Customer Reviews

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 8 (Hobgoblins / The Phantom Planet / Monster A-Go Go / The Dead Talk Back)

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MST3K Volume 8 contains two episodes from the Comedy Central years and two from the Sci-Fi Channel years. One stars Joel Hodgson and three star Mike Nelson as host. There is lots of sci-fi and horror fun in these four weird and wonderful episodes. Here's a synopsis of each of them:

Episode 421- MONSTER A-GO GO (with short: CIRCUS ON ICE)
The movie is a hilarious bit of b/w 1965 sci-fi made by Bill Rebane, the guy who later brought you The Giant Spider Invasion. The plot involves an astronaut returning to Earth as a radioactive "monster" and the efforts to catch him. The film has a surprise ending which I won't give away here in case there are any MST3K fans about to buy this set that haven't seen it. I will say that the surprise, if you can call it that, will make you groan, and Joel and the `Bots make some hilarious jokes at the film's expense when the so-called big surprise is revealed. The writers at MST3K were often at their best when the films were at their worst, and this episode is no exception. The low budget is readily apparent in everything about this film, like the poor sound quality, the acting, direction and props (or lack of them). For example, there's one especially funny scene wherein an actor is forced to make a ringing noise to simulate a telephone ringing instead of having an actual sound effect of a telephone ring! The short, Circus On Ice, is also a bit weird and takes a hilarious verbal pounding from the crew of the SOL. Wait till you see the skater playing a fawn getting shot! It's not your typical ice show or circus, that's for sure.

Episode 603- THE DEAD TALK BACK (with short: THE SELLING WIZARD).
This b/w feature was filmed in 1957, but never saw the light of day till it was released on video in 1993 and then appeared on Mystery Science Theater. An inventor is working on a machine that will allow him to speak to the dead. One of his fellow boarding house tenants is murdered, so they supposedly use his invention to have a séance and speak with the victim and reveal the murderer. There's lots of inaction in the middle before the climactic séance scene and (yes, another) surprise ending. Dull and dumb, but good for some laughs, especially with the crew of the SOL. The short, The Selling Wizard, is only slightly livelier, but is funny when the MST3K gang gives it the usual treatment. It's a classic bit of American advertising by the Anheuser-Busch Company that gets an amusing and merciless MST3K treatment.

Episode 902- PHANTOM PLANET
Any movie with Richard Kiel as a large grotesque monster can't be a total waste. An SF flick made in 1961 in black and white, it has everything you'd expect: stiff acting, rubber suit monsters, pretty girls in scanty attire, and cheesy special effects. The story involves an Earth astronaut finding his way onto a wandering "phantom planet" where the humanoid inhabitants are advanced and look just like earthlings, only extremely diminutive by comparison. The astronaut shrinks to their size when exposed to their atmosphere, after which love, jealousy, action and melodrama ensue. There's a really fruity optimistic speech made by one of the astronaut characters early in the picture, just before he dies a sudden death from a meteoroid strike; what message is the filmmaker trying to send with that? If you like old SF films, you will like this one a lot.

Episode 907- HOBGOBLINS
This 1987 rip-off of Gremlins directed by Rick Sloane is just about as bad as a movie can get. There is nothing amusing, entertaining, funny or scary about this movie and it fails to entertain on EVERY level. I've read that most of Mr. Sloane's movies are of a less reputable type (wink, wink) than bad SF, but no matter what your taste you won't want to see anything else by him after you've seen this garbage. If possible, it's less entertaining than Manos Hands of Fate! The seeming intentional humor in the film is about as funny as a train wreck, so it's not that easy for the MST3K writers to get humor out of it, however, it is goofy enough and poorly made enough to give them something to use and the end result is funny enough to be worth it for viewers. The MST3K writers must have really had to suppress their gag reflexes in order to make a funny episode out of this one, but we benefit from their sacrifice.

These four shows all represent a strong effort even if the films used in them do not. The variety of films used should prove interesting to most viewers and there's a little something for everyone. Everything in this set is still funnier and more original than nearly anything you'll find on TV before or since these aired, even if one or two of these are not on your favorites list. Monster A-Go Go is so hilarious that I'd recommend the set for that one alone. Now Rhino Video, how about Rocketship X-M, King Dinosaur, Lost Continent, Wild Rebels, Outlaw and Magic Voyage of Sinbad for the next few sets! Please publish more MST3K episodes soon!

The movies included in Volume 8 are great, in the sense that they're perfect for getting the Mystie treatment. "The Dead Talk Back" (1957) is a movie that was so bad, it wasn't released, it escaped! This no name, no budget film involves a mad scientist who supposedly invents a radio-like device that enables him to communicate with the dead. In addition to a religious zealot and assorted loonies, one of the people living in his rooming house is a (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) fashion model. When she is murdered, the nutty professor holds a seance in his laboratory, and uses his invention to ask the victim who murdered her. I won't reveal the surprise ending but, as Crow noted, the dead really didn't talk back!

"Phantom Planet" (1961) is a very cheesy sci-fi flick. Just before one of the two astronauts goes outside to make repairs to the spaceship, he makes this maudlin statement. "You know, Captain, every year of my life I grow more and more convinced that the wisest and the best is to fix our attention on the good and the beautiful. If you just take the time to look at it." Fortunately, he is killed before he makes it back inside the rocket. The spaceship is forced down on a meteor, which is really the phantom planet Rheton. The Captain sees a group of miniature people and promptly passes out. The special effects of him shrinking down to their size while inside his spacesuit are pretty good, given the year and the film's budget. Later, the Captain helps the Rhetons fight off a fiery race of beings called the Solorites. Obviously, their weapons are based on the principles of Solaranite that Ed Wood spoke of in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959).

"Monster A-Go Go" (1965) must have been made on a shoestring budget. The crashed space capsule is so small that the robots remark that the astronaut must have been short and standing up for the entire flight! In one scene in a laboratory, you can clearly hear the sound of a phone ringing. However, there's no phone in sight, and nobody reacts to the sound. In a later scene, someone off camera mimics the sound of a phone ringing before the actor picks up the phone. As the mutated astronaut is trapped in a tunnel, the movie abruptly ends, with the following narration. "Suddenly, there was no trail. There was no giant, no monster, no thing called astronaut Frank Douglas to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness." HUH?

"Hobgolbins" (1987) is the illegitimate child of "Gremlins" (1984) and "Ghoulies" (1985). The Hobgoblins live in the unlocked vault of an unused movie studio. An old security guard warns his new assistant to stay away from that area, but his curiosity gets the best of him. The Hobgoblins make him think that he's living out his fantasy of being a rock star, but he dies as a result of fulfilling his fantasy. My favorite scene occurs after the little critters get loose. Under their influence, the uptight girlfriend of the main character becomes a stripper at Club Scum. In a chase through the nightclub, you can clearly see people tipping over their own tables to create chaos. A hand grenade is thrown and a brave soldier throws himself on it. Instead of being blown to bits, he is set on fire! By the end of this movie, I was rooting for the Hobgoblins to take over the world. Without the help of the Hobgoblins, my fantasy would be for Rhino to release the following. Volume 9 would include the movies "The Crawling Eye" (first season, first episode), "Rocketship X-M," "It Conquered The World" and "Village Of The Giants." Volume 10 would include "The Sinister Urge," "Devil Doll," "Soultaker" (the episode where Joel visits Mike), and "Diabolik" (final season, last episode).

Rhino has been doing a great job with the MST3K dvds including letting fans vote on the episodes they would most like to see. Two of my favorite choices made it to this collection and I cannot wait to show these to my friends. The first is "Hobgoblins" which just astounds you that adults actually made this film. The garden-tool fight alone is worth the set. The second is the "Dead Talk Back" which has some of the best bad acting including the scientist who has the most annoying attitude. The boarding house dinner scene has got to be the worst mixture of over-the-top bad acting and rambling voice-overs in any movie.

Keep it up Rhino!
I have ALL of the MST3K episodes on tape with the exception of the first year on KTMA. I will buy every title that Rhino will produce. Yes, I have even bought the repeated Rhino titles, single titles that were put into volume collections(shame on them for that).
In other words, I AM A MST3K Fanatic. So, I want to applaud everyone who buys and appreciates all things Mystie. Even the worst episodes are better than, well, anything!
I must correct Brian Mendus' well written review, for he named the wrong character in "Monster-A-Go-Go". Glenn Manning is of course from "The Amazing Colossal Man", episode #309, and "War of the Colossal Beast", episode #319. Our mysterious "monster" in "Monster-A-Go-Go"is named Frank Douglas, and he was "rescued alive, well and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away..."
Mystery Science Theater 3000 forever.

Volume 8 in the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 DVD collection is another good mixture of episodes from both the Comedy Central era and the Sci-Fi Channel years. Here are some quick comments on each of the four episodes:

MONSTER A-GO GO. A Joel episode. The only thing I knew about this film is that during a break in MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, Joel tells his robot friends to hang on by reminding them that since they survived MONSTER A-GO GO they should be able to endure MANOS. This worried me, as it's hard to imagine a film bad enough to be mentioned in the same breath as MANOS.

It turns out that MONSTER isn't nearly that bad, although it is completely incoherent, and features bad acting, terrible direction and inexcusably dreadful writing (especially the non-ending). I had expected this film to be much sillier based on the title, which conjures up images of huge monsters in little mini-skirts and go-go boots. Unfortunately, it's much more boring than that.

THE DEAD TALK BACK. A Mike episode. While the ending of MONSTER A-GO GO reminded me of a cheap rip-off of The Twilight Zone (without the producers understanding the reason that show's shock endings worked so well), I got that impression for much of THE DEAD TALK BACK (with the similar lack of understanding of why the original was a success). This movie involves two main plot-strands. First of all, there's a surprisingly not-mad scientist developing a method for communicating with the dead. Second, there's an unexplained murder. Hmmm, I wonder if those two threads will intersect at any point. They do, but the result isn't terribly interesting.

PHANTOM PLANET. A Mike episode. This movie continued the tradition of me expecting Rod Serling to walk on at the end and apologize for the appalling lack of quality. This clichéd early-1960s sci-fi movie feels exactly like every other bad black and white science-fiction movie of the era. It's trying to be deep and meaningful, which it would have a chance of succeeding at if only it weren't one of the most shallow movies I've ever seen. Take a dull sci-fi concept (an astronaut is shrunk down to the same size as minuscule aliens) mix it with some incoherent philosophy (violence and war are not the answer, except for sometimes when they are) and you have PHANTOM PLANET. Share and enjoy.

HOBGOBLINS. A Mike episode. I hadn't watched this episode since MST3k was still producing new episodes, but I clearly remembered Crow's line which neatly summarizes the film's merrily misogynist attitude: "So, Daphne was fun because she was a slut. And Amy wasn't fun until she became a slut. Now I get it! Thanks, movie!"

This cheap late-1980s rip-off of Gremlins is, simply put, abysmal. The complete and utter illogic of the plot makes it perfect for MST3k and can be neatly summed up with Mike's line: "Tell me again why they have an elaborate security system, but they never lock anything?" This film has a somewhat interesting premise which it abandons almost immediately. Supposedly, these alien hobgoblins will give humans everything they desire, but what humans desire inevitably causes their downfall. You'd think there'd be something interesting for the filmmakers to say here about human desire, but they completely miss the point of their premise by simply having the wishes become evil and kill their human.

While these four films varied wildly in terms of quality (and what I mean is that there was huge variation in exactly how these films were bad), the comic riffing was pretty consist across all the episodes. Personally, I thought the jokes in HOBGOBLINS were the strongest, possibly because it was the out-and-out goofiest movie in the collection. This is a great compilation and much recommended to fans or newcomers to the series.

I've always loved MST3K since I was a teenager, and now I get to cherish those old episodes with the MST3K collections. This one is perfect for newcomers and old fans alike, as some of the worst episodes they ever did are slapped together in a 4-DVD collection.

1.PHANTOM PLANET (#902)
This 1950's (or early 1960's) sci-fi snooze is about an astronaut with a bad haircut having his ship drawn strangly to a small planet that looks like a piece of fried chicken (Oh no, it's deep fried!) and forced to live with very small aliens (Aka tiny earthlings.). This movie has a lot of stiff and boring acting, and wait until you hear the wonderful speech by the captain's co-pilot, who dies only 10 minutes later in the film. What kind of message were they going for?

2.THE DEAD TALK BACK (#603)
This movie is just plain stupid. A freelance scientist (probably the director, since he's so into his role) invents a machine which, he claims, will allow him to talk with the dead and solve a woman's murder. Turns out it doesn't, which should've ended the movie the moment it began, but instead, we are dragged along for 80 minutes in a bad detective-story/sci-fi pile of garbage that tries to deliver itself as entertainment. Mike and the bots really let loose on this one, due to the film's bizarre plotpoints involving a stalker (It's hard to stalk people without a car!), bongo players, and a brain that looks like cauliflower. Nothing is known about this odd little independent film, except that it was never released. It does appear that besides the floating stool, the only other special effects were the actors' bad haircuts. The short that preceds it, The Selling Wizard, is a creepy advertisement on how to sell freezers. It's very amusing.

3.MONSTER A GO-GO (#421)
Oh my God. This might be the worst movie I've ever seen. The plot, if there is one, involves a missing astronaut suspected of being a radioactive murderer. Too bad they only follow this plot for about 30 seconds. The remaining 60 minutes consist of scientists mumbling about how to kill the monster, shots of firemen working on sewers, and people left mutilated (not really, just in funny and akward positions.). Joel and the bots really let loose on this one, but by the "suprise ending," they are completly exhausted and sound like they're on the verge of mental breakdown. Notice the hilarious scene with the telephone!

4.Hobgoblins (#907)
No, wait, this is the worst movie I've ever seen. From the director who brought you Vice Academy and Babe Watch, comes Hobgoblins, an extremely bad ripoff of Gremlins. The movie tries to have a plot involving goblins that can mess with people's minds, but then the movie trails off into bad sexual fantasies with Robert Plant (watch the movie for details), a ex-soldier who sets himself on fire in one scene, then comes back with a few scratches (What the hell?!), and some other things that scar the brain. See! The 47 car parking scenes! Hear! The Fish Picker Song! See! A really badly made no-budget horror film that makes no sense!

So there you have it, folks, some of the worst movies ever made with some hilarious commentary from MST3K. Enjoy.

As someone introduced to MST3K during the Sci-Fi channel years, it's always a treat to gain access to the classics. Even so, Phantom Planet was a funny one that I am happy to have through proper channels now.

Hobgoblins was even funnier! This was one that didn't need much riffing (insults hurled at the movie on-screen) to be a laugh riot, but Mike and the 'Bots greatly enhanced the movie anyway.

As for The Dead Talk Back, I'm not sure Mike and the 'Bots were able to save this one. Some movies are just beyond help.

Finally, recall that in another MST3K, one of the worst movies ever, "Manos" The Hands of Fate, Joel remarked to the 'Bots, "Hey, we survived Monster A Go-Go, we can survive this one." Oh boy!!! The short was good riffing material. They were a little slow out of the gate riffing the movie. Then in the last half hour, I was rolling on the sofa laughing my butt off at the wisecracks! I was grateful for the occasional obscure reference just to catch my breath. :-)

A newbie to MST3K could start with this one alright. But it is a must-buy for fans.

While not the best selections from the MST3K vault, you can't go wrong with just about anything from this zany crew. I rarely recommend MST3K to others because the world seems to be divided into two categories of people--those that enjoy MST3K and those that don't. For my fellow MYSTIES: it's a great buy.

"Monster A Go-Go" (Joel), "The Dead Talk Back", and "Phantom Planet" are excellent, but the real treasure here is "Hobgoblins." After viewing this episode a half-dozen times, the lawn tools fight scene still brings tears to my eyes (for several reasons).

While on the subject, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND/OR HUMANITY, BRING THIS SHOW BACK!!! With hundreds of satellite and cable stations, surely SOMEONE should give syndication or (dare I say it?) new episodes (I dared) a try. If such "classics" as "Yes, Dear" and "Full House" can make it to syndication, why not this genuinely hilarious show?!!??

Wow, selling Hobgoblins and Monster A-Go-Go together is a bold move. You can't get more low-budget than those. The Dead Talk Back is pretty darn low-budget as well. Phantom Planet is decent, but only if you want to only see large amounts of boring talking.

Let's start with Phantom Planet. Servo comments, "This movie is a filibuster!" and he's right. Even the stinger at the end credits seems like it's 90 minutes long. It's some guy saying, "You know captain, every year of my life I become more and more convinced, that the wisest and the best is to focus our attention on the good and the beautiful, if you just take the time to look at it." The movie flat out states that when people travel to different planets, their oxygen level determines their size. In other words, people are just balloons. Gosh, these old B-movies did ZERO scientific research before churning out their garbage to audiences.

Too bad it only gets worse from here. Let's go to The Dead Talk Back. It comes with a short. Hooray! The short is The Selling Wizard. Hooray! I love this short. It's nothing but an attempt to sell you a grocery store freezer, and for some reason it's darn funny. Whether you want to sell people ice cream in poorly-designed packages, or stack bodies easily, this is the freezer for you. The movie that follows the short is laughable. It starts with some poor sap trying to convince you that he's going to be able to invent a device that will allow him to communicate with the dead. Of course, Mike and the bots infer that such a task won't be easy while the guy's living in his mother's basement. A murder takes place early in the movie, and from there it's basically a whodunnit. Heck, with the multiple narrators, you have a hard enough time trying to figure out who's explaining the scene to you, much less trying to figure out who the murderer is. Even though putting a razor blade in a glass doesn't magically solve the crime by making a good enough radio to talk with the dead, the dumb guy from the beginning gives it a try anyway.

I heard about Monster A-Go-Go before seeing it, and it was much worse than I thought it would be. The final quarter of the movie drags and drags like you never felt a movie drag before. It's worse than Deep Hurting, Rock Climbing, and Hypno-Helio-Static-Stasis combined. GOSH it's boring. The rest of the movie is great fodder. You don't know ANY characters, NONE of the scenes look good, and you yourself could make a better movie in your backyard. I'm not kidding.

Speaking of making a movie in your backyard, let's talk about Hobgoblins. Oh man, the hobgoblins themselves are the most unrealistic puppets of all time. I swear, this movie has NO special effects. How can anyone get through it? By riffing of course. There's plenty of idiot teens and an old guy available to riff on. Plus there's a band on a stage that might as well be singing the directions to the restroom. This movie is an embarassment to even the most dirt-cheap of productions.

None of these movies have plots that are worth following. Of course, Monster A-Go-Go doesn't even have a plot...I don't think. I've seen it a few times and I still don't know. I always talk about how awful Laserblast is, and it might actually be better than all four of the movies in this collection. Buy the DVDs here only if you're really, really brave and trust the MST3K crew to get you through the very worst in cinematic history, because these movies are really bad, even compared to what was usually seen on the show. You won't find worse stuff anywhere. I love it.

This is a satisfactory collection of episodes. However, Phantom Planet, Monster A-Go Go, and The Dead Talk Back are rather lack-luster affairs. It's no fault of the guys, who are spot on. It's just that the movies are painful, dry, and boring, and tend to drag down the entire experience.

Phantom Planet includes all the convoluted 60s science you could ever want, not to mention meteorites that look like crispy chicken and a downright hilarious villain. The villains -- who look like a kind of alien dog -- are a source of constant hilarity. I only wish they showed up earlier in the story. As it is, it's a rather straight-forward, common sort of B-movie, and is only laugh-out-loud in parts.

Monster A-Go Go is downright awful. The guys are hilarious, but sitting through the movie itself is another matter entirely. It has a narrator who discusses every single plot point at length, and boy, does he grate on your nerves. The monster isn't really funny or goofy as much as he just Fails (he looks like a mutant Abe Lincoln). The guys, funny as they are, just couldn't rise above the film; it was too awful. If you watch this disc for anything, watch it for the Circus on Ice short, which is drop-dead hilarious!

The Dead Talk Back is better after one or two viewings... but it still isn't very palatable. Just like Monster A-Go Go, it seems to have a narrator who doesn't know when to shut up. It's a listless, painful film and lies comatose until the last act, when it jerks and flops aimlessly around like a boneless person shocked by the household current. Even its short can't save it. Who thought that riffing on selling freezers was a good idea? Again, the guys do their best throughout, but it's not enough to overcome the awful boredom inherent in both film and short.

The true winner here is Hobgoblins (a Gremlins ripoff), the touching story of how a bunch of young adults struggle against evil stuffed animals. Words cannot properly express how wonderful this MST3k episode is. The rake fight alone is delightful, much less the strip club in a school cafeteria for no reason and the ridiculous-looking Hobgoblins themselves. This will most certainly be one of the gems in your collection.

If you're a die-hard fan, you should grab this set. It's definitely not the best collection, but it's solid. There are some good laughs even in the weakest episodes. Still, it's a little too mediocre for the casual fan to spend this much money on it.