Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vol. XIV (Mad Monster / Manhunt in Space / Soultaker / Final Justice)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Shout Factory's second 4-disc DVD MST3K release features two episodes hosted by Joel Hodgson from the Comedy Central years and two hosted by Mike Nelson from the Sci-Fi Channel years of the show.

103- Mad Monster (with short: Commando Cody And Radar Men From The Moon - Part 2)
This season one gem features George Zucco and Glenn Strange in a 1942 film about a mad scientist that turns humans into monsters by injecting them with the blood of wolves. Even in 1942 this was silly, rehashed horror fodder from better movies. George Zucco's usual decent acting helps make this at least amusing. Glenn Strange often played monsters in films of the time. The short is perhaps the funniest part of this episode. Joel and the 'bots always struck comedy gold when making fun of Radar Men From The Moon in several season one episodes. This episode also features the hilarious sketch where Tom Servo (Josh Weinstein) makes a pass at a blender!

413- Manhunt in Space (with short: "General Hospital" - Segment 1)
This 1954 TV space adventure will have you in stitches. The effects are less than state-of-the-art even for the day, although they were so expensive they contributed to the show being canceled! Rocky Jones is a square-jawed fisticuffs wielding spaceship pilot with REALLY goofy sidekicks, including Winky, a young man who acts like a kid, and Bobby, a little kid that acts all grown-up. Then there's short-skirted Vena, his bright female crewmate that gets treated like, well, like women were mostly treated in the US in 1950's TV. Finally, there's elderly and brilliant Professor Newton, who in spite of being a genius, makes just enough miscalculations to get them into real trouble. Joel and the 'bots offer endless riffs about anything and everything during this one, it's terrific fun. Host segment highlights include the "space modifiers" sketch and the 'bots playing soap opera after the General Hospital short. Somehow, MST3K manages to make the dull-as-dishwater paced General Hospital short really funny as well. Personally, I love this episode. Rocky Jones and other similar rocketship space adventures always worked well on the show. They are lighthearted fun and the writers wrote hundreds of great jokes for all of them.

1001- Soultaker
This 1990 hokum about souls trying to get back to their bodies while evading the angel of death, who is also an angel of mediocre acting, is entertaining only because MST3K is making fun of it. Wait till you see the wooden acting of Joe Estevez and the huge-headed Robert Zdar. Calling their performances funny is an understatement; you have to see this to believe it. This episode of MST3K features guest appearances by creator and former host Joel Hodgson and former writer and performer Frank Conniff.

1008- Final Justice
This Joe Don Baker film from 1985 is a decent episode from MST3K's final season. Once again, Joe Don plays a cop who "doesn't play by the rules", another bad Dirty Harry rip-off anti-hero character. It's basically Mitchell with location shooting in Malta. There are some pretty girls, dumb action sequences, lots of violence, continuity errors, and a somewhat predictable ending. As usual, the MST3K writers have a fairly easy time making fun of the film's action "star". Note that the film's writer and director, Greydon Clark, was also responsible for the film Angel's Revenge shown in episode 622 of MST3K.

Extra features on the DVDs include:
* A new interview with "Soultaker" star Joe Estevez.
* Mike, Tom and Crow's appearance on ESPN Classic's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker."
* An interview with "Final Justice" writer and director Greydon Clark.

Every set is worth buying, especially while they are still releasing them because you never know when they might get recalled or discontinued by the manufacturer due to licensing rights. This set includes another 4 great Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes including 1 from the very first season "Mad Monster". MY personal favorites are Soultaker and Final Justice. Buy this set as soon as possible!!

Episodes Include:
103 - Mad Monster
413 - Manhunt in Space
1001 - Soultaker
1008 - Final Justice

Special Features:
Interview with "Soultaker" star Joe Estevez.
Mike, Tom and Crow's appearance on ESPN Classic's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker."
Interview with "Final Justice" writer and director Greydon Clark.

*Next Volume Mystery Science Theater 3000 - XV
(Released Date: July 7, 2009)
102 - The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
509 - The Girl in Lover's Lane
604 - Zombie Nightmare
616 - Racket Girls

The latest box sex from Shout Factory in my opinion this is worth owning. If you are a fan of the show you probably own most of these sets anyway,with die hard fans owning them all,whether or not you like the episodes,you do get them on superior quality DVD. The set contains 4 mini posters,basically the artwork of the DVD sleeves on a mini poster that fits inside the box. All the DVD have their own slim cases just like the 20th Anniversary set.
This set contains 2 Joel and 2 Mike episodes. They are as follows
MAD MONSTER - Episode # 103 This is a campy (of course) B movie with George Zucco making an ape like monster out of Glenn Strange (Frankenstein's monster in House of Frankenstein and Dracula) - This is a Season 1 show, you can see the earliest work by Joel,Trace,and Josh - this is show # 103 in the series - so it is very early - the earliest episode on DVD. It has different shades of silhouettes too. It shifts from gray to black depending on the movie. The quality of this DVD there is a little bit of minor blips here and there, and the transfer for Mad Monster isn't that good, but the movie is a public domain title that Alpha DVD has released, but the host segment scenes' quality is fine. This one has the segment where Tom is romancing a blender and Joel drinks from it. Tom says "youre drinking from my girl" A great Josh line as the first Tom Servo. This is a fun early episode, great from a historical standpoint, and a chance to see a Season 1. Best Brains said these werent their best shows, and maybe they weren't but these are still interesting and fun to watch at the very least. I feel the MST3K Crew have nothing to be embarrassed about. Season 1 is part of the evolution of MST & I urge Shout Factory to release more from the first Season. How else can we see Josh as Tom Servo or Dr Erhardt ??
MANHUNT IN SPACE Show # 413 - This is a Rocky Jones scifi cheese that kids used to watch on the weekends. Basically it is a low budget that hampers its efforts. The show also has a General Hospital Short.Not considered a mega popular episode,but certainly a good one/a solid episode, with a minor low budget science fiction episode. The first of 2 Rocky Jones movies. This one has some great dialog in the movie like the "gay nightlife" and Winky says "Ride the Rocket". The skits were ok-good, Joel looking stoned in this one. Mike Nelson, who went on to be Mike Nelson after Joel left, was Winky in the hexfield view screen in a segement.
SOULTAKER - Episode # 1001 Mike on SciFi - This one has Joel returning to the SOL and meets Mike - this is considered a very key episode. Joel returns to save the ship because Dr. F had planned for the SOL to be destroyed after 10 yrs. It was really cool having Joel and Mike 'meet'. Joel goes back to Earth leaving Mike on the SOL to be a man. You have to sit through a tedious movie about Joe Estivez trying to collect souls to get to the segments. TV's Frank also guest stars as a Soultaker and gets along with Bobo (they play ring toss with Bobos soul). This has the Joe Estivez interview about Soultaker and MST3K. It is pretty decent & insightful about the making of Soultaker (he felt it was a good movie and thought it was scary,hmm)
FINAL JUSTICE - Episode # 1008 is another Mike on the SciFi Channel- It's a Joe Don Baker movie, nuff said,here. Joe Don was a huge target for Best Brains. Popular episode because of this. Joe Don is a sheriff who has to chase down a man in Malta. Honestly, it is not all that bad of a movie. I personally found it more entertaining action wise than Mitchell. I loved the segment at the end where Mike thinks he is going back to Earth like Joel did after watching a Joe Don Baker film. This has a couple of bonus features including an interview with Greydon Clark.
Overall the set is a nice blend of titles, and basically reminds me of any of the last couple of Rhino sets with the features. it is nice to have these all in nice clear transfers (even though the movies themselves haven't been remastered, the segments look great)
Shout Factory is closing on on getting all the Season 10 titles on DVD that they can get it seems (I doubt they can get Squirm, Diabolik or It lives by Night anytime soon). I am thankful as are many MST3K fans that Shout Factory is releasing these, whether you like an episode or not, at least they are still coming out on DVD.

What? More MST3K? Indeed there is, and this is a pretty good basket to watch spanning multiple eras of this long-lived (and much missed) comedy series.

103- Mad Monster (with Commando Cody/Radar Part 2) Definitely a curiosity, AFAIK this episode hasn't been seen on TV in maybe 15 years or so. There was somewhat of a moratorium on Season 1 during the early- to mid-90s period, only lifted for a very brief period in 1995. A lot of this episode is nascent MST3K, and not very polished, but it does offer a view of the evolution of the series. Quite bluntly, there is a lot of dead space and it's not funny in places, but still a worthwhile investment of 90 minutes.

413- Manhunt In Space - this is the reason to spend your hard-earned cash on this set. A hilarious episode from MST3K's Joel-era Comedy Central heyday, and little-seen for over a decade without trafficking in gray-market bootleg video copies. Has a "General Hospital" short (actually a 15-minute vintage episode from the 1950s), and the main feature is a typical 1950s television space opera. There is a typically insane invention exchange (beanbag pants)

1001- Soultaker Where 103 "Mad Monster" is rough, this is MST3K in its most polished form. There's a ridiculous sci-fi/horror movie at its core involving grim reapers and one of Martin Sheen's relatives. However, the reason this episode is great is the temporary return of two former MST3K performers and writers, TV's Frank and Joel. The host segment subplot involves malfunctions on the Satellite of Love, and a mysterious visitor trying to make contact and fix the problem. Frank shows up as a Soultaker, much in the same fashion that goofy characters from the movie would show up at the end of the episode in the Comedy Central era. Recommended, and it's great that we have this on DVD.

1008- Final Justice Maybe a bit of a disappointment, only because this episode aired very frequently towards the end of the series. Still, the Joe Don Baker jokes inexplicably never wear thin. An incomprehensive and inconsequential plot involving a Texas lawman's manhunt from the southwest to Malta are a perfect backdrop to vicious riffing...the host segments are only ok, I could do without hearing "Goosio" again for the rest of my life.

In summary, can't speak for the Shout Factory packaging and extras, but the episodes themselves are worthwhile and great to have archived in DVD.

Our family first caught the Mystery Science Theater 3000 bug on the SciFi Channel shortly before the show was discontinued. Since then we've fed our MST3000 habit with the periodic releases of their compilations. I confess that we prefer the episodes that feature Mike and bots over those hosted by the show's founder Joel. Volume XIV includes two episodes hosted by each. Regardless of who hosts the episode you can count on funny skits, ironic commentary on the absurdly bad films, and often trenchant observations on social trends that were current when the episode aired. Even our least favorite MST3K episodes are better than most live TV these days.

You can't stop the Misties! The box sets keep coming, and the episodes are still as fresh as ever! This box set is a real treat with the inclusion of a season one episode, and the special features are as special as special gets! Soultaker has always been a favorite episode of mine, and the others are just as priceless. Keep them coming!

I've been a fan of MST3K for 15 years, but was always cursed when it came to actually seeing the show. We didn't get Comedy Central until after MST3K went to SciFi, and we didn't get SciFi until MST3K was cancelled! We relied on "MST3K Hour" episodes and a few reruns from SciFi and friends for years, so you can understand how happy I was -- and am! -- to get MST3K on DVD.

This set includes 4 episodes I had never seen: "Soultaker", "Final Justice", "Manhunt in Space", and "Mad Monster". There are also interviews with Greydon Clark and Joe Estevez, and the episode of "Cheap Seats" that featured Mike and the 'Bots. The quality of the episodes is good, although "Final Justice" had a lot of momentary flickers where a few white blocks would flash on screen, I presume as an artifact from the digital transfer. As we get 4 long episodes (about 1 hr 35 mins without commercials) I don't mind the price tag so much, and I like that the DVDs are packaged individually.

However, the packaging on these new Shout Factory volumes is just plain bad. The conceit of having Crow and Tom in 50s-era movie posters is a cute one, but wore out its welcome quickly. The posters you get with the set are just prints of the covers of the individual DVD packages, and they are poorly executed and cheap looking. The disk menus are also pretty bad, with some weird digital renderings of Crow and Tom moving their heads randomly while they sit in one spot. I would much rather see an unanimated screen shot than this freaky stuff.

It's easy to compare these designs unfavorably to the old Rhino sets, but I'm certain that even if I didn't have better Rhino sets to compare it to, I'd still find the design lacking.

I am really happy I got this volume because, frankly, I missed many of these shows when they first were run. So for me it was like discovering MST3K all over again!

Mad Monster, Show 103, is the third MST3K played on the Comedy Channel, before it was renamed Comedy Central, and also has a episode of Commando Cody And The Radar Men From The Moon. It is one of those I missed. MST3K was brand new and it took a few weeks before people started to turn on the TV every week to watch. Like most of the first films, Mad Monster is in Black and White, a bad sci-fi film about a scientist who finds out how to turn men into monsters. Well, in this case a werewolf. But funny enough that wolf looks more like a coyote. But why nitpick on the small stuff?

Manhunt In Space, Show 413, was also one of the shows I, somehow, missed. It comes with a General Hospital episode. Both the movie and the short are in Black and White. The movie is in fact a television series in which some of the episodes were spliced together to make a full movie. There are everything from Space Ghost references to one reference to Daleks! They also talk about Cold Light, which I thought came from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and I learned to never open the hatch without peeking out a window first.

Soultaker, Show 1001, is a very famous episode within the cult that is MST3K. Not only does it have Joe Estevez, who also starred in Werewolf, and Robert Z'Dar, who was in Future War, in the film, but TV's Frank and Joel both come back to make a appearance on the show. Such love and warmth. Too bad the film is so bad. But that's good! Because bad films are Mike and the Bots' bread and butter.
They have a interview with Joe Estevez on the DVD.

The last episode in the set is Final Justice, Show 1008, starring Joe Don Baker. Mike and the Bots have a ton of fun with this film. "Hey, you going to finish that?" The movie is full of lovely ladies, gun fights, a chase with Joe Don Baker going after a Maltese mob member dressed up as a Monk. Or is it a member of the Italian Mafia? Lots of food jokes. In fact tons of jokes all about either Joe Don Baker or Maltese men. The writer, producer and director is Greydon Clark. They even have a interview with him on the DVD!

The set came with cool mini-posters - I got an extra Soultaker poster by accident! A must for any library of MST3K or any collection of bad movies.

Other reviewers have done a better job than I could ever do, but I want to add my voice to the others so this great show will keep getting released. This is another good set of MST3K episodes (Soultaker is one of my favorite episodes) and should be purchased by any fan of the series. As I've said before, if you are a fan you would have this already, if not, I can't convince you to buy it.

If you want more from the boys of MST3K, check out www.rifftrax.com. They are still at it and are better than ever, riffing on new movies and old shorts.

My 2¢

Introduction

Shout! Factory moved quickly after acquiring the DVD rights for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not only did they roll out a DVD box set celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the show's debut, but they swiftly produced a follow-up, the 14th box set, retaining the numbering system started by Rhino Records. Ironically, at least one of the episodes from this box set probably would have been more appropriate in a celebratory anniversary set. However, this is not a time to quibble about box set labeling. The important question is: how are these episodes?


MAD MONSTER (1942)
(with short: an episode of the serial, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON)

This is your typical WWII-werewolf movie where a mad scientist turns his faithful but slow-witted gardener into a wolfman in order to demonstrate how to create an army that would beat the Nazis. As an added bonus the mere existence of this new species of half-man, half-wolf proves that his ex-colleagues were pathetically wrong about his mental balance while simultaneously increasing the schadenfreuden by having them brutally killed.

This is the third episode from the first national season of the show and is currently the earliest episode of the show to be released on DVD. We're early enough that Best Brains were still experimenting with how best to display the black theater seat silhouettes onto a black and white film. At many points watching the brightness and contrast shift on Joel and the bots is more interesting that what's going on in the creaky and slow-moving film.

MAD MONSTER is a tough episode to get through. I find often that in the first season the jokes aren't quite as sharp or (more importantly) as rapid-fire as we became used to in later seasons. So a dull movie like this really takes a toll on the audience.

(As an aside, this episode is so early that an apparent mistake left in the show has Joel accidentally mixing up the names of Tom and Crow in the theater.)


MANHUNT IN SPACE (1956)
(with short: an episode of "General Hospital")

This film is actually an edited-together collection of a few related episodes of "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" and is very much a product of its era. For example, the cast features a precocious and annoying kid. The bad guys are inconceivably dumb. The good girl wears a mini-skirt and the bad girl wears a slinky evening gown. Astronauts don't need to wear spacesuits, just ill-fitting helmets over a t-shirts and slacks.

The plot meanders around quite a bit, which isn't surprising given its episodic nature. The story opens with space pirates attacking helpless ships and closes with an unresolved storyline involving the invention of a Romulan-type cloaking device. Fortunately, there are many good riffs from Joel and the bots to keep the action going. Also, the short film featured at the front of the episode was an excerpt from "General Hospital". MST3k did a few episodes of this, and this take was the first one I've seen. I'm glad they put this on here, and it bodes well for future releases of episodes with "General Hospital" shorts.


SOUL TAKER (1990)

Four teenagers are involved in a fatal car accident and attempt to cheat death by having their souls leave their bodies and run very quickly away from Joe "Brother of Martin Sheen" Estevez and Robert Z'Dar who are the odd couple Angels of Death. As Death slowly catches up with them, their souls are captured in little black rings and then taken to the attic of the city hospital which apparently doubles as either purgatory or the pearly gates; the exact theology is a little unclear. Also confusing is the exact nature of the Soul Takers: are they just collecting souls who have naturally reached the end of their natural life or are they hunting down people and collecting souls for their own purposes?

This is not the worst movie that MST3k ever tackled (indeed, there's aspects of the film that I quite like), but its occasional silliness and lack of coherence make it ideal for the riff treatment. This is one of the stronger episodes from the Sci-Fi Channel era, although it's more notable among many MST3k fans for the host segments featuring the cameo return appearances by Joel Hodgson and Frank Coniff than it is for the movie-riffing.


FINAL JUSTICE (1984)

MST3k didn't only make fun of sci-fi/fantasy films and it's nice to have a non-genre offering from an era that had only a few such examples; this is less of a Spaghetti Western and more of a Spaghetti Standard-Joe-Don-Baker film. Here, Baker stars as the improbably named Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III who loses track of an international criminal while transferring him to the European authorities and must chase the crook all over the island of Malta.

FINAL JUSTICE is certainly dull in places, but is not an overwhelmingly bad film. The last Joe Don Baker movie riffed by the crew was MITCHELL, during Joel Hodgson's final episode, and they pick up right where they left off with laughs galore coming mostly at the expensive of the Baker's previous Mitchell character. This is another funny episode and I liked the gag of Mike thinking it was his time to depart the Satellite of Love since Joel's escape has coincided with his viewing of a bad Joe Don Baker movie.


Extras

This box set includes two interview subjects: Greydon Clark (writer/director/producer of FINAL JUSTICE) and Joe Estevez (star of SOUL TAKER). Both men have been associated with other MST3k-ed episodes, but they're only apparently asked about the episodes in this release. There's not a lot of insight to be had, although the pair independently come across as grateful for the extra exposure and good sports about the MST3k process (although it might be fun to see them on polygraph machines for that).

The other extra of note is a cameo appearance of the silhouettes of Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo in a 2005 episode of EPSN's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker". While it's nice to have these things out on DVD, my reaction to watching this again is about the same as it was four years ago: my mileage varied. Now, if the powers that be would release the episodes of "Talk Soup" featuring these guys, then I'd be very happy.


Stinger

This isn't the strongest MST3k box set that we've seen, but even average MST3k is worthy. Overall, I'm happy with this set and can't wait to see what Shout! Factory will put out next.