MST3K question

[madeline_con]

My 14 yo just discovered those old MST3K movies. If I wanted to buy him some of the best of the series, which season or collection should I get?

[realisticphish]

1. unfortunately

there IS no complete set. I have a few purchased ones, but most of mine are downloaded. Believe me, if I could buy the whole set, I would.

You'll find a few sets, which are nice, but they aren't assembled with any real sense, and usually only have 3 or 4 movies and a few shorts :shrug:

[AllenVanAllen]

2. That's really too bad

Are you familiar with their Rifftrax? http://www.rifftrax.com
I've never seen a movie with a rifftrax commentary added but I've heard they are pretty funny.

[realisticphish]

3. oh hell yes

I have almost all of them. I usually download one from bittorrent that's synced with an avi, then donate 5 bucks to RT. That way I don't have to screw around with aligning the two.

it's a fantastic thing they're doing, and it's the only way I've seen movies like Twilight :D

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a thing of brilliance :D


But anyway, the real problem is licensing. They can't get the rights to some of the movies they did on MST3K, so can't release the DVD's :shrug:

[Curtland1015]

6. I watch rifftrax all the damn time. The Harry Potter movies are my favorites.

...and anything they've mocked with "Star Wars" in the title.

I actually love both series, but they're so good at tearing them down, I just don't care!

[CreekDog]

4. Anything with "Gamera" in the title.

Anything with "Godzilla" in the title is probably almost as good.

Teenagers from Outer Space is rather famous.

I like Pod People too.

Pretty much all the ones they made into DVD's are really good.

Pretty much everything else is good too.

They chose from the best.

[krispos42]

5. He's in for a treat...

...there are a couple of hundred episodes of enjoyment out there for him!

You might want to start with season 2 and going onwards... they seem to have settled things out better by then. But really all the seasons are good. Because there's very little in the way of an overarching plot (each episode is based on the movie they're mocking, which varies widely) there aren't really "good seasons" and "bad seasons".

A lot of them are available via filesharing, often dubbed from a VHS tape to somebody's computer. Jus' sayin'...

[KatyaR]

7. You can watch some of them online through WinAmp.

Look for an MST3K stream in the SHOUTcast TV list in the Media Library.

[madeline_con]

11. Thanks.

[Bossy Monkey]

8. I'd recommend getting them via Netflix first

You can always buy the ones he particularly likes later. Nearly every episode is on YouTube, or so people say, but the problem with that is that the episodes you see there aren't necessarily on DVD.

[FormerDittoHead]

13. Yes. In all fairness, they are very uneven. Some not so good, others great.

I particularly like the ones where the show itself is oddly interesting, like the Norse fairy tale with Sampo, and Mr. B Natural.

[Ryano42]

9. Some to own on DVD

Manos: Hands of Fate
Mitchell
Master Ninja
The movie is pretty good too! :)

[NJmaverick]

10. Any of the orginals will Joel are a little bit better, in my opinion

[realisticphish]

12. see, i disagree

i like Joel and all (and I know there are people who hate MJN) but I think the best seasons had Mike with Dr. Forrester. I'm not a huge fan of Pearl, but I far and away prefer Mike's delivery

But there's an eternal MST3K debate right there :D

[NJmaverick]

16. true, the debate that sadly lasted longer than the series

[bridgit]

14. I think the ones with Mike Nelson are some of the funniest

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. A 14 year old would probably really enjoy "Hobgoblins" from the Volume 8 collection

The movies in Volume 8 are Hobgoblins, The Phantom Planet, Monster A-Go Go, and The Dead Talk Back. There are also two shorts, "Circus On Ice" and "The Selling Wizard."



http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-Collection-Hobgoblins/dp/B000BI1YS8/

"Hobgoblins" was a bad rip-off of "Gremlins," as you might have guessed, which made it prime MST3K fodder. The IMDB description for the movie is "A group of hobgoblins, who allow you to live out your fantasies but kill you in the process, escape from a studio vault, and a security guard and his friends must stop them before dawn.."

:toast:

[Danger Mouse]

17. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. Best. Episode. Ever.