Hollywood After Dark
One of my favorite shows of all time was Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). I've talked about it before. If you don't know the premise, which I'm not certain if some people who read this might, it was a low budget comedy show that started on Comedy Central then moved over to the Sci-Fi channel after Comedy Central canned it. They also had a movie. It was about a guy (first Joel then Mike) and two Robots (Tom Servo & Crow T. Robot) who were forced to watch horrible crappy movies. While they watched the movies (you could see them at the bottom of your screen as little silhouettes, as if you were in the theater with them) they quipped and joked the movie. It was awesome.
Anyway, it's been off the air for years. And not syndicated. The only way to watch it is to wait for Rhino to release them on DVD. Which is slow going, and Rhino will probably never get the rights to all the episodes. Many of my favorites haven't been released and I wonder if they ever will be. So I miss it.
Mike Nelson, the second guy on the show, came out with Rifftrax. Where he rips on movies but the set-up is a little different. You download his commentary track and just play it on your stereo as you play the DVD for the specific movie. This way, they don't have to secure any rights to the film and can do more recent releases (like Fantastic 4 and Star Wars: Episode 1).
But there's just something about those old horrible movies. So I was excited when I heard that Mike, Bill Corbett (the second voice for Crow on MST3K) and Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo's voice) were coming out with The Film Crew. The premise is almost EXACTLY like MST3K. Those three guys watch a horrible movie and joke it. You don't see their silhouettes at the bottom of your screen, however. You just hear their voices as you would in any DVD commentary track.
It's just what I was waiting for. So I pre-ordered the first DVD and waited. I'll hide the rest behind a cut, because I'm getting a little wordy. ^^;;
The movie was Hollywood After Dark. Which was so confusing and idiotic that I can't even begin to explain it to you. Seriously. I have no idea who anyone was or what they were doing with each other. There was a robbery (I don't know who got robbed or why) and there was a strip club and a junk yard where some creepy old guy bought a water pump and was never seen again. It stars a young Rue McClanahan (from the Golden Girls) as a stripper. There are annoying film jumps and a long scenes of women stripping... well it's 1950's stripping which apparently involved a lot of gyrating and not so much stripping. Maybe it's because I'm not guy but I wouldn't find that very sexy.
But that's not the first time I've seen a confusing movie with these guys. I could try and explain Manos: Hands of Fate to you... but this entry is long enough already.
So it's pretty much the same thing. Which makes me happy. I hope this isn't going to be their best work in the new format, because it wasn't hilarious. But it was funny. There are some differences though. In MST3K, because they were on screen with the movie, they could sometimes do visual gags. Like if there was a window on the screen, Joel or Mike could pretend to look through it. Since they aren't pictured anymore, they can't do those gags anymore. Which is fine. Another thing, Mike is pretty much the same. But Bill and Kevin are themselves now. Not little robots. Which is a little jarring for me. So their jokes can be a little different now. Not jokes that Tom or Crow might have made. I'll get over it. I also noticed there were a lot more sex jokes. I'm not saying it was crude or raunchy or anything like that... but I just noticed there were more. But I'm not sure if this was because it was a movie that involved stripping so heavily, or if it's because they're no longer on television (this is direct to DVD) so they don't have as many restrictions on them. I guess I'll find out in future movies.
Another one comes out in August, called Killers From Space. I'm thinking I'll like that one better since I usually like the Science Fiction or Fantasy episodes of MST3K the best.
Hollywood After Dark @ Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Film-Crew-Hollywood-After-Dark/dp/B000N2HDIM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8587723-3576062?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185461502&sr=8-1
Anyway, it's been off the air for years. And not syndicated. The only way to watch it is to wait for Rhino to release them on DVD. Which is slow going, and Rhino will probably never get the rights to all the episodes. Many of my favorites haven't been released and I wonder if they ever will be. So I miss it.
Mike Nelson, the second guy on the show, came out with Rifftrax. Where he rips on movies but the set-up is a little different. You download his commentary track and just play it on your stereo as you play the DVD for the specific movie. This way, they don't have to secure any rights to the film and can do more recent releases (like Fantastic 4 and Star Wars: Episode 1).
But there's just something about those old horrible movies. So I was excited when I heard that Mike, Bill Corbett (the second voice for Crow on MST3K) and Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo's voice) were coming out with The Film Crew. The premise is almost EXACTLY like MST3K. Those three guys watch a horrible movie and joke it. You don't see their silhouettes at the bottom of your screen, however. You just hear their voices as you would in any DVD commentary track.
It's just what I was waiting for. So I pre-ordered the first DVD and waited. I'll hide the rest behind a cut, because I'm getting a little wordy. ^^;;
The movie was Hollywood After Dark. Which was so confusing and idiotic that I can't even begin to explain it to you. Seriously. I have no idea who anyone was or what they were doing with each other. There was a robbery (I don't know who got robbed or why) and there was a strip club and a junk yard where some creepy old guy bought a water pump and was never seen again. It stars a young Rue McClanahan (from the Golden Girls) as a stripper. There are annoying film jumps and a long scenes of women stripping... well it's 1950's stripping which apparently involved a lot of gyrating and not so much stripping. Maybe it's because I'm not guy but I wouldn't find that very sexy.
But that's not the first time I've seen a confusing movie with these guys. I could try and explain Manos: Hands of Fate to you... but this entry is long enough already.
So it's pretty much the same thing. Which makes me happy. I hope this isn't going to be their best work in the new format, because it wasn't hilarious. But it was funny. There are some differences though. In MST3K, because they were on screen with the movie, they could sometimes do visual gags. Like if there was a window on the screen, Joel or Mike could pretend to look through it. Since they aren't pictured anymore, they can't do those gags anymore. Which is fine. Another thing, Mike is pretty much the same. But Bill and Kevin are themselves now. Not little robots. Which is a little jarring for me. So their jokes can be a little different now. Not jokes that Tom or Crow might have made. I'll get over it. I also noticed there were a lot more sex jokes. I'm not saying it was crude or raunchy or anything like that... but I just noticed there were more. But I'm not sure if this was because it was a movie that involved stripping so heavily, or if it's because they're no longer on television (this is direct to DVD) so they don't have as many restrictions on them. I guess I'll find out in future movies.
Another one comes out in August, called Killers From Space. I'm thinking I'll like that one better since I usually like the Science Fiction or Fantasy episodes of MST3K the best.
Hollywood After Dark @ Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Film-Crew-Hollywood-After-Dark/dp/B000N2HDIM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8587723-3576062?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185461502&sr=8-1