Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

[This is a review of the DVD version] If you love old bad SF movies but haven't ever seen them given the Mystery Science Theater treatment, you owe it to yourself to pick up this DVD! Mike Nelson and his robot pals Crow and Tom Servo watch this relentlessly silly turkey of a movie (a scientist saves the severed head of his girlfriend and puts her in a pan, where she pleads with him to let her die. How sloppily-put-together is this film? The filmmakers apparently forgot their own title and call it "The Head That Wouldn't Die" in the end credits.)--and throughout the entire film, Tom and the `bots mercilessly riff on the film with funny comments and jokes that'll have you rolling in your seats. Long a staple of Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel, this is one of the first DVDs of this classic comedy series (many others are available on VHS). In addition to the pristine and clear picture you get with DVD, Rhino has also included the full *original* version of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" on the flip-side of the disc so you can see it without Mike and the `bots (to riff on your own, perhaps?). The DVD menus are innovative and worth checking out just for the clever swish-pan of the bridge of the Satellite of Love (Crow, Servo, and Gypsy flash past us). If I had any quibble at all it's a minor one... why is the DVD chapter that begins the film entitled "It's Movie Time!" when every MSTie knows it should be "We've got Movie Sign!"? But I'll put up with minor problems like that as long as Rhino continues to give us these great reissues of classic MST3K episodes. Now if they'd only release "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" and "Outlaw"... (Also recommended in this series: the DVD version of "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Eegah.")

I first saw this movie when I was in the 4th grade or thereabouts, and it scared the living bejesus out of me.

But what do you know when you're in the 4th grade?

Now that MST3K has reissued this movie and I've watched it perhaps 10 times, I laugh all the way through it. The dialogue is awful. The basic plot recalls countless puns about folks who lose their heads and flash-in-the-pan actresses. Mad Scientist Bill Courtner's girlfriend has lost hers in a fiery car crash ("Honey roasted," comments one of Mike's companions). Obsessed scientist that he is, he keeps her head alive in a lasagna pan full of "adreno-serum" in the basement laboratory of his country place. She says, "Let me die!" enough times that you're ready to oblige her, then strikes up a liaison, sort of, with the thing that lives in Bill's closet--the product of an earlier experiment that went awry. (When Bill looks in the closet, you're dying to hear, "Omygawd, it's Rosanne!" but Mike's pals missed that one.) The scene in the seedy strip club sends me into hysterics. Best line here, robot Crow observing one of the girls: "I must have blood before the night is done!"

There are some godawful blunders. For example, the scene in which Bill enters the country place with a new girlfriend follows very closely after his assistant Curt's having stumbled around the same room bleeding profusedly from ... shall we say, a farewell-to-arms type encounter with the thing in the closet. So where's all the blood?

The ending is a bit gory (though tame by today's standards). The thing in the closet certainly wins the ugly award for that year. But when he/it turns away toward the stairwell after making mayhem starting a fire in the lab and taking a bite out of poor Bill's throat, we see another ghastly flaw: you can actually see where the mask is tied on at the back of the actor's head! Now THAT's funny!

Not to mention how Bill's old girlfriend, still in her pan at the end, manages to laugh without the benefit of chest, diaphragm or lungs. (I forgot, she has neck juice.)

Incidentally, in my version the end credits also screw up the title, calling it The HEAD That Wouldn't Die.

Mike and his robots' running commentary, though, offers nonstop comedy you can enjoy over and over again. I haven't been panning this movie. (Sorry!) Four stars for amusement value.

Steven Yates

Long before Herbet West creeped us out in the 80s, there was Dr. Bill. Bill has been doing some creepy things up at the cabin in the mountains, and this time, he's taking his fiancee up there with him. In an unexplained speeding frenzy up a winding road, they crash; Bill survives, but, well, only SOME of his girl Jan does.

Bill scampers away from the burning mess of the car with a bundle, and we quickly realize it's Jan's head he's hiding in his jacket. Once he gets to the cabin, he sets Jan up with lots of tubes and percolating things and administers her this life-giving 'neck juice.' Is she happy to *somewhat* still be alive? Hell no! She's a freak now and ain't proud of it. The remainder of the film is Jan mocking Bill's eerie assistant and bitching at Bill. Funniest scene: Bill's method for shutting up Jan.

Mike's first episode as the test subject of the 'Mads is definitely worth watching. Crow & Servo do their best to break him in, and it's a really great episode. Fans who find themselves missing Joel should know that, as the series head writer, Mike wrote many of the skits and lines Joel spoke, so while the host changes, not a lot else does. The Invention Exchange--a basic component of Joel shows--is slowly phased out, but Mike's invention is definitely a good one. A cameo at the end by Mary Jo as Jan is hilarious, and as is normal in most of the Mike episodes, Mike manages to tick her off too.

Bill is creepy and easily unlikeable, especially when he goes trolling for a body for Jan! EWWWWW!!!! A must-see for Mike fans!

Evil scientists, bizarre medical experiments, and a body-less head that floats about in a dinner pan - what more could a boy ask for? Mention the phrase "typical 50s science fiction B-movie" to someone, and you'll undoubtedly conjure up an image of something that's not wholly unlike THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. Yes, the classic movie where the evil scientist boyfriend keeps his favourite chick alive by pulling her head off of her body in a car wreck and setting it up in a laboratory in his basement. Somehow having her head cut off gives the girlfriend special powers of telepathy but only (and here's the catch) with really ugly monster experiments. Oh, and it also turns her evil, I think.

This is Mike Nelson's first movie as a member of the crew onboard the Satellite of Love, and he fills Joel's shoes admirably. The jokes are mostly on target and the host segments are quite good. This isn't one of the best episodes of the show, but it's certainly an enjoyable one and quite an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half. The DVD version of this release comes with the uncut, full-screen format of the film on the flip side of the disc, if you're in a particularly masochistic mood.

Highlights of the film include: the film title changing between the opening and closing credits, a decapitated head with attitude, and a mad scientist out prowling for spare heads at stripping diners.

This was one movie that was so bad, i would have laughed at it without MST making fun of it! Mary Jo Pehl as the "Brain That Wouldn't Die" in one of the cut scenes was hilarious! A must see and buy for any MST3K collection.

Much to my surprise, I just realized that I apparently haven't gotten around to reviewing this classic episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not only is it an especially funny episode, it is of great historical importance as the first episode featuring Mike Nelson as the human subject for Dr. Forrester's experiments (Joel Hodgson having bowed out in mid-season #5), thus giving rise to the who's funnier controversy that all of us fans seem to enjoy arguing about so much. The whole show got a makeover of sorts, from the theme song to new theatre doors to a new look to Deep 13. Mike, of course, was no stranger to MSTies, having served as head writer for years and having popped up numerous times in skits. That, plus the fact that Mike is a comic genius totally at home in front of the camera, made a rather traumatic event (Joel was, after all, the heart and soul of the whole show) a celebration rather than a wake. It was the start of a phenomenal run, as some of the show's funniest episodes can be found in Mike's half of that fifth season.

Naturally, Best Brains wanted a slam-dunk movie for Mike's debut, and The Brain That Wouldn't Die (also known - in the movie's end credits, no less - as The Head That Wouldn't Die) was a can't-miss. Any show featuring a talking head in a pan of neck juice is rife for ribbing. You've also got a mutated monster so ugly that even Tor Johnson's mother couldn't love him, an arm-challenged mad scientist's assistant, a doctor whose idea of saving lives involves murder, a stripper catfight, and even a beauty contest. And let's not forget the talking decapitated head, even though said head proves so annoying that many would argue the good doctor should have left the head to burn and saved the body instead.

You think you really know the woman you love - until you take her decapitated head, put it in a pan, and keep it alive with your own special blend of neck juice. Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason Evers), a new-breed doctor who bravely goes where most doctors (at least, those not named Frankenstein) fear to tread, could have just let his fiance Jan (Virginia Leith) die after her head gets chopped off in an auto accident. Instead, he grabbed her head, hustled it up to his personal lab, set it up all nice and neat in his own special recipe of life-maintaining gravy, and went out in search of a new body for the woman he loved. But does Peggy appreciate everything Bill has done for her? Nooooo. Not one bit. All she does is turn into the mouth that wouldn't shut up and makes "you should have let me die" her new mantra. Apparently, all of her nice qualities were located in her torso because she turns into a vengeful little spitfire who proclaims herself the leader of the doctor's army of mutant creations (all one of them). In her defense, Dr. Cortner is one weird dude with a pretty disturbing hairstyle, but she knew that before she dropped 95% of her body mass. Maybe she's just mad that the selective doctor is seeking an upgrade model for her new body, but you can hardly blame the guy for that. Why settle for pancakes when you can have the whole hungry man's breakfast?

No self-respecting MSTie would dare be without this hilarious, historically important episode in his/her personal collection.

I first seen this movie when I was 6 years old on the old Nightmare Theater out of Salt Lake's Channel 4. I think it tweaked me to be what I am now!

The second time I saw this film, was in my early 20's, when I used to "do colors." In that state of mind, the show was hillarious!!

And now it has been given the coup' de Grace it deserves by Mike and our Robot Friends!

This is one of the better MST movies. Mike and the bots are shotgun fast in their remarks and their critique. Our MST guys include literally hundreds of obscure comments here. They tie to other MST episodes, '60's TV commercials, and the sheer twisted God Complex of our hero, Dr. Cortner. He needs to lop the heads off of sleazy tramps to provide his ego with the perfect slutty body for his personal "football,", our beloved Jan in the Pan! Too bad that Jan got a mad-on against Dr. Killjoy and she allies herself with White Fang behind that door!

Favorite Jibes!

"Battery acid? U'r soaking in it!"
Why he gave my hand Rich Corinthian Leather, I'll never know!
No, White Fang, NO! Not the Custard Pie!
"Mitttchhhellll!"
That's one bad tasting Mc.Nuggett!
Hi! Im William Proxmire, put 'er there!
Honey! Dont forget my purse! Honey!
Hi! I'm a doctor! I want to lop your head off!
No thanks, Ill just see the menu. "I AM the menu!"
"Chi-Chit!" Chi-Chit!"
It looks like he just copped an attitude!
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This is the MST to baptize novices into our cult with! Buy it, than hold a MST party and see if you and your friends can be half as fast at hurling insults and jibes at this movie as our Professional Robot Friends are!

This movie is deservingly well MST-ied. Who'd think you could make a movie with 4 backdrops, a car, a camera, and a bunch of women who shouldn't be dressed like hootchies. And lets not forget the monster who we HEARD but only saw for about a minute, and couldn't maim anybody with a freakin' chainsaw. In the monster scene, where the bargan basement beast is girl slapping our main character, Crow blurts out in a goofy voice "Does this bug you? Does this bug you? Does this bug you?". And lets not forget the story's head, which ends up dying(?)in her pan, in the fire at the end and according to Mike 'makes her own gravy'. Finally, the bar scene introduces one of the badly dancing, psuedo-hootchies, who is dancing to tell everybody 'that there are no baked potatoes until after five'. Yes this story of a scientist who wishes to build a 'Franken-Hooker' gets a 5 out of 5 in my book.

The plot has been dicussed by others,so all I have to add is the movie is worth your time.Beyond the jokes,the movie itself is chock full of mysogyny,bad acting,bad writing,bad lighting...bad everything.There's no excuse for a movie this odious,which is why it's so fun to watch Mike & the 'bots kick it to pieces.

This MST3K, along with Pod People, were the first two episodes I received as a Christmas present. I have to say, this is one of the top episodes ever. I agree with the previous poster, "Ways" is one of the funniest lines ever in a episode of Mystery Science Theater. In other episodes, I recommend Pod People, Cave Dwellers, Manos obviously, and some other episodes that aren't available on video, but are tremendously entertaining if you can get your hands on them: Attack of the the Eye Creatures (that's not a typo) and Jack Frost off the Sci-Fi episodes. Some that I can recommend you don't buy are The Wild World of Bat Woman, Eegah, and Red Zone, which seem to be put on video not so much because the jokes are funny, but that the movies are so incredibly bad. Some people may like that, but I prefer to have Joel, Mike, and the bots make the jokes for me.