Customer Reviews

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 12 (The Rebel Set / Secret Agent Super Dragon / The Starfighters / Parts: The Clonus Horror)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

MST3K Volume 12 contains four more episodes of the beloved cow-town puppet show, two with Joel Hodgson as host and two with Mike Nelson in the jumpsuit. Three are from the Comedy Central years while one is from the first season at the Sci-Fi Channel. This is a load of fun that may not be in print for long if issues with the rights over the films used in the show crop up, so order now before it's too late!

Episode 419- THE REBEL SET (with short: JOHNNY AT THE FAIR)
In this amusing episode from season 4, Edward Platt (The Chief on Get Smart!) is a criminal mastermind who concocts a heist using some desperate young men from his local pool of beatniks in this 1959 caper film. His scheme also involves eliminating his help after the job so that he can keep all the loot for himself. Don Sullivan, who played Chase Winstead in Giant Gila Monster ("I sing whenever I sing", an MST3K fan favorite) also stars. The short, Johnny At The Fair is hilarious! The short and the main feature in this episode are both black and white. All the other episodes in this set use color films.

Episode 504- SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON
MST3K has a fine day making fun of this film, a crummy James Bond wannabe made in Italy in 1966. The original title is "New York chiama Superdrago". The beautiful Marisa Mell who was also in Diabolik (MST3K's final episode!) is in this film. Watch out for the poisoned chewing gum and other "clever" spy gimmicks.

Episode 612- THE STARFIGHTERS
Nothing actually happens in this 1964 film that looks more like a dull documentary than an actual piece of cinema. There's not much of a story, not much action and no great scenes of F-104 Starfighters doing anything spectacular in the way of aviation moves. The only reason to watch this film is to see Mike and the `Bots riff away at it. You may, however, learn some agricultural terms you hadn't heard before, like "corn detasseler". Future Congressman Robert Dornan stars. He was later banned from the US Capitol and the House of Representatives in 1997 for a loud verbal attack on another House Member while Congress was in session. Get your "poopie suit" on for this one and jump in!

Episode 811- PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR
This weird, somewhat clever, but low-budget and depressing film from 1979 actually has some name actors in it: Keenan Wynn, Peter Graves (he was in several MST3K films and apparently attended the University of Minnesota), and Dick Sargent. It was remade without permission as the "The Island" in 2005, sparking a well-deserved lawsuit by the original filmmaker. The story involves a bunch of selfish rich guys using a secret cloning program to produce spare parts to improve the length and quality of their own lives. The clones are treated as disposable organ banks. The story is really, really dark! Never fear, the crew at MST3K lighten it up quite a bit. Movie sign!

Extra features on this set include:
Original Movie Theatrical Trailers
MST3K Video Jukebox, Vol. 3
An interview with The Rebel Set star Don Sullivan
MST Hour "Jack Perkins" bumpers for The Rebel Set
An interview with director Robert Fiveson, director of Parts: The Clonus Horror

After releasing a set of public domain episodes, it seems that Rhino has gone back to purchasing licenses to copyrighted MST episodes. The purchased episode in this set is PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR, a Sci-Fi Channel effort which incidentally is the reason to pick up this set. Along with that we get two lesser-known Joel offerings and a Mike/CC era episode as well.

"The Rebel Set" is a poorly done crime film turned to a good-but-not-great episode from the fourth season. It's mostly chuckle-worthy, but the real laugh-out-loud moments come from the chase towards the end of the film ("The heist is ended. Go in peace.") 7.5/10

Much better is "Secret Agent Super Dragon" a James Bond knock-off that adds great fodder for Joel and the Bots. I love the so-called action sequences ("Oh good, an action sequence...and it's over.") 9/10

What can one say about "The Starfighters"? A flight film where nothing ever happens. It's the weakest episode in this set, but still pretty good, overall. I like the host segments where Crow is trying to call tech support. 7/10

Finally, we get to "Parts: The Clonus Horror", easily one of the strongest episodes of the Sci-Fi channel era. The jokes are really funny and the fact that this movie isn't too bad makes it more worth watching. Yes, it's plagued by a horrendous amount of Biography references, but there are still some great jokes scattered throughout, running at a pretty constant rate 9.5/10

In addition, there's some solid bonus material. For starters, we get theatrical trailers and another compilation of musical host segments. Also, there's a 15-minute interview with "Rebel Set" star Don Sullivan, which incidentally didn't catch my interest. Much better is the 10-minute interview with "Parts" director Robert Fiveson, my favorite extra. Here he talks about his influence with the film, his lawsuit with Dreaworks's "The Island", and his reaction to when the movie appeared on MST3K. Oh, and he also gives a small promotion about where to find the uncut theatrical version of "Parts" on DVD.

Overall: 8.5/10

I am so glad to see them put out a new set of movies. I have not seen some of these since they first aired. This is a set that I would buy because like with all of Rhinos' MST3K releases, you never know when they will be pulled off of the market. I would make it an early Christmas present for any Mstie out there. I also think that if anything buy it for Parts: The Clonus Horror because it is one of the most awesome ones. A little note to Rhino: please,please try to put out some more lost gems like Attack of the Eye Creatures, Outlaw, The Magic Sword, The Day the Earth Froze and Jack Frost.

Opening Credits (Beginning Remarks):

This apparently is the final box set of MST3k DVDs from Rhino (not counting the re-release of Volume 10) before they hand over the reigns to "Shout! Factory". And for their last offering, they've given us a very solid set, splitting its four episodes evenly between Joel-hosted episodes and Mike-hosted episodes.


THE REBEL SET

This film is about Edward Platt (Maxwell Smart's Chief) as the head of a gang of thieves. With his superior intelligence, he has concocted a brilliant heist and has assembled a bunch of bad guys to enact his bidding. His bidding involves a fairly convoluted plan with multiple train journeys, fake police disguises, armored car hold-ups, etc.

For me, one of the funniest running gags was the in-theater argument over whether one of the characters is portrayed by Merritt Stone (by the way, Tom Servo is right: the conductor is played by Gene Roth of ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES fame, not Merritt Stone). The discussion spills out into the final moments where the episode ends with a stupefied TV's Frank franticly flipping back and forth through multiple stacks of film guides trying to figure out which B-movie actor is which. Ah, how difficult it was in those days before the Internet Movie Database.


SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON

SASD is one of those kinds of films that was made for MST3k. It's an Italian spy film that's not totally unlike a cheaply made James Bond rip-off. It's the story of a secret government agent who's pulled out of retirement for one final mission. Not only has one of his former colleagues been murdered by an international crime ring, but there's a plot to poison untold millions with tainted chewing gum. By the time the final reel has finished the evil schemes have expanded to include a smuggling operation which features Ming vases and mind-altering drugs. I've seen this film multiple times, and I'm still not sure what all the different plot-threads have to do with each other.

As I indicated, this is the style of film that MST3k handles very well. The story is ludicrous, the dubbing poor and the dialog silly. The jokes from Joel and the bots make a funny situation even better.


THE STARFIGHTERS

This has to be one of the most boring films the MST3k gang ever did. I'd be willing to wager that a good third of the movie is simply made up of US Air Force stock footage (almost entirely long passages of planes refueling in mid-flight). And what isn't actual stock footage is as tedious as stock footage: dull-speaking talking heads intoning boring dialog at each other.

Usually extremely drab and dreary films like this are my least favorite MST3k episodes. However, this time the jokes were energetic enough that I never actually got fed up with the movie. What also helped was the mental leaps I had to go through to figure out how the producers possibly thought that an audience would be interested in extremely minor plot-points. For example, the most exciting thing that happens in the film is a storm that blows several fighter planes off course. That's it for excitement. And it all happens off-camera anyway.

I hadn't seen this episode before, so I finally learned that the piece of music that the bots would hum in later episodes during extremely boring sections was actually some of the incidental music from this film. (Well, I think that's a fun thing to know, even if no one else does.)


PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR

PARTS is an interesting film. One gets the impression that underneath the bad acting from the leads and the low production values there was a decent movie to be made. (Apparently I'm not alone in that thought; the producers of PARTS sued and settled with the makers of THE ISLAND, which starred Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.) There are also some good and accomplished actors in secondary roles: Dick Sargent, Peter Graves and Keenan Wynn. But despite the film's strengths, the overall production is just too silly for words.

I hadn't seen PARTS since the initial broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel and I had completely forgotten how funny this episode is. I got a little tired with all the Peter Graves and Biography jokes, but everything else was absolutely spot on. (The MST3k people had done a lot of Peter Graves movies over the years and I think they finally ran out of jokes.)


Stinger (closing thoughts):

Rhino's DVD collections of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 episodes is going out on a high note. This is a great cross-section of genres and styles which I'll be happy rewatching.

This is without a doubt one of the funniest MST3K sets there is. All four of the movies stand up to repeated viewings, with the Rebel Set and Secret Agent Super Dragon carrying the bulk of the laughs. The Starfighters is made up of about 50% Air Force (Navy? Royal Air Dragoon?) stock footage, but the riffs on cold war military activity are strikingly amusing and the double entendres on in flight refueling methods (you know, sticking the fuel line into the other plane's fuel line) are downright hilarious, and, the scene is shown twice! (You can never have too much refueling footage, you know?) And coincidentally enough, I saw The Island (which rips off the Clonus Horror) about a week before this set arrived. The Clonus Horror is actually not too terrible by MST3K standards, but after seeing The Island and then watching it, well, the comedy effect is greatly multiplied. I don't recommend this set to newcomers to the MST3K fold, but if you are a fan of any kind and have had some past experience with these compendiums, I think this one is certainly worth adding to your collection.

Another great slice of MST3K episodes ranging both across Joel and Mike eras of the show and another set that includes actual extras. Well worth the purchase for anybody whose even vaguely a MST3K fan.

This box set is made up of one lame MST- The Rebel Set. I can't hardly sit through it the movie is so stupid, but make sure you watch the short before it Johnny at the Fair for more than a few chuckles.

Now on to the other episodes. Both Secret Agent Super Dragon and The Starfighters are very good episodes both are more than funny enough for some good riffing. Starfighters has some especially great lines in it. Poopy suits anyone?

Last but certainly not least is Clonus. In my opinion one of the best of the Mike Nelson era. This movie is a colossal mess. Whimpy main character, a super mario look alike, idiot female clone, and Peter Graves phoning it in. There are some great lines in this that my buddies and I still quote regularly. This one episode is worth the price of the whole box set.

All in all I highly recommend this set. Three out of four ain't bad plus there are some pretty good extras as well.

Of all the experiments committed by mad scientists over the years, could there ever have been a more fiendish one than that performed by Dr. Clayton Forrester, who subjected innocent people to some of the worst movies ever developed? Volume 12 of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection is further proof of Dr. Forrester's evil.

Experiment #1 in this set is The Rebel Set, which has Edward Platt (The Chief from Get Smart) recrujting some beatniks to commit a robbery. It's kind of like Reservoir Dogs without the good writing or acting. In addition, this one comes with the short subject Johnny at the Fair, which makes you appreciate the lack of short subjects before today's movies.

Experiment #2 is Secret Agent Super Dragon, a miserable James Bond knockoff. The best that can be said about it is it's better than Experiment #3, The Starfighters. You'd think with a title like that, it'd be a sci-fi movie, but instead it's a movie about a jet fighter called the Starfighter. With long segments of airplanes flying to easy listening music and no plot or suspense, this movie gives Manos a run for its money for worst movie honors. The pity is that it pretty much did in the career of Bob Dornan the actor, forcing the country to endure Bob Dornan the congressman.

Experiment #4 is Parts: The Clonus Horror. The plot deals with a secret institution that raises clones for parts for important people; when one man escapes (the guy who played "Chet" on Emergency!), the secrecy is threatened. If this sounds a lot like the plot of the recent movie The Island, this is no coincidence. An extra feature with the Parts director discusses the lawsuit that resulted from the rather obvious plot theft. Interestingly, the MST3K playing of Parts helped raise awareness of the similarities.

As usual, this is an excellent set to pick up and no MST3K fan will be disappointed by these episodes. Keep them coming!

Volume 12 marked the end of the controversial Rhino DVD release series. They released defective discs,discs that missed stingers,released movies that were unauthorized and did a double dip. But I am happy to say their last release will end on a high note..this is a great set
-The Rebel Set made this set for me. I very much liked seeing this movie in MST3K mode(really hard without MST3K) and Johnny at the Fair was a funny short. I think it is an underrated episode. I love the xylophone solo at the middle of the film where the crooks(let by Edward Piatt) put their stuff "In the hole" I could watch this over and over
-Secret Agent Super Dragon - A lot of people were clamoring for a Spy episode and here it is. When you are in the mood for a B movie spy non-thriller its a good viewing. Tom Servo's Secret Agent Super Dragon song is funny and Joel's invention was a hoot.
- The Starfighters - Mike Nelson said it correct, this movie had more nothing than any other film. Was this a movie or documentary or what was it exactly. This has the imfamous Poopie Suit scene and the jet fueling intercourse scenes which are riffled to death. Again, when you are in the mood to watch this you will enjoy it as opposed to just having it on. Sometimes the right mood makes watching these movies much better.
- Parts the Clonus Horror - a popular Season 8 episode with Mike & the Bots. This was my least favorite of this quartet. Im not into this movie as much as the others. Maybe a little more on the duller side. At least the Starfighters was unforgettably dull, this one was just not my cup of tea. Stil a popular episode among the MST scifi fans.
Overall a great set, worth owning and Rhino made no screw ups :)

The other three films here were a lot of fun to watch (although I really think PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR is a good film on it's own and deserves a bit more respect. In fact I highly recomend getting the regular DVD of PARTS and watching it with the flimmaker's commentary.) But STARFIGHTERS...ugh.

Here is perfect proof that there are some films that even MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER shouldn't have touched. I never knew that until now. No matter how much Mike and the 'bots wisecracked and tried to keep things interesting, the sheer dullness of the film overwhelmed their efforts to keep it entertaining. I guess the filmmaker must've found the image of planes refueling in midair endlessly facinating and just couldn't imagine anyone else not feeling the same way, because roughly two thirds of the film is just scenes of planes refueling in midair. Seriously, this film made the worst Uwe Boll films actually look pretty damn good. (I mean, at least stuff actually HAPPENS in an Uwe Boll movie.)

Buy the collection for the other three films, but don't bother with STARFIGHTERS.