferior to the previous two volumes, but the tape does include seven shorts from the classic series of experiments--two with Joel and five with Mike. The Speech short is famous for one thing only--the line about the importance of "plenty of lip and tongue action." Beyond that, it basically just makes fun of the way a lot of people talk. Aquatic Wizards takes us to a school for water skiing--it's even more boring than it sounds. The embarrassingly ludicrous Design For Dreaming may well explain why foreign automobiles became all the rage in America. The video features a strange woman and a masked man in a tuxedo singing and dancing about the cars and kitchen of the future. I don't think the mask was part of the script; the guy was probably so embarrassed about the job that he wanted to hide his identity.

How many nights have you lain awake wondering just how ice cream merchandising works? Really! Um, well, wonder no more. The Selling Wizard (in the guise of a mute caped woman wearing a tablecloth vest) will tell you everything you need to know about selling ice cream hand over fist. Here's a secret everyone may not know--refrigeration and freezing units. That's all I can say here. Interestingly, this riveting video comes from Annheiser Busch. This is probably the least funny short in MST3K history. The guys basically just watch the video and randomly make comments about the difficulty of choosing the right model for themselves.

Out of This World is a truly weird one. I don't know if there is a patron saint for bread salesmen, but there is a demon and an angel who oversee the careers of all purveyors of fine baked goods. When one inefficient salesman learns the error of his ways, the demon bets the angel that he will slip back to his old ways. We basically watch the bread truck guy go on his rounds, fostering grocer goodwill and talking grocers into selling more bread more prominently. I have no idea why, but I find the video itself quite interesting, and there are some funny moments, but this isn't really a stellar short. Then, we have Once Upon a Honeymoon. I have no idea what it was supposed to be about. A songwriter and his wife have waited a year for their honeymoon; when the boss calls and says a song must be rewritten, it is up to a goofy angel wearing kooky glasses to save the day, which he of course does by tempting the wife with modern home appliances.

Fortunately, this video has one saving grace, the classic "Is This Love?" short. Peggy and her man decide to marry after three months of dating; her parents want her to wait a year to finish school, but she throws a temper tantrum and elopes. For contrast, we have Peggy's college roommate Liz, a 50-year old Romulan woman, and her goofy boyfriend Andy. These old-fashioned (and just plain old) kids are taking the traditional route to marriage, waiting until school is over and they are sure they are compatible. There are plenty of humorous comments in this one.

All in all, this is a fairly weak collection of MST3K shorts. There are some funny bits throughout, of course, but they are relatively few and far between. The first two volumes of MST3K shorts are more enjoyable, but any MSTie will definitely want to add Volume 3 to his/her collection, as well.

The third volume of shorts in the highly successful "shorts" compilation videos from Mystery Science Theater 3000. The two funniest shorts included are: "Speech - Using Your Voice," a hilarious short (featuring Joel!) narrated by an elderly professor who advises using "plenty of lip and tongue action" when making a speech; and "Is This Love?," a laugh-out-loud 50's short for teens about love and dating. The other shorts featured on this video are "Design for Dreaming," "The Selling Wizard," "Out of This World", "Once Upon a Honeymoon", and "Aquatic Wizards". The only thing that could've made it better, in my opinion, would've been the inclusion of "Mr. B. Natural", definitely the oddest (and funniest) of the shorts the guys have ever done.

In this release several short films become cannon fodder for the SOL crews merciless attacks, the shorts range from "social issue drams" like "Is this love?" to the educational shorts "specch using your voice" to training films "out of this world" to entertainment "acquatic wizards" to shorts with no clear purpose whatsoever "One upon a honeymoon." Throughout the eighty plus minutes of this tape the humor is great. Hopefully Rghino will release another shorts film soon.

This one had a lot of laugh out loud moments.The only one I thought was boring was "The selling wizard" Mike and the 'bots were trying their darndest to find something,anything funny about this one.My favorite riff in the short "Is this love?" (They think that marriage is all about hand holding and gazing into each others eyes.Mike-It's the stench of amonia from the piles of [feces] filled diapers!)."Design for Dreaming" was the weirdest thing I've ever seen it made me laugh so hard(Mike-will someone please invent Rock and Roll?)

During the course of the Satelite of Love the crew encountered an experiment like no other. A short know as Mr B Natural. This imfamous short is known to Mysties as the greatest and yet the most disturbing. I laughed, to the point I almost fell out of my chair. Then I reflected on the crews words...was Mr B Natural a feminine man or a woman confused with her sexuality. The thought is perplexing. And I feel for that young boy, I do. Also on this video Is the short Out Of This World, a personal favorite as heaven and hell duke it out over a bread delivery man. Does the balance of good and evil rest with a nice fresh loaf of 'Stuff' bread? Also on this tape Is This Love, The Selling Wizard(from the King of Beers), Speech, Aquatic Wizards, Design for Dreaming, and Once Upon a Honeymoon. It's time for movie sign!

I found this one the funniest of all 3 shorts. Once Upon a Honeymoon, the marriage one, and the freaky auto show one can keep me laughing for hours. Admittedly, the ice cream one is a bit dull, but I found the train ones in the old shorts videos duller, so it's still worth it to me.

Again, it seems most people feel different about this collection, but it is one of my favorite MST3K collections of all times.

In this great Collection of Shorts, the SOL crew heckles away fearlessly at The selling wizard, aquatic wizards, once upon a Honeymoon and others. The cream of the crop is in my opinion Once upon a honeymoon, a short about an angel sent to help a song writer and his wife go on their honey moon. In the middle of the short the wife launches into a full song and dance routine in which she redecorates rooms in ther drab house, and adds a telephone in each if I am not mistaken. This plus the husband's case of writer's block and the angel named Wilbur, combine to make the short a confused mess. Perhaps this is why the MST crew is at their best; the short is so odd that they are able to rip it apart. This is a must-have for any fans of the SOL.

Okay, don't get me wrong here; any MST3K fan is going to love this. If you're a freak who would do anything to see those two robots and the guy comment on stupid short subjects, this is the video for you.

However, some of the shorts are either too long and downright boring (the short about sorting ice cream immediately comes to mind). Plus, after just seeing the hilarious "Shorts Vol. 2", this was very disappointing. Most of the topics covered in this one aren't all that heavy-handed (like the hilarious train-crossing film in vol. 2). They're mostly just kinda dumb.

Like I mentioned above, though, you'll still find enjoyment from this if you're a MST3K junkie. Best shorts are "Speech", "Land of Tomorrow", and that totally stupid one about some angel who has to help a couple go on a honeymoon. Otherwise, check out the other "Shorts" volumes before this one.

As someone in my early 30s, I find it hard to believe that our parents were actually expected to take these short educational movies seriously! Not only are the shorts fun for us younger generation to watch, but those who actually saw them first-hand will enjoy re-watching them as well. We watched the video with my boyfriend's parents (who are in their mid-50s), and they got a kick out of seeing the shorts now. A few of the shorts on Vol. 3 are a little boring, but the ones about bread sales and a delayed honeymoon make up for th rest.