Splitsider

Posts tagged as mst3k

MST3K

The Highest of Low Standards: How 'MST3K' Picked Movies to Mock

by | October 31st, 2012

The scene, as I remember it, is like this: Ally Farson is in the kitchen with her emotionally abusive mother having a lengthy argument. Ally, as we’ve learned earlier, is fairly unhinged and has recently started a successful career as a serial murderer. Her mother doesn’t care about that, she’s just telling Ally how useless she is, how bad a person she is, and how she needs to get a job. Ally, for her part, is occasionally threatening to kill her mother. In the left corner, the actor playing the grandmother is cracking up. This scene runs, without any cuts, roughly fifteen minutes. The grandmother actress is laughing in [...]

Checking In

From Robots to Bear-Fighting: Sitcoms Sure Do Love Their Bad Ass Santas

by | December 23rd, 2011

Sitcoms really only have four ways of handling Christmas: it can either be the Sentimental Episode, the Parody Episode (like all seven billion It’s a Wonderful Life lampoons), the Christmas Doesn’t Exist Episode, or, my favorite, INSANE CHRISTMAS. That’s the one that usually features a lot of blood and violence and reindeer frothing at the mouth, and it’s almost always because of the actions of Saint Nick himself. I love Bad Ass Santa because there’s only so much you can do with Christmas, plot-wise, and any story with Father Christmas brandishing a machine gun or baseball bat feels fresh and exciting. And on TV, it’s almost exclusive to sitcoms; [...]

Spending Dollars

Fun Thing to Buy of the Day: 'MST3K Vs. Gamera'

by | September 14th, 2012

Just like how every superhero needs their perfect nemesis – a villain who is there opposite and equal – every TV show in which a guy and two robots make fun of bad movies needs its perfect bad movie series. In many ways Gamera is that series, which is why its great that MST3K has bundled all five, yes five, of the season three Gamera episodes on one DVD. Beyond that, because they love Gamera so much, there are three features including an oral history of the series. Better yet, if you buy this, or these other four MST3K DVDs, today, they'll be 52% [...]

The Holidays

The 20 Specials of Christmas: Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers The Martians

by | December 21st, 2011

Let's first talk about Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. It's a bad movie. The acting's bad. The story's bad. The effects are bad. Even the Christmas spirit in it is bad. It's a horrible, horrible movie about selfish aliens and a creepy Santa.

Which is why it works so well for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In fact, it features my favorite MST3K joke ever:

Reporter: "Is it true you're going to use a rocket sled?" Santa Claus: "Oh no, siree! We're going out the old fashioned way -" Joel: "Guns a-blazing."

Important Questions

Yes, Dear < Taxi: What Older Shows Would You Like to See on TV Again?

by | March 9th, 2012

Erik Adams wrote an interesting article for the A.V. Club yesterday, called, “Is television a medium without a past?” It’s about how while the film and music industries keep looking to the past for inspiration, to the point where original ideas feel shocking, TV doesn’t work the same way. He writes, “The most visible outlets for second-run TV programming are no longer interested in series that premièred before Seinfeld.” TBS, TNT, TV Land, Nick at Nite – their afternoon and primetime schedules are packed with episodes of Home Improvement, The King of Queens, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Family Guy, Boy Meets World, Yes, Dear, etc. (It [...]

Movies

Five Great Sci-Fi Comedies (and Three Awful Ones, Too)

by | March 18th, 2011

Yesterday, we published a review of Paul, the new film from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and how much of its humor comes from Pegg and Frost’s obsession with science fiction. Comedy and sci-fi, I’d argue, are the two genres with the most passionate fanbases, and to combine them is tricky, but potentially rewarding. Below are five of the finest sci-fi comedies and three of the worst.

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