Customer Reviews

Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vol. XVIII (Lost Continent / Crash of the Moons / The Beast of Yucca Flats / Jack Frost)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This set features two episodes hosted by Joel Hodgson and two hosted by Mike Nelson. Three are from the Comedy Central era of the show and one is from the Sci-Fi Channel era.

- Episode 208- LOST CONTINENT ("Rock climbing, Joel.")
This 1951 black-and-white Robert Lippert production is directed by Sam Newfield and stars Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Sid Melton, Acquanetta, Whit Bissel and Hugh Beaumont. The main cast comprises a scientific team charged with recovering an off course test rocket. The cast of fairly well-known actors does little to stem the pain of the film's padding accomplished through endless rock climbing sequences, but those elements did elevate this episode to a kind of cult status both within the show and among the MST3K fan base early on. References to rock climbing and other elements of this film abound throughout later episodes of MST3K for years to come. Every fan of the show should see this episode for that reason alone, but don't let me forget to mention that it's absolutely hilarious. Stop motion dinosaurs and lizards posing as monsters make occasional appearances in the film. And did I mention rock climbing?

- Episode 417- CRASH OF THE MOONS with short, "General Hospital"-Segment 3
Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) and his crew comprising Winky (Scotty Beckett of Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts), Bobby, Vena and Professor Newton are back for another adventure from this short-lived 1954 TV show. So is the evil dictator, Cleolanta (Patsy Parsons), who in this episode is scheming to destroy another inhabited "moon" before it collides with her own planet. The wayward moon is ruled by the affable Bavarro, played by John Banner, later of Hogan's Heroes fame. As with the previous Manhunt In Space, this episode of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger features a rather silly, low-budget, but earnestly presented view of mankind's space-faring future. The Rocky Jones episode itself is entertaining fun and this episode is really funny. Regarding the General Hospital short, once again MST3K turns dreary and dull footage into comedy well worth watching.

- Episode 621- THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS with shorts: "Money Talks!" & "Progress Island, U.S.A."
This 1961 turkey from Coleman Francis stars none other than Tor Johnson of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame. Tor also appeared in other movies used on MST3K, including Bride Of The Monster and The Unearthly. This movie often makes lists of worst movies ever made and rightly so, the story and dialogue are at times nonsensical and mind-boggling even for a low-budget science fiction movie. A Russian scientist played by Tor defects to the US and is turned into an atomic mutant by a nuclear blast. As is often the case in Coleman Francis films you can find Tony Cardoza among the cast delivering his usual level of performance. This episode also features two shorts that will please any MST3K fan. Another must-see movie and episode.

- Episode 813- JACK FROST
This 1964 color film was originally titled "Morozko" by the Soviet film makers, but was retitled "Jack Frost" for US release. As with the other Russo-Finnish movies used on MST3K, this film is both beautiful and goofy at the same time and that makes for a strong episode and a fan favorite. The lush color, decent production values and incredibly bizarre fantasy nature of the film rendered even more bizarre by the editing and dubbing for English make a wonderful blend of quality and weirdness that provided great comedic fuel for MST3K. Many classic Slavic fairy tale elements combine in this story of two children who have strange adventures as they encounter a sorcerous Mushroom Pixie, the evil witch Baba Yaga, and other mythical weirdness. Jack Frost himself eventually appears somewhat late in the film.

The actual DVD quality of previous Shout! Factory releases has been generally terrific with good picture and sound and few anomalies. Extra features just announced by Shout! Factory include special introductions by Frank Conniff and Kevin Murphy, original Mystery Science Theater Hour wraps, a look back at The Beast of Yucca Flats featurettes, original trailers & promos and more.

July 13th is another big day in the life of all MST3K fans as Volume 18 hits the stores. This is a great solid set of popular episodes. Let's take a look at what we have
EPISODE 208 # THE LOST CONTINENT - This was a great surprise as most of us thought Robert Lippert movies ( this one, Rocketship XM, Jungle Goddess,etc) seemed like they would not be attainable. For those that have seen it - this was exciting. For those who havent this is a great episode in the 2nd season. The Lost Continent stars Cesar Romero ( The Joker on the Batman TV series with Adam West), Hugh Beaumont ( Ward Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver)& a sold 50s B movie cast including Sid Melton, John Hoyt, Whit Bissell all looking for a downed atomic rocket. They track it up a mountain on a plateau. They need to climb a mountain to get to the rocket. We get to see every second of what is called by MST3K fans & well as Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank as 'Rock Climbing'.
This was the theme of the show as told by Dr Clayton Forrester & TV's Frank - "Rock Climbing Joel" . They harp on it so much that Joel doesn't get to do his invention exchange. This invention would turn up in the next episode Hellcats actually.
Rock Climbing is actually worse than the sandstorm theme in Hercules vs the Moon Men as the Rock Climbing scenes last for a long while during the movie. When the cast reaches the top they find the 'Lost Continent' with some pretty cool Dinosaurs. The black & white film turns to a nice greenish color when the dinosaurs appear. The 2 female characters are hardly in it - Acquanetta & Hillary Burke. It is all about male bonding climbing the mountain.
This episode also contained the "Cool Thing" which wouldn't be revealed until the 3rd Season. I personally love this episode and is my favorite from this set...I own the Wade Williams DVD of this.
The introduction by Frank Conniff is very insightful and the DVD quality of it isnt great, but it will do..apparently this was one title that wasnt taken care of . Shout was upfront about this however.
EPISODE # 416 CRASH OF THE MOONS - This is a follow up to Manhunt in Space starring Richard Crane as Rocky Jones as he and his crew (including the wonderful Winky) need to save the universe from the crashing of the moons..he has to save his friends and his arch enemy Cleolanta. This is ultra cheap but it was for kiddies back in the 1950s to watch on Saturday mornings. Watch for John Banner as Bavarro as he winds up on the Satellite of Love. How ? Watch and see :)
At this point in the show - MST was on cruise control - it was in the middle of a lucrative deal with Comedy Central - great creative segments, songs (The Gypsy Moons) and just an outstanding episode.
And the General Hospital short too is pretty funny
EPISODE # 621 THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS WITH SHORTS MONEY TALKS AND PROGRESS ISLAND. This contained TWO shorts because the movie itself is barely and hour long. It is another Coleman Francis wonder (now all 3 of his films have made it to MST3K DVD) with Tor Johnson as a Russian scientist who gets chased into a nuclear testing site and a bomb just happens to go off, turning Tor into yet another brainless hulking creature. The only difference between his character here and when he was Lobo in Bride of the Monster and the Unearthly was that he had zero dialog in this film. This is mostly narrated by Coleman Francis was some really absurd lines , such as " Flag on the Moon, how did it get there ? " & other senseless dribble. Mike and the bots tackle this as best they could & the results are fantastic. This was the episode that was compared to the Brain that Wouldn't Die as being a cakewalk. Beast is a much worse than Brain by far. This film makes Plan Nine from Outer Space look like Casablanca. Tor chases people for about 45 minutes being tracked down by 2 unattractive sheriffs. One is married to a babe who our director keeps telling to bend down so we can see her chestular region. Watch for the scene with the rabbit (if you havent seen this)
The quality has been reported around the forums as being subpar with glitches throughout the movie and the bonus materials..we all should inform shout about it to see what can be done
EPISODE # 813 JACK FROST - the last Russo Rinnish title is the first Russian Fairy Tale to make it on an MST3K box set DVD - can this be the start of getting the others on future sets such as Day the Earth Froze , Magic Voyage of Sinbad, & the Sword & the Dragon ? Time will tell. This movie is the one most MST3K fans have seen and it was # 3 on the Rhino Poll ( all the movies in this set are pretty high for the most part. Crash of the Moons was the lowest and it wasn't that low on the Poll) ..it is an oddity with a boy & girl going through some pretty bizarre stuff such as the boy transforming into a bear. Jack doesn't come until late in the movie but its fun to watch anyway. A boy turns into a bear and needs to do a good deed to become "handsome" again. This has good cinematography and a lot of people like this movie as an MST or stand alone title
Fans have wanted this forever. Between this and the Final Sacrifice in Volume 17 MST fans like us have grown to love what Shout has done. This set gives us 4 episodes that are popular. 4 solid episodes. The fans who dislike Season 1 get a break this time around. We get the 2 Joel, 2 Mike , and a shocker or 2 this time yet again. I think Shout has done a tremendous job overall with this set as their other efforts (including the Season 1 episodes )
I am at the point where the only episodes that Shout may not get are the AIP & Gamera / Sandy Frank movies from Season 3, and the Universal movies from Season 8...otherwise I think every title is on notice to get plunked. I would expect more sets with popular titles blending with a surprise or 2 or 3. I think we will see the Russo Finnish movies and more from Lippert & Wade Williams titles down the road too. This set seems to indicate that. The future looks really bright for MST3K fans :)
Bonus features include a Coleman Francis tribute type of thing (this should be funny) intros by Frank Conniff & Kevin Murphy and Im sure some other goodies that Shout can come up with
Thanks again Shout Factory

I am buying this mainly for "Beast of Yucca Flats." The other ones are all very funny too, but Beast is classic. You won't believe how it's filmed. You never see any of the actors talk, whenever someone speaks the camera turns away from them from what I recall. Tor Johnson is awesomely bad as usual. Also, "Progress Island USA" is a great short, one of my faves out of all of the shorts. It's a travelogue about Puerto Rico, and you'll be saying, "OK! We'll move there!!" for days after you see it. For newbie fans: these are hilarious. Watch with a group!

Introduction

This MST3k box set of four episodes has the balance I most like to see when the episode titles are first announced. Two Joel episodes, one Mike episode from the Comedy Central days and one Mike episode from the Sci-Fi Channel era. Further more, the movies themselves illustrate the grand variety of bad film-making tackled by MST3k: the impenetrably dull, the silly, the mind-bogglingly strange and the over-the-top goofy.


LOST CONTINENT (1951)

This film is infamous among MST3k fans for its seemingly endless scenes of characters slowly ascending the side of a mountain. Rock climbing, Joel, rock climbing. On the surface, this looks like it would be a fun B-movie to watch. It's got Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont and John Hoyt (the ship's doctor in the first Star Trek pilot). It has a fairly typical plot of scientists and military personnel on a mission to retrieve a lost rocket on an uncharted island.

But LOST CONTINENT is not a lot of fun. Some MST3k episodes feel like a crazy adventure. A goofy movie with a fast and witty riffing track can make the hour and a half fly past in no time. But then there are other episodes. Episodes where - even with the distracting and entertaining soundtrack - you feel like you're stuck in the writing room of Best Brains, unable to leave the movie and resume your normal and happy life. LOST CONTINENT is such an episode - an episode that's a test of endurance.

As bad as the movie is, every MST3k fan should enduring it at least once. Joel and the bots will manage to get you through to the other side without your brain melting too badly by the time the closing credits run. Special mention must be made of the host segment featuring Mike Nelson as a pleasantly vengeful Hugh Beaumont preparing to rain death and destruction upon the Earth. It's one of the funniest skits they did.


CRASH OF THE MOONS (1954)

This is actually several episodes of a 1950s era TV sci-fi show edited together into a movie length feature. It contains the stock components you'd expect: the brave (if bland) hero, the goofy side-kick, the incredibly annoying kid, the mini-skirted love interest, et cetera. The plot involves a space United Nations trying to save two moons which are - you guessed it - crashing into each other.

The riffing in this episode is light, but good enough to keep the movie bouncing along. I do wish the producers of the film had found something for Queen Cleolanta to do other than fume in her every scene.


THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS (1961)

This film was the first of the infamous Coleman Francis trilogy to be made, but the last one to be heckled by the MST3k crew (and the last one to be released on an MST3k DVD). Watching this one last is actually the most fun way to do it. You can recognize some actors here in cameo appearances who would later have substantial roles to play in the Coleman Francis universe (i.e. the "I like coffee" guy and "Cherokee Jack").

While the title may make this sound like a standard, run-of-the-mill bad monster movie, there is something so wholly bizarre about the entire experience that I don't think I've ever seen another movie quite like this one. From the incomprehensible ramblings of the narrator, to the strangeness of the plot, I can't think of any other film that is so peculiar in so many different ways as this one.

The feature is actually not a very long film, so this episode features two shorts "Money Talks!" (starring Ben Franklin's shadow) and "Progress Island U.S.A."


JACK FROST (1964)

If you came across a story from Grimm's Fairy Tales for the first time as an adult, with no background you'd probably find the whole experience slightly baffling. That's sort of what you get from JACK FROST which is a Finnish/Russian co-production with bits and pieces from different folk stories thrown together in a large cauldron of crazy.

This demonstrates one of my favorite kinds of MST3k episodes, where the movie itself is entertainingly outrageous on its own; the commentary merely adds an extra layer of hilarity. Another fun host segment to watch for is the opening where Mike Nelson does an eerily good impersonation of Michael Flatley, Lord of the dance.


Stinger

This great collection of episodes only leaves me hungry and eager for the next box set.

I was very excited when this set was first announced, since all four of these episodes are ones that I've been looking forward to having good copies of for quite a long time.

Imagine my surprise when I popped in 'Lost Continent' and 'Beast of Yucca Flats,' and discovered that BOTH of these DVDs have worse glitches and scan lines than my old VHS copies!!! I'm not expecting Blu-ray or anything, but quite frankly, somebody in quality control majorly dropped the ball here, and they can't blame it all on bad master copies, since some of the glitches occur during the brand new intros and host segments!

Here's hoping Shout! own up to their mistake and we get a recall announcement soon.
In the meantime, for those of you who haven't already pre-ordered, I'd advise waiting a few weeks to see what develops.

Having been a longtime MST3K fan I look forward to every MST release, but this one more than normal as "Jack Frost" is one of my all-time favorite episodes. As time goes by, the chief problem for future sets becomes dwindling material available (and rights issues), the net result being that some episodes in a given set are weaker than average, and that's the case here with two strong and two weaker episodes. Despite two of the films being more trying than average, the extras in the set are all top-rate, with introductions by Kevin Murphy and Frank Conniff, some "Mystery Science Theater Hour" wraps, and a mini-documentary on Coleman Francis. On balance, this is a very good effort.

"Lost Continent" (episode 208) stars Cesar Romero and Hugh Beaumont and despite the hilarious riffing is still inordinately plodding. The Mads were definitely not kidding with their taunts of pending boredom in the introduction ("Rock climbing!"), as a huge percentage of the film is devoted to pasty white men climbing over rocks trying to find a rocket gone horribly awry into a land inhabited by dinosaurs (think "Land of the Lost", but without the realism). Yes, it's funny seeing real stars in an MST, but despite the great wisecracks, it's one of the most boring of all episodes. Frank Conniff does a great introduction to the episode, which is more interesting than the film itself.

"Crash of the Moons" (episode 417) comes with a wretched "General Hospital" short. Of all the things MST ever skewered, the "General Hospital" shorts are my least favorites. Rocky Jones, Space Ranger has to negotiate a peaceful resolution to a crisis of epic proportions with Winky and Bobby along for comic relief. It seems there are a pair of moons which are going to collide, one governed by the evil dictator Cleolanta, the other by the jovial Bavarro, played by future Hogan's Heroes' star John Banner ("Poopie!") There are bad special effects and hilarious acting in this early sci-fi epic, which is essentially a feature-length serial. Although not one of my favorite episodes, the riffs are great and the host segments are especially good (I love the "Bannergram" skit), and overall it's enjoyable to watch.

"The Beast of Yucca Flats" (episode 621) is another in the MST Coleman Francis triad of pain. While I personally prefer "Red Zone Cuba", I love this one if for no other reason than to see Coleman work with Tor Johnson with predictably hilarious results. I have seen the film without the MST treatment, and it's painful but (very) short. Here it is paired with not one but two shorts due to its extremely brief runtime. The shorts are "Money Talks!" with a creepy and shadowy Ben Franklin giving budgetary advice to a financially troubled teen, and "Progress Island, U.S.A.", a ludicrous promotional film about the wonders of Puerto Rico. Both these shorts are wonderful choices.

The plot of "The Beast of Yucca Flats" is a typical dreary Coleman Francis confuse-a-thon shot without a script in the desert over a number of weekends. It is highly narrated, and the theme revolves around technological progress, which gives no end of ammunition for hilarious riffs. Of course there's an atomic bomb, a Russian scientist-turned monster (guess who?), a small plane buzzing the desert (a consistent theme in all Francis films, it seems), a family pointlessly lost in the desert, a helpless female hostage, and a shootout. What else do you need to make a movie? Nothing, as it turns out. This one comes with a great mini-documentary on Coleman Francis and the film, that is extremely informative and entertaining. Don't miss it!

"Jack Frost" (episode 813) is a surreal and wonderful Russo-Finnish co-production of a fairy tale from behind the Iron Curtain. The host segments are great ("Michael J. Nelson is 'Lord of the Pants'"!) as are the riffs. This is an extremely strange film shot in beautiful color featuring an evil stepmother, a beautiful daughter and her handsome suitor (with unbelievably comical hair), a wicked witch who likes to show a bit too much leg, a magical transformation from human to bear, a lesson about the importance of doing good deeds, romance, geese attacks, the worst makeup job in the history of time ("You look like a queen....In that you look like Freddy Mercury."), and the most amazing wedding outfits I have ever seen. Truly, this one has everything, and best of all it's got a very trippy and annoying character named "Father Mushroom", who is a tiny "Mushroom Guy" that is so utterly bizarre that I have to wonder about the filmmakers familiarity with various types of mushrooms. This is an utterly wonderful episode, and has an introduction by Kevin Murphy which is funny and explains some of the reasons this movie was selected.

On balance this is a very good set, and while "Lost Continent" and "Crash of the Moons" are average episodes at best, the extras, "The Beast of Yucca Flats", and especially "Jack Frost" more than make up for any deficiencies in the two older episodes.

Five Stars for Coleman Francis and "Jack Frost"!

I was glad to see other reviews here mentioning the issues with 2 of the episodes on this set-As mentioned before, "Lost Continent" looks terrible, with a disclaimer before the episode that doesn't quite account for the poor picture quality. "Beast of Yucca Flats" also has odd video glitches through portions of both the episode and the bonus materials. I have watched the other two episodes and they are up to the usual standard. I love Shout! Factory, but I have to admit that it simply isn't worth the $40.00 price tag for this-I could understand "Lost Continent" having master tape problems, but the "Yucca Flats" thing appears to be Shout's problem. It's a shame, because the set itself is nice (the artwork, bonus features, etc.) but I'll definitely hold off on buying future sets until I read reviews after they're released. Again, i think Shout is a great company, but this is really a mess.

The previous reviewer was quite correct. Despite top-notch episodes, this box set contains numerous quality issues. Evidently, the "Lost Continent" master tape contains various flaws in it which Shout Factory felt the need to put up a disclaimer before the episode starts saying that they used the best available materials. Not true, really, when I have personally seen fan copies that are in much better shape. Perhaps a collaboration with some die-hard MSTies' copies and the master tape would have turned out better? Perhaps even more annoying are the numerous video glitches that are on "The Beast of Yucca Flats." These appear to be the fault of Shout Factory, and not the video master tape. On my DVD, they run for the first 10 minutes or so and are very distracting. The other two episodes appear to be fine, though I haven't yet viewed them in their entirety. Bottom-line is that replacement discs for "The Beast of Yucca Flats" need to be offered and the quality control issues need to be addressed by Shout Factory for me to continue to pay upwards of $40 for these box sets.

My issues with this box set have nothing to do with the episodes chosen for this set. My main concern is with the overly abundant digital flaws that appear throughout this box set. There is a warning about the issues with the source tape provided for Lost Continent, but despite the warning, the whole last 30 minutes of the film has tracking issues that look awful and render the episode pretty unwatchable. However, I don't even fault them for that... We were told nothing about the problems with Beast of Yucca Flats, which do not appear to be from the source material, but the DVD authoring... The movie and the extras both have constant digital artifacting throughout. Once again, the issues are not easy to ignore, because they are constant and very distracting. And at the writing of this review, the people at Shout Factory seem to be denying or ignoring the problem, which is upsetting because they have done a fantastic job handling MST3k up to this point.

MST3k is a cult show, but a cult show with alot of loyal fans. Many of us are happy to see any of the episodes reach the light of day, but the bottom line is, these are commercial products which should be done professionally. In addition, this was one of the more expensive sets and it was by far the most disappointing in quality. This has put a bad taste in my mouth about Shout Factory, and I will not pre-order the next set. I will look around in forums and reviews to see if there are any known flaws with the discs (which is the only way that I knew that many people were experiencing the same issues as I) and if there are, then I won't be buying. I do NOT recommend buying this box set, especially if you already have a fan copy.

The five star reviews have already gone into detail about the episodes themselves, so there's not much need to elaborate on that. I watched all four of them this weekend, and all four are great. I doubt that I'd rank this set as one of my favorites, but all four episodes were very good and will have a high re-watchability value. Crash of the Moons was probably my favorite of the four, followed by The Beast of Yucca Flats.

As far as the picture quality issues mentioned in the lower starred reviews, I barely noticed any. Crash and Jack Frost looked perfect. I did see the disclaimer at the beginning of Lost Continent, but I don't feel it was even needed. There were a few minor tracking issues in that one and in Yucca Flats, the kind you'd see on a worn VHS tape, but they were few and far between. In fact, the only ones I even remember seeing were near the beginning and the end of the movies, mostly in the host segments. It was nothing to distract from the humor and certainly nothing that I would have thought to complain about. I see no reason not to buy this set.