The MST3K Thread

[Hobo]

The YouTube stream isnt available to me

But it seems the twitch one is.

Weird.

[GoGo Yubari]

Full slate of season 13 movies:

Spoiler

• Santo in The Treasure of Dracula
• Robot Wars
• Beyond Atlantis
• Munchie (and the way they were saying the name of this one in the host segments suggests that this one is real bad)
• Doctor Mordrid
• Demon Squad
• Gamera vs. Jiger
• The Batwoman
• The Million Eyes of Sumuru (which was also riffed in the KTMA era of MST3K)
• H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come
• The Mask 3D (not that The Mask)
• The Bubble
• The Christmas Dragon

 

[Skummy]

3 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

Full slate of season 13 movies:

  Hide contents

• The Million Eyes of Sumuru (which was also riffed in the KTMA era of MST3K)

 

Rifftrax have done this one as well, it's bonkers, and has one of my favourite lines of dialogue in any movie ever:

Spoiler

"So, what's new in the Dracula factory?"

 

[TheRaySays]

On 25/11/2021 at 21:25, GoGo Yubari said:

Full slate of season 13 movies:

  Reveal hidden contents

• Santo in The Treasure of Dracula
• Robot Wars
• Beyond Atlantis
• Munchie (and the way they were saying the name of this one in the host segments suggests that this one is real bad)
• Doctor Mordrid
• Demon Squad
• Gamera vs. Jiger
• The Batwoman
• The Million Eyes of Sumuru (which was also riffed in the KTMA era of MST3K)
• H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come
• The Mask 3D (not that The Mask)
• The Bubble
• The Christmas Dragon

 

Spoiler

Beyond Atlantis has one of my favorite trailers of all time. "When will you mate?!!" I don't think I've ever seen anything so sleazy with zero nudity.

 

[Hobo]

I was happy to learn Doctor Mordrid is a Charles Band movie starring Jeffrey Combs.

As well as originally being intended Dr Strange movie.

 

 

[GhostMachine]

On 04/12/2021 at 04:49, Hobo said:

I was happy to learn Doctor Mordrid is a Charles Band movie starring Jeffrey Combs.

As well as originally being intended Dr Strange movie.

 

 

It's actually not that bad. Its borderline for an MST3K movie, in my personal opinion. The budget, if anything, is what makes it suitable. My favorite Jeffrey Combs movie aside from the first two Re-Animator movies. (The third was pretty much shit.)

[Hobo]

I didnt stay up to watch it but Season 13's first episode got a premiere last night for backers.

The few bits I've seen of reaction to the episode seemed positive. Even though the stream itself had some technical issues by the looks of it.

I don't know if its available to rewatch for those who have access but couldn't watch live yet though. I've seen some posts saying it is and some saying its not?

[Skummy]

It's showing up as available to rewatch for me, but that night be different depending on whether or not you donated at that tier.

I enjoyed it, and everyone seemed really understanding of the technical hitch at the start. Once it got playing, there weren't really any other issues that I remember.

The Gizmoplex isn't anything like as revolutionary as they'd hoped it would be, as it's just a stream with live chat, and with 4000+ people trying to use it at once the chat was completely unusable anyway.

The movie itself was a Santo movie I hadn't seen before, and a rarity as it was dubbed into English. It wasn't as camp and nonsensical as some of my favourite Santo movies, and really obviously an existing horror film that Santo had been awkwardly tacked on to, but still surreal in the ways all Lucha movies ultimately are.

Some fun host segments (Mean Jonah!), though green screen for the Mads is going to take some getting used to.

[Hobo]

My girlfriend is the one who backed and we could've watch it last night. So I assume then we'll be able to watch it later.

I kinda get the impression that the Gizmoplex is in a bit of a beta state at present based on a few comments I've read? I'm not sure that element overly bothers me that much tbh.

A few of the stills I've seen of the green screen have looked a little not quite right. Most of the photos I've seen though seem to be from people photographing their tvs which isn't going to be a proper representation.

I took a brief glimpse at the MST3k reddit and saw at least 2 posts that were remarking on how pacing of the riffing was a lot slower than the Netflix series. Which I am glad to hear about.

[GoGo Yubari]

I watched most of it last night, need to finish it but it might end up just being a complete rewatch. My takeaway is that the riffing is very strong, and the writing of the host segments are about on par with the Netflix seasons (and by and large I liked the host segments on the Netflix seasons). As already said, the pacing is much slower and allows the movie to breathe more, which is great. The Gauntlet's pace was a little slower than The Return's but this is full on "fuck it, the only people watching this are the people that love classic MST3K so let's get back to that feel." Most of the common complaints about the riffing between the pace and not being able to separate the riffers' voices should be out the window now.

Now the bad part is... yeah, you can see where the money went and probably the shift in priorities needed by filming it during some pretty bad portions of the pandemic came in too, and it didn't go to the sets. The greenscreen is okay enough on the host/bots end of it but I do wish they had sprung for something more visually compelling for Kinga and Max. Of course, I guess the difficulty there is they'd either a) have to shell out for something more substantial in LA, which isn't cheap or b) have to try and find a time to fly Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt out to film somewhere else and for the latter especially that's probably not actually schedule-permitting. There was also on the livestream a kind of brutal intermission section where Joel and producer Matt McGinnis and an intern tried to do a comedy bit in a kitchen that mostly led to confusion from the viewers on why they couldn't just be watching the episode instead.

No strong comments on the Gizmoplex yet because it's still in beta but given how widely available most of MST3K is on the internet I'm not convinced it has any real legs as a concept.

EDIT: Also don't like the new iteration of the theme. Was kind of hoping that each of the new hosts would sing their own version of it rather than a one-size-fits-all theme that feels a little labored.

[Skummy]

yeah, the green screen for Kinga and Max is very not good, and Kinga in general feels much more like she's in cosplay rather than inhabiting the character. The audio seemed to be slightly out of sync in their sections of the show, too. 

The hosts and bots stuff looks great, and I agree that some of the riffs were brilliant, and it feels very Joel-era MST3K. 

As nice as it to see Joel, the intermission stuff was pretty awful - the Nachos bit dragged and dragged with no pay-off whatsoever, and the producer just wasn't a very likeable presence, so did a lot to undo Joel being generally affable. I get that the intention is for Joel to be able to thank some of the backers, to offer something unique, and to show off some of the "Invention Exchange" stuff his students have made, but it all really fell flat, and wasn't particularly welcome at 2.30am or whatever time I was watching it given how late the stream started in the first place.

I get it as a Gizmoplex thing - they have to be looking for things that they can offer in the new setting that they weren't able to on Netflix or conventional TV, and an "intermission" fits the cinema gimmick. That said, in future I'd rather that - if they do want "intermission acts" - that slot be used a bit more inventively, maybe for sketches from other comedians or something, and chats with Joel and the producers can be strictly pre- and post-show fare.

 

The new theme song did feel a bit clunky, but the stream still wasn't 100% for me during it and, as with all their other segments, I was distracted by the lip sync issues for Kinga and Max.

[Hobo]

Watched it last night and i enjoyed it.

It did feel like they hadnt quite got the sound mixed right in parts. It felt like Kinga and Max had been ADR'd and the sync out.

I didnt mind the new intro song but it was visually very static. 

The green screen didnt bother me as much as I expected. Especially not in the SOL. The lighting was just not right for the Mads. Maybe because the SOL is much brighter lit. 

I didn't mind the nachos sketch.  (Maybe a benefit of not watching live?)  i enjoyed matt McGinnis as the host of the kickstarter livestreams and it felt very Joel era mst3k invention exchange. (Maybe that is why they did it because they didnt haven an invention exchange in the episode). But i did also just want to get back to the episode.

I had wondered about how they were hosting the videos. It looks like the gizmoplex is built using Vimeos streaming platformy thing. Whose name i cannot recall. 

Given that they wont be releasing to the wider public for a couple more months. This felt like a bit proof of concept/pilot as much as anything.

EDIT: I also just had a quick look at the MST3k Reddit and according to writer/director Tim Ryder; Netflix refused to let them use assets from seasons 11 & 12. Which is part of why the intro and also the doorway sequence had to be changed. And presumably why they had to move from Moon 13 to Moon 1. 

Also, I just remembered that Servo's arms are springy again! Which is highly important.

[Hobo]

The first episode with the live tour cast is now out. I haven't seen it yet but I was scrubbing through social media to see what the reaction to it was.

I'd not noticed in any of the promotion that that cast's Crow, Nate Begle, has been quietly replaced by his understudy from the Live tour Kelsey Brady. He apparently he took paternal leave from the Time Bubble Tour and has since deleted all his social media accounts. Which is very weird.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I've been wondering about that. The history of the live tour Crow is such a weird, somewhat fraught thing. Hampton Yount was openly disappointed on his podcast about not doing the second MST3K Live tour as Crow after doing the first. It had instead for whatever reason gone to Grant Baccioco who did that whole tour and was supposed to do The Great Cheesy Movie Circus only to get a gig on a Henson show for Disney+ so he would have missed the first leg of the tour. His understudy was Nate, who Joel decided to just keep on for the whole tour (a thing he said Grant was gracious about. I don't think Grant ever actually said anything publicly) after the early shows went well. And now at some point between much of this last tour and even filming these episodes he's been replaced outright by Kelsey Brady.

If I have a big criticism of Joel it's that I always get this sneaking feeling that he views the puppeteers as reasonably interchangeable as he sees fit. I very much liked having different sets of Servos/Crows for each host this season as a way of accommodating all of them. 

(And all of that is even before mentioning the obvious friction between Joel and Trace over the decision to recast Crow for the Netflix seasons.)

[Hobo]

I wasn't aware of any Trace/Joel friction around the Netflix show?

I knew that when the return was announced there were was some upset amongst original cast members about not being consulted about it.  Mary Jo Pehl talked on Bill Corbett's old podcast about how bittersweet the revival kinda was for her. Although they both seemed equally understanding that it's better for it to go on with a new cast.

I'd also not heard about the Hampton Yount thing. I just figured with they just couldn't afford to keep the Netflix crew on so they re-cast. Hampton's not really the biggest name in that group but I can see the logic in wanting to keep that crew together if needs be and having a different touring crew. 

Nate competely dropping off social media is the oddest part of it all. I saw someone on a Reddit thread note that given his chosen career nuking all his socials is a really odd move. While doing a quick google for him earlier I found his LinkedIn seems to be active but with no apparent mention of working MST3k (unless I missed it) and interviews from January wher he seemed like he was still on board.

It could very well be that Joel just decided he wanted to use Kelsey Brady from now on. My other thought was something maybe happened with Nate. Maybe there was a bit of both? I feel like I've heard rumours that Joel isn't always super easy to work for.

Also while searching around for info about this recasting I saw that the MST3k wiki editors at least seem to think Joel will have his own Crow/Servo for his two epsiodes. I'd not be surprised either way specifically noting that Bill Corbett has said he won't be peforming Crow for the Joel eps. I'd be nice to get Kevin, Josh or Trace in for those.

I think one thing I'd love to see with these revivals the return of Dr Forrester. Mary Jo is really doing great as Pearl in the segments she's done for Season 13 that I've seen.  I'd be far less excited for Mike to make an appearance than to see Trace and Frank pop up.

I'm looking forward to sitting down this evening and watching the Emily episode. I've only seen a little bit of that crew but have been watching the Kickstarter and Endless Summer live streams a lot lately and it really endeared them to me. Or me to them. I'm not sure which what that works. Either way I liked what i saw.

[Josh]

So I’ve been away from MST3K for a while. How are you finding the Gizmoplex experience so far?

[GoGo Yubari]

The tough thing with the original cast/Joel stuff around the Kickstarter campaign is that there feel like a lot of conflicting stories about how much people were or weren't consulted. IIRC Joel has said that the original idea for how the revival was going to go was Jonah was going to be the host, he'd have new performers as the bots, and the Mads would be all three Forresters and TV's Frank, with the idea that Clayton and Pearl are grooming Kinga to take over the family business. He's framed it at least once like everyone was on board with it and then Trace/MJ/Frank suddenly changed their minds and so he had to pivot.

Trace said on a radio interview during the Kickstarter that I listened to (after the host had mistakenly assumed that he was part of the Kickstarter, which was awkward) that there was a "generous offer" or something like that to be part of the revival that he'd turned down, and he and Frank basically spent the entire Kickstarter passive-aggressively tweeting or RTing stuff about being "too old" to riff (MJ was a bit more of a neutral party and obviously ended up taking part in the revival anyway). So I don't know where the truth lies, but something happened there. I would guess that the sticking point with the revival was that Trace and Frank wouldn't be playing Crow and Servo anymore, but who knows when that offer to be a part of it was actually made or anything like that. The fact that they and Mike (who is pretty clear about just wanting to do Rifftrax and maybe his side writing projects and that's it) are the only ones who've not made any appearances in any of the MST3K projects between the Kickstarter and now feels telling.

12 minutes ago, Josh said:

So I’ve been away from MST3K for a while. How are you finding the Gizmoplex experience so far?

I haven't really been using it due to work really popping off and Fridays being extremely packed entertainment-wise (watched 80% of the first episode and the short they premiered at the following event, I think I might save watching the other stuff to when they're not rough cuts). I remain very "this is neat but I don't think it's an actual great idea or investment of time/money in 2022 when everyone and their mother has a streaming service" about it. I hope it works out! I enjoy these casts and I think they've really fine-tuned the riffing itself since The Return, so if the Gizmoplex actually ends up making the continued existence of MST3K easier then that's great. I get the sneaking suspicion/fear that it's a Big Joel Idea that's great in theory but difficult in practice, though.

[Hobo]

Yeah, I remember the "too old to riff" tweets.  There's still the odd interaction between Frank and Joel on twitter and the Mads have worked with Jonah. I'd not be totally shocked if Trace and Frank popped up in future episodes. I have a sort of feeling that the way the Gauntlet's Dr Erhart story went was maybe lining up something with them. But that could be my wishful thinking.

Kevin, Bill and Mary Jo and J Elvis Weinstein have seemed to be most happy to get involved with the revived MST. J Elvis is slated to make an appearance in Season 13 as Dr Erhart. So I'd not be surprised he's in the Joel epsiodes. Maybe he'll play Servo for them too.

Mike just seems happy to be do Mike things. Which is fine. I'm certain he's said he makes way more from Rifftrax than he ever did from MST3k. It would be nice if he did pop up in a new MST3k show just for a cameo or something.

My girlfriend is the one with the gizmoplex pass so I haven't really looked into it much. We've watched the backer premiere shows as they've come out and enjoyed them.  I'll be interested to know what the finished shows look like since the backer premieres have been essentially unfinished. There's been some really strong host segments in the episodes I've seen thus far.

Although I feel like the more stripped down aesthetic doesn't really help The Mads. They need to have a less confined space to occupy with more props and stuff going on. Maybe bring back the way they shot the mads scenes on wide angle lenses in the old show. At the moment their stuff feels more like a cameo in a youtube video.

I'll be happy if they can keep the Gizmoplex going in the long term. I'm enjoying getting brand new MST3k every-so-often. As well as the odd free Rifftrax release and Mads short.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, everyone seems to love Jonah and it feels like Joel is grooming Jonah to eventually take the reins for MST3K outright someday so I think you're right that there's an opening. Honestly if all the lack of info on Joel's bots is because it's some combination of Trace, Frank, and Josh (I think Bill Corbett has said that him reprising Crow for the charity short was a one-off) and they've somehow kept it a secret that would be pretty amazing.

[Hobo]

We watched Beyond Atlantis last night. It was a good episode. The riffs were really strong.

It was also my first time seeing the Gizmoplex. They've put a lot more effort into the UI for it than i expected. It looks good. A bit like a point and click game from the 90s.

I can see it being a little confusing at first though if you're expecting just a regular streaming service UI.