Josh

Try again sometime at a not ridiculous hour.

It's solid, but it won't draw in a newbie very well. Once you dig MST3K in general, it's totally worth a watch.

Manos Live! I'm hesitant to buy a ticket, as I have ended up with a rehearsal scheduled on the same night as every one their past live events, but I'm hoping to get a ticket closer to 8/16. And the best part about Monster-a-Go-Go is the story behind the movie, not anything that you can actually observe (directly) in the episode.

For a moment, I thought this said Duke Phillips. You can imagine my disappointment.

Of those, I'd say Final Sacrifice, Fugitive Alien, or Pod People would be your best bet for a gateway episode. Cave Dwellers and 12 To The Moon after that. Time of the Apes and Gorgo are better saved for when you've already got a good sense of the series and style as a whole. One man's opinion, though. Having said that, Final Sacrifice might actually be one you want to save for later, only because it's probably one of the Top 10 most popular episodes, these days. Maybe even Top 5. Oh, and GoGo's totally right: while you'll definitely want to see Manos at some point, watch at least a handful of other episodes first. There's a few episodes along the way that feature truly, uniquely awful films. Sometimes that makes for a watershed episode (Manos), sometimes it makes for something nearly impossible to watch (Monster-a-Go-Go, Castle of Fu Manchu), and sometimes it just splits the fans (any episode with a Coleman Francis movie.) That said, even when those episodes really, really shine, they are never good for first-timers. Regarding Rifftrax, I wish I had the budget to get some of their stuff. What little I've seen, I've enjoyed. I'm still hoping to see their live re-riffing of Manos, this August. Likewise, I'd just about kill to see Cinematic Titanic Live or at least get some of their DVDs. I did get to see their riffing of The Alien Factor and it was fucking tremendous.

And they went and did it again with Final Justice, which features a tremendous end credits sequence.

I watched The Magic Voyage of Sinbad last night, as I'm sort of on a Russo-Finnish kick. It's fun! It definitely gets stranger with each passing scene.

Help me, Vandinho. Help, help me, Vandinho.

Now is the time where I brag that BOTH Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff follow me on Twitter. While a lot of people don't like Frank's political yuks, they've done nothing to upset me. Furthermore, Beaulieu seems like the most humble man to walk this planet. Goddamn you, you fortunate bastard.

Goddammit, I wish I knew that was happening before it started.

I definitely put the whole Coleman Francis Trilogy in the "Not For Beginners" category. If you went straight from Space Mutiny or Mitchell to The Skydivers, it would be very jarring.

They say that?

. . .Gerald McRaney is in this? Sold.

I don't get that criticism, though. Red Zone Cuba is a gloriously inept piece of filmmaking. You've got a director undeservedly vain enough to star, a barely comprehensible plot, characters like Cherokee Jack (who is blatantly not Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa, etc.), and locations that are obviously not what they're supposed to be. If anything, I'd say Skydivers is the weakest of the "trilogy", even though I enjoy it.

And I'm the opposite. I adore the Coleman Francis episodes, especially Beast of Yucca Flats. Flag on the moon.

Liam asked me to recommend pretty much every decent to great MST3K episode for further viewing. Since the topic has come up lately, I thought I'd share some of that with everyone. First off, if you don't know about it, there's this. As for a full list of episodes I would personally watch, here's that first list narrowed down: If you don't already know, the first list of episodes before Season 1 are from the series former life as a local TV show on Minneapolis TV station, KTMA. There was no writing being done at that time - it was purely improvised. The production values were much lower. In general, I don't recommend this "season" unless you're a little more obsessive, like me. If you do check it out, here are the ones I recommend. K09 Phase IV K13 SST: Death Flight K15 Superdome K16 City on Fire K19 Hangar 18 (YouTube) Season 1 and 2 are pretty different from the rest, especially 1. Here's a couple of episodes that are decent though. 110 Robot Holocaust (Google Video) 111 Moon Zero Two (YouTube) I'm not so big on Season 2. 301 Cave Dwellers 303 Pod People 306 Time of the Apes 310 Fugitive Alien 313 Earth vs. the Spider 318 Star Force: Fugitive Alien II 321 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians 322 Master Ninja I 324 Master Ninja II 401 Space Travelers 404 Teenagers from Outer Space 407 The Killer Shrews 411 The Magic Sword 414 Tormented 415 The Beatniks 422 The Day the Earth Froze 423 Bride of the Monster 424 Manos: The Hands of Fate 501 Warrior of the Lost World 505 The Magic Voyage of Sinbad 506 Eegah 507 I Accuse My Parents 508 Operation Double 007 509 The Girl in Lovers Lane 512 Mitchell **LAST JOEL EPISODE** 513 The Brain that Wouldn't Die **FIRST MIKE EPISODE** 514 Teenage Strangler 515 The Wild World of Batwoman 517 Beginning of the End 519 Outlaw 520 Radar Secret Service 521 Santa Claus 522 Teenage Crimewave 523 Village of the Giants 524 12 to the Moon 601 Girls Town 602 Invasion USA 604 Zombie Nightmare 605 Colossus and the Headhunters 609 The Skydivers 610 The Violent Years 613 The Sinister Urge 614 San Francisco International 617 The Sword and the Dragon 619 Red Zone Cuba 620 Danger Death Ray 621 The Beast of Yucca Flats 622 Angels Revenge 624 Samson vs. the Vampire Women All of Season 7. (It's a short season.) 804 The Deadly Mantis 806 The Undead 807 Terror from the Year 5000 810 The Giant Spider Invasion 811 Parts: The Clonus Horror 812 TISCWSLABMUZ 813 Jack Frost 814 Riding with Death 815 Agent for HARM 816 Prince of Space 817 The Horror of Party Beach 819 Invasion of the Neptune Men 820 Space Mutiny 821 Time Chasers 822 Overdrawn at the Memory Bank All of Season 9. All of Season 10. There's some episodes you might like in Season 1 and 2, but don't start there. Only try those seasons after you tried quite a few that you like in later seasons. I should also point out that some of the ones I left listed are "have to be in the right mood" episodes that only certain types of people will enjoy. Start with episodes that get mentioned by more people, more often.

1. Julianne Moore 2. 3. Julie Newmar 4. Sigourney Weaver 5. Bernadette Peters 6. Meryl Streep 7. Jennifer Morrison 8. Ryan Gosling 9. Jon Hamm 10. Chris Hemsworth

Meh. The important thing is that Christopher Lloyd's getting action.

This is the most adorable and heart-warming thing.

I didn't think it was that bad. Now, Charlize Theron's performance in general . . . . Hokey isn't bad to me. It just seemed like he was more doing a parody of The Big Swaggering American Macho Man. Or, not really a parody as he wasn't doing it for comedic effect, but he was trying to play that niche rather than deliver his own developed character. Okay, I'm on board with you there.

I didn't think it was that bad. Now, Charlize Theron's performance in general . . . .

That is a fun thing.

It was pretty damn good, in my view. I see Fassbender getting a lot of praise (deservedly), but I thought Noomi Rapace was just phenomenal. Also, Idris Elba was a lot of fun as Yanek. Conversely, am I the only one that thought Theron's performance was exteeeeemely clichéd? I'm especially thinking of

This line hardly ever gets mentioned, but it never fails to crack me up - from "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson": "I'm glad we snuck into town. That was some GOOD corn."