Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

Mitchell's utter uselessness in generating any kind of tension is truly amazing.

The villain even signals into a turn during a car chase!

Mitchell II: The Cloverleaf.

xxpost I knew that about Mighty Jack - but didn't realize that it was just the first and sixth episodes of a series. I think that authorizes any amount of jabs at Sandy Frank - I mean, come on!

Haha I actually like how Shout Factory both got that one American fan dude to break down the history of things like Gamera, Mighty Jack and Time of the Apes so they made a little more sense -- and did the interview with Sandy Frank himself! Guy's had one long lived career.

Have to say that I'm always a little let down by some of those documentaries, though; where straightforward recollections could have worked -- something that Rhino's more sporadic efforts in the same vein usually did very well -- the way that they're dressed up by whatever company it is that does those things for Shout Factory just feels a little forced/clunky/annoying.

I've been downloading a bunch of these to watch at work via youtube and Firefox's "Download Helper" app. I've really fallen back in love with it. Suppressing laughter in the office all day so I don't seem like a crazy person.

What should I download next? Here's the lot I've binged on so far:

Fugitive Alien
Mitchell
Manos
Time of the Apes
Operation Double 007
Outlaw of Gor
The Mole People
Puma Man
Space Mutiny
Track of the Moon Beast
Werewolf
The Castle of Fu-Manchu
Giant Spider Invasion

I like the newer movies as subjects for ridicule because the old black and white ones can be so dull even the mocking can't hold my attention. Yet there are probably plenty of those I haven't even tried and should.

You know, Evan, every year of my life, I grow more and more convinced that the wisest and best is to fix our attention on the good and the beautiful episodes.

Off the top of my head, a few great black-and-whites:

Earth vs. the Spider
Giant Gila Monster
The Rebel Set
Girl in Lover's Lane

Also B&W but hard to recommend for an easy night's entertainment: The Coleman Francis trilogy and Monster A-Go-Go... they're a different category of bad, though kind of essential viewing at some point in one's MST fandom.

Thanks! I'll look into these next.

For newer movies, check out Hobgoblins and The Final Sacrifice, those two are pretty classic.

YES to The Final Sacrifice

also The Girl With Gold Boots

I recommend any Gamera movies, particularly Gamera vs. Guiron.

Yeah, the Coleman Francis films and Monster-A-Go-Go are all leagues beyond Manos imo among the very worst flicks MST3K ever did.

Rewatch value on Red Zone Cuba is through the roof. Cue it up!

Skydivers is the entry-level Francis flick.

Manos, it has to be said, is really horribly made (and nasty and ugly to boot). Coleman Francis's movies are bleak, aimless, shitty, boring and also ugly, too, but there seems to have been ever so slightly more money and time spent on them. Not sure which is worse, a labor of love that's rotten to the core, or a labor of meanness that almost, occasionally, looks like a real movie. But I haven't watched the CF ones nearly as much so I might be giving them more credit than they deserve.

Monster A-Go-Go...I agree with Mackro Mackro upthread: "like discovering credit card fraud in your account."

There is something to MST3K fandom of gradually discovering that what you thought was the apex of terrible film is only the tip of the iceberg. Manos is so legendary that it sort of blinds one to the gray-washed, cranky, worn-out emptiness of the Francis oeuvre.

Fave moment in Skydivers: when the one actress (during a plane crash, I think), yells "panic!" Was she mistaking her script direction for spoken dialogue?

There is something to MST3K fandom of gradually discovering that what you thought was the apex of terrible film is only the tip of the iceberg.

So true. I think I even thought something to that effect when I finally caught up with The Castle of Fu Manchu.

Oh I love The Final Sacrifice!!

From the collection I've recently watched, I think the worst acting award goes to Track of the Moon Beast. Werewolf in second place.

All the yelling in Space Mutiny killed me.

The scene when Puma Man starts to fly... it was just non-stop laughs

^random reflections

I love that the direction and editing in The Final Sacrifice are highly competent, and yet the movie is still terrible.

We couldn't get into Overdrawn at the Memory Bank but it was getting pretty late; should we try again?

Gotta at least make it to "My nuts?"

Skydivers is hilarious & bizarre, I love it. It's like a rejected workplace information film + crossed with the most boring soap opera you've ever seen.
Petey the Plane is one of my favorite riffs

"Where is it -- your coffee?"

I mean I know they filmed it near places of human habitation but it might as well have been Mars.

it's SO weird

Must watch.

Gotta at least make it to "My nuts?"

This whole minute or so of the movie generally leaves me convulsing with laughter, between that and:

Raul Julia: "Mom? What are you doing here?"
Servo: "Why aren't you Puerto Rican?"

Also the big overhead shot of the building interior with NIRVANA on the floor, accompanied by Crow's "Come, as you are, to my mall, to my atrium . . ." may be my favorite riff ever.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/20cb0d65bdf5fe53bdc4134020174993/tumblr_mjtjsuJv8K1qmrf3bo1_500.png

isn't the baddie's "office" just out in the open on like the stair landing? like they just moved the sunglasses hut kiosk out of the way

My go-to for all-time favorite riff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6FG8lha7-w&feature=youtu.be&t=1h22m21s

D'oh, it embedded ... anyway it's at 1:22:21, the Sheena Easton crib.

+ the entirety of the Rita Martinez vs. Iggy Pop bout that begins at 1:10:14 -- one of their longest sustained runs of total hilarity.

xxp that's in Time Chasers, yeah. His desk is literally on a landing at the top of a staircase.

"Is his office in a branch library?"

fav line ever, from 'time chasers':

"we're running out of ALT!"

Actually, this whole section of Devil Doll beginning around :11:30 to :18:10 is constant guffaws from me. Culminating in "He told me he was an expert in modern dance . . ." and "Well, back to the concession stand, hope you get some pants, bye!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rLsECjWvr4c#t=691

Some day I'm going to make a concerted effort to plow through all of the season 8-10 episodes, since so many MSTies rank them so highly these days. (A layman would presume Space Mutiny is the series' best episode ever.) Having grown up with the show in real-time, I can't quite get over how much "jump the shark" accompanied those eps when they were first airing. I have liked some of them after the fact -- Merlin, Touch of Satan, Giant Spider Invasion -- and yet I still resist any attempt to elevate them to the level of seasons 3-6.

Space mutiny is indeed so so great

never realized the consensus on black-and-white being extra boring

I thought it was just me. And all I meant was that the B&W ones (movies, not MST3K episodes) tend to be more dull-bad rather than silly-bad overall.

I think 8-10 is massively underrated due to people hating change.

that said, season 5 has both Eegah! and The Wild Wild World of Batwoman so it might de facto be my favorite

On one thing I think we should all be able to agree: the host segments, such as they were, were dire during the last few years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RHVoFpncgA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2f0nfrgaK4

The B&W movies are mostly time-fillers of people walking through the outdoors or people standing around in a room and constantly drinking.

The Killer Shrews being the case in point.

That's Monster-A-Go-Go to a T.