Product Details

• Actors: Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff
• Directors: Kevin Murphy
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Shout Factory
• DVD Release Date: November 18, 2008
• Run Time: 480 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001IO07XM
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,948 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #8 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Parody & Spoof > Mystery Science Theater 3000
  #51 in	Movies & TV > Horror > Frighteningly Funny

• For more information about "Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition (First Spaceship on Venus / Laserblast / Werewolf / Future War)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's hard to believe that two decades have passed since Mystery Science Theater 3000 made it not only safe but hip to poke fun at cornball science fiction movies, but the episodes contained in this limited-edition set prove that the Peabody Award-winning program has lost none of its irreverent edge over the passage of time. The majority of the four episodes featured in the set come from the show's later incarnation; series creator Joel Hodgson is featured in an early effort, First Spaceship to Venus from Season 2, while head writer turned host Mike Nelson commands the Satellite of Love for Season 7's Laserblast (which brought MST3K's tenure on Comedy Central to an end) as well as Werewolf and Future War from its ninth and tenth season, respectively. Fans will undoubtedly debate the merits of this quartet as opposed to other episodes, but the pop culture references and machine-gun quips still feel fresh, and the low-tech charm of the skits (Joel's junk drawer in Venus; Mike in atrocious drag leading the 'bots in a girl-group tune inspired by Werewolf) remain inspired and even radical compared to most TV sitcoms. It's a rarity to find a comedy program that hasn't lost a few touches since its departure from the airwaves, but MST3K retains virtually all of the elements that made it a favorite for comedy and cult movie fans alike. In addition to the four complete episodes, the chief appeal of the 20th Anniversary edition--aside from the fun, lunchbox-style metal case--is a four-part history of the show told by its key players. Everyone from Hodgson and Nelson to J. Elvis Weinstein (Dr. Forrester's early sidekick and composer of the show's theme song) contributes their recollections of the show's inception, its tenures with Comedy Central and The Sci-Fi Channel, and the debacle surrounding its big-screen effort. Rare clips from its earliest days as a late-night cable offering in Minnesota, as well as behind-the-scenes footage, make this a must-have for series devotees, though one wonders why no mention of the participants' subsequent, MST3K-like projects (Nelson with Rifftrax and The Film Crew, and Hodgson with most of the core creative team on Cinematic Titanic) is included. A short featurette devoted to all six versions of the theme song is a fun touch, as are colorful new lobby cards for each feature, and even a Crow T. Robot figurine, suitable for riffing duty on your next bad movie night. --Paul Gaita

Product Description

Mystery Science Theater 3000 celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special DVD set featuring four of the show s most-requested episodes First Spaceship on Venus (1960), Laserblast (1978), Werewolf (1996), and Future War (1997).

The Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 became a pop culture landmark in the 90s by poking fun at horrible movies of every genre and time period, and letting us listen in. They made the unwatchable essential viewing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four great episodes from MST3K!, November 24, 2008

By	Valnastar "Man With No Name" (Deep 13, USA) - See all my reviews

This set is apparently the DVD-only version of the 20th Anniversary set from Shout Factory. That means that it does not include the tin case, plastic Crow figurine or episode lobby cards. It does contain four great episodes of everyone's favorite cow-town puppet show.

This set features one episode with Joel Hodgson as host and three with Mike Nelson hosting. Two episodes are from the Comedy Central years while two are from the Sci-Fi Channel shows.

211- First Spaceship on Venus
Originally called Der Schweigende Stern and made in 1960, this international cast film about the first astronauts to land on Venus is a hoot. Filled with wonderful ideas about international cooperation, yet strangely dated in its science even for when it was made, this movie's vision of the future is fun, action-filled and nearly breaks the goofy meter! The jokes are endless, non-stop and really top-notch from the MST3K crew. "What's a herring weigh? Oh, about a pound." "Everything's better in the crawler copter." Just the endless jokes about the robot in the film, Omega, will keep you laughing throughout. The host segments are just awesomely funny. When the planet has it's "brown explosion" near the end you'll be rolling with laughter and the jokes fly really fast at that point. This is a sometimes overlooked, underrated classic that is too funny to describe. I love it and never get tired of watching it no matter how many times I see it.

706- Laserblast
This 1978 feature comprises the final episode from Comedy Central and is an odd little feature that received 2.5 stars from Leonard Maltin, a fact that is the source of endless wonderful wisecracks as the credits roll. Hilarious throughout in spite of the fact that everyone working on the show knew it might be their last one ever. The host segment wrap-up with great 2001: A Space Odyssey references is terrific.

904- Werewolf
This 1996 feature with Richard Lynch is even more ridiculous than most stories based on lycanthropy. The goofy meter breaks in the first reel of this film and never gets repaired. An archaeologist gets cut by the skeleton of a werewolf and so, predictably, becomes one. The acting, bad foreign accents, and other low-budget silliness in this film are hammered mercilessly by MST3K. The host segment where Mike and the 'Bots are a girl group singing a teen tragedy song, a sort of like "Leader of the Pack" type number, is absolutely killer funny.

1004- Future War
This 1997 video feature is so bad it is beyond words. The huge headed Robert Zdar appears in his second film done on MST3K (the other was Soultaker) and his acting is just as stiff as in the other movie. The film features terrible looking rubber dinosaurs, mediocre martial arts-style action sequences, a hackneyed formulaic plot and acting so bland that calling it wooden would be a compliment! Fortunately, it has enough movement and scene changes to at least fuel a barrage of great jokes from MST3K. It's fun, but only thanks to the MST3K treatment. By itself, this film would be unwatchable.

The extra features on the DVD discs include the 3-part history of MST3K and a video of the reunion panel from Comic-Con 2008. These are very informative and entertaining, even for long-time fans. Great stuff all around.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Oh Z'No!", December 31, 2008

By	Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Introduction

As timing would have it, Shout! Factory's first release of Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVDs after obtaining the rights away from Rhino Records coincided with the twentieth anniversary of MST3k's premiere. They decided to pull out several stops for their first release (although they kept the same number -- 4 -- of actual episodes per box set as Rhino had); besides the episodes themselves, the non-Limited Edition version contains a new documentary detailing the rise and fall of MST3k and a recording of the twentieth anniversary reunion of the core cast/crew from the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con.

While extras are always welcome, it's the episodes that really matter. Here I believe Shout! Factory has done a good job. While the split between Joel and Mike hosted episodes is 3 to 1 in favor of Mike, the quality of joke telling is great and highlights MST3k at its best.


FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS

After the discovery of a message from the inhabitants of the second planet in our solar system, an international group of astronauts is sent to Venus to determine if intelligent life has evolved. In typical 1960s sci-fi movie fashion, much time is spent showing the viewer how the space program of the future works and how space travel really would seem to the astronauts. This makes the middle third of the movie extremely arduous as we are treated to long sequences of weightless (with the aid of harnesses) people and elderly scientists playing chess against robots.

I'd never seen this episode before, but I had seen the original film (although I'm not sure I was ever able to stay awake during the whole thing). I found the joking from Joel and the bots to be average at best. One factor which started to annoy me after some time was a sub-plot wherein Servo's sarcasm sequencer was set to a higher level causing him to make increasingly repetitive sarcastic remarks about the film. I found this to be a rare mis-fire from the Best Brains.


LASERBLAST

This is the story of a young man so low on the social ladder that he is actually the recipient of Eddie Deezen's bullying. However, something working in his favor is that he stumbled upon a neat piece of alien technology which attaches to his arm and allows him to fire lasers at his tormentors. On the downside, the claymation dinosaur aliens are now hunting him to retrieve their lost ray gun.

LASERBLAST was the final episode made for Comedy Central, and while the crew had hopes of the show being picked up by another channel (it eventually was) they were aware that this was potentially the last movie they would have the dubious pleasure of mocking. It seems appropriate therefore that there is a greater than average number of hilarious call-back jokes to earlier experiments. The fact that there are a fair number of recognizable faces in the cast (Eddie Deezen, Roddy McDowell, Keenan Wynn) gives the crew many additional avenues for jokes, which they duly capitalize on.


WEREWOLF

Joe "younger brother of Martin Sheen" Estevez is infected by an unknown werewolf virus. The screenplay initially makes a big deal that this is not the standard werewolf story of legend; transformations can occur between any two species. The film promptly turns into the classic cliché of actors getting fur glued to their faces and then having them howl for hours at the moon.

This film (along with FUTURE WAR) is one of the most recent films that MST3k tackled and there are several very 1990s directorial touches. It's not the worst movie ever, but it is silly, goofy and totally illogical (thus becoming an instant classic episode). The crew gets a lot of amusement over the fact that the full moon appears to last for a week, and the bad guy infects people with the werewolf virus for no reason other than that he is Evil.


FUTURE WAR

This was an episode that I hadn't watched -- despite having a VHS recording of it -- since its original broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. The reason for avoidance was my memory of the film was so dire that I simply couldn't handle another viewing. My sole memory was a scene of the Jean-Claude Van Damme looking guy kickboxing Robert Z'Dar in a warehouse of empty cardboard boxes.

So watching this episode brought me two surprises. One, the riffing from the crew was much better than I had remembered (my theory is that in the ensuing years I've become much more strengthened against bad films and am therefore now able to pay more attention to the jokes). Two, the only memory I had of the film was wrong, because that scene never occurs in quite that way I had recalled.

I had completely forgotten about the terrible special effect dinosaurs, the mini-skirted nun, and the two huge guys in the halfway house. You can really smell the 1990s odor coming off of this one, right down to its flannel. Another case where a movie pitches up softballs to the crew and they hit home run after home run.

Extras

The new documentary is an interesting look at the history of the show, although I doubt there is too much new information that devoted fans don't already know. However, I did find it informative in its telling of the program's very early days at KTMA.

The panel from the San Diego Comic-Con was hosted by Patton Oswalt (for what reason, I am not privy) and I found it to be slightly disappointing in that the moderator talks too much and the sound quality is not always great. Still, its nice to see them all together again and I really got a kick out of Frank Conniff asking whether the urban legend about Joe Don Baker wanting to beat up the writers of MST3k was actually true.


Stinger

So I would judge Shout! Factory's first release as a success. Even ignoring the extras, they've given us one solid and three great episodes. They've already announced the next release and I can't wait.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Set and way cheaper then the 20th Anniversary Edition, December 16, 2008

By	MMAfan (USA) - See all my reviews

As a MST3K fan, i'm glad to see they are still going to continue releasing these 4 movie sets. I won't be the only one to admit that you can't get enough of this show. It IS, no doubt, one of the best shows and has one of the most loyal fan bases of any show out there. This 4-disc set features 4 GREAT episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and includes Laserblast, Werewolf, Future War, and First Spaceship on Venus. Special features include "The Oral History of MST3K" feature in three parts, 2008 Comic-Con MST3K Reunion Panel, featuring Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, and more, original film trailers, "Variations On A Theme Song"

BUY IT NOW!

Oh and just so everyone knows the next set is coming out February 3, 2009!
Episodes will be 103 - Mad Monster, 413 - Manhunt in Space, 1001 - Soultaker, 1008 - Final Justice