Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

"Suddenly I have a refreshing mint flavor.", 24 March 2007

I readily admit it – I'm an unabashed MST3K fan. The concept may be simple, but it's given me hours of entertainment over the years. While I don't necessarily think some of the movies featured on MST3K deserved to be on the show, some episodes are laugh-out-loud funny (MST3K's treatment of Mitchell immediately comes to mind). So I was one of those excited about the prospects of a movie based on the television show. But, honestly, I find Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie disappointing. Sure, there are a few good laughs to be had, but overall, it cannot compare with the best of the MST3K episodes.

What went wrong? As I indicated previously, I don't think some of the films used on MST3K deserved to be there. This Island Earth is one of those films. It's a solid 50s sci-fi film that I would rate a 7/10 on its own. I would have thought that for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, the producers would have selected something much worse than this. And why cut This Island Earth? Here again the producers picked the wrong movie. If they were going to turn a 90 minute television show (without commercials) into a 73 minute movie, why pick This Island Earth and its 87 minute runtime? There are plenty of really bad movie with a runtime of right at an hour. Finally, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie lacks to flow found in the television show. I've read that the director slowed down the pace of the movie riffing so theater audiences wouldn't miss anything while laughing. It's this rapid-fire pacing of some of the better MST3K episodes that made it funny.

6/10