Not the best episode of MST3K--although feel free to say what you think it is (it's The Final Sacrifice, anyway 
)--but the best film Joel or Mike and the Bots screened, on its own merits.
Most of them are bad, true. Most were churned out and no one was attempting to make a truly good product. I can enjoy a Gamera film by itself, but I realize it is far from good. A scant few, however, could actually qualify as decent movies.
For me, it's a three-way tie between Moon Zero-Two, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Danger Diabolik.
Moon Zero-Two is a low-budget 2001ish sci-fi film that was screened in season 1. It's actually not terrible. The SFX are reasonably well done for its time and weight class; the characters are at least a little well-drawn, particularly the protagonist, who's mildly interesting, and the villain, who is Lex Luthor in space; the overarching criminal plot which the anti-hero protagonist has to stop actually makes sense, and is very reminiscent--even though I think it predated it--of Clarke's lesser-read but good 2001-series novel 2061. Out of four stars on an objective scale I'd give it two and a half.
Parts: The Clonus Horror suffers immeasurably from it's terrible budget, as well as some pretty stupid dialogue and less-than-stellar performances throughout. However, the premise is a solid horror/sci-fi plot, and it has a pretty good unhappy ending. We've actually seen what a slicker Parts looks like, and it was called The Island. Not a great film, by any stretch. But it was watchable and at turns fascinating. Interestingly, the maker of Parts wound up forming a company called Clonus--a holding company for the rights to his film which sued the crap out of the makers of The Island. I haven't followed the lawsuit, but having seen both, I can't imagine that Bay and the rest don't owe a tremendous--and monetary--debt to Parts' creators. Two stars for Parts, three for it's superior remake, The Island.
Finally, Danger Diabolik is crap, yes, but well-done crap. John Phillip Law is compelling enough as the eponymous, murderous anti-hero. His girlfriend is also pretty hot. The ending is retarded--when they just leave his not-corpse encased in gold I'm simply baffled and it's not altogether clear how he intends to escape from this situation anyway--but it has a fair number of good scenes. This is another MST3K-grist film that would have benefited immensely from greater production values. I don't know about you, but I would watch a theatrical-release-level remake of Diabolik. Perhaps with Clive Owen in the title role? Shoot 'Em Up had a strikingly similar aesthetic of cartoonish violence. Also, it too was crap, but fun crap indeed. Two and a half stars for Danger Diabolik.
Does anyone else have a MST3K-featured movie that they could have enjoyed without the riffs?
)--but the best film Joel or Mike and the Bots screened, on its own merits.Most of them are bad, true. Most were churned out and no one was attempting to make a truly good product. I can enjoy a Gamera film by itself, but I realize it is far from good. A scant few, however, could actually qualify as decent movies.
For me, it's a three-way tie between Moon Zero-Two, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Danger Diabolik.
Moon Zero-Two is a low-budget 2001ish sci-fi film that was screened in season 1. It's actually not terrible. The SFX are reasonably well done for its time and weight class; the characters are at least a little well-drawn, particularly the protagonist, who's mildly interesting, and the villain, who is Lex Luthor in space; the overarching criminal plot which the anti-hero protagonist has to stop actually makes sense, and is very reminiscent--even though I think it predated it--of Clarke's lesser-read but good 2001-series novel 2061. Out of four stars on an objective scale I'd give it two and a half.
Parts: The Clonus Horror suffers immeasurably from it's terrible budget, as well as some pretty stupid dialogue and less-than-stellar performances throughout. However, the premise is a solid horror/sci-fi plot, and it has a pretty good unhappy ending. We've actually seen what a slicker Parts looks like, and it was called The Island. Not a great film, by any stretch. But it was watchable and at turns fascinating. Interestingly, the maker of Parts wound up forming a company called Clonus--a holding company for the rights to his film which sued the crap out of the makers of The Island. I haven't followed the lawsuit, but having seen both, I can't imagine that Bay and the rest don't owe a tremendous--and monetary--debt to Parts' creators. Two stars for Parts, three for it's superior remake, The Island.
Finally, Danger Diabolik is crap, yes, but well-done crap. John Phillip Law is compelling enough as the eponymous, murderous anti-hero. His girlfriend is also pretty hot. The ending is retarded--when they just leave his not-corpse encased in gold I'm simply baffled and it's not altogether clear how he intends to escape from this situation anyway--but it has a fair number of good scenes. This is another MST3K-grist film that would have benefited immensely from greater production values. I don't know about you, but I would watch a theatrical-release-level remake of Diabolik. Perhaps with Clive Owen in the title role? Shoot 'Em Up had a strikingly similar aesthetic of cartoonish violence. Also, it too was crap, but fun crap indeed. Two and a half stars for Danger Diabolik.
Does anyone else have a MST3K-featured movie that they could have enjoyed without the riffs?
Seriously though, I did find entertainment in watching Gene Hackman lose his mind. As far as the MST episode itself, I thought the riffing was top notch. Crow (Trace Beaulieu) does a killer Gregory Peck.
