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The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 2

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 2

List Price: $59.95
Your Price: $47.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Top-notch collection
Review: This is a good collection of DVD's featuring some classic episodes, as well as the ultimate feature: a DVD with shorts on one DVD.

The first two films - "Pod People" and "Cave Dwellers" are some of my favorite episodes. The skits are funny and so is the heckling, and I would definately invite people to introduce friends to MST3K this way.

"Angel's Revenge" is...well, it's not HILARIOUS, but it is funny. I wouldn't suggest introducing some one to MST3K with it, but definately watch it after you've gotten into the series. It's kind of weak in the beginning but picks up better after a while ("So they just destroyed all the drugs in the world?").

The Shorts Collection - while perhaps missing "Mr. B Natural" - is still the funniest piece of the pie. I laughed through ever last one of them, and "Cheating" made me fall out of my chair. Such lines as "I will bring you down Johnny!" or "You've made some powerful enemies, son" will stick in my mind forever. The last short involving chickens was fittingly good as well ("Where's the driver? Oh my god the chickens are taking over!")

In short, for MSTie or MSTie-in-training, this is an excellent volume. Get it. Got it? Good!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Bust a Gut!
Review: This is a good compiolation of classic episodes, there isn't really any dull moments, except if you're only paying attention to the movie, instead of Tom, Crow, Joel, or Mike, then yes, it will be very boring. This collection features 4 DVDs, with B movies mostly from the 80's.

Movie 1. ANGELS REVENGE: I never quite understood the plot of the movie, but it seems like its mainly about a group of female spies, a cheesy Bond like re-make, or if you're into the really horrible Cartoon network show Totaly Spies, it will be equivalent to that as well.

Movie 2. CAVE DWELLERS: Now this is a classic....seems to be about a Hercules like hero named Ator, who's trying to help this one girl save (don't know her name) to save her father from his captor. "So, lets recap the action so far..." which appears to be about "ummmm...none so far" which about sums it up for the movie. At the end, they are more then upset with the movie "You know, we had it the worst, we had to watch you watching the movie" says Forrester. Crow shows Dr. Forrester the mistakes they found in the movie. "What do you want from us? We're evil....evil"!!

Movie 3. POD PEOPLE: No....this has nothing to do with Pods, and it has nothing to do with People, it has everything to do with HURTING. It's a foreign film that is dubbed over, sometimes the voices are a little off at times, and it seems like it tries to be an ET rip off mixed in with a horror film. It's about a comet that crashes on earth, in a forrest that has alien eggs on it. 3 poachers see are in the movie periodically who first see the comet, Tom Servo shows us his Yoda impression "Luke..use the force Luke". A high-pitch annoying little kid comes and brings an egg home which hatches revealing the "Pod Person" who later in the movie starts killing everyone for no reason. There is even a really bad pop band that plays on the movie as well, and they travel to where the cabin, a drive that seems to take at least an hour of the film "we bought the van so we're gonna film it" cracks up Crow. They end up setting camp near that the kid and the family cabin. "okay, is this movie C or D"? Asks the lost Servo. This is a funny movie thats probably one of the best in this collection.

Movie 4. SHORTS VOL. 1: A great collection of shorts, some appear in previous DVDs from MST3k box set 1, but still a great laugh. Probably the best ones on here are CHEATING, about a boy who cheats on his math exam and then gets kicked out of the student council. "You've made some powerfull enemies son". The second one is A DATE WITH YOUR FAMILY, an old film that is now knows as "The Woody Allen Story," a hillarious 50's or 60's show about how a modern family should do before, and during a dinner with your family, remember, it's always accustomed to say grace before eating, what could be going through this families head? "Please God take me now". Finally last but not least, WHY STUDY INDUSTRIAL ARTS? About a highschool student who seems to be obsessed with being a carpender "I keep a magazine of Popular Mechanics under my mattress". Which the gang seems to have some of the best comments on here.

This is a great collection over all, and I suggest that you get it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best MST3K Boxed Set Yet
Review: This is arguably the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 boxed set yet. The episodes ("Angels' Revenge," "Cave Dwellers," "Pod People") are incredibly funny, and the intermission scenes are some of the best the series has ever done.
"Angels' Revenge," from the director of "Final Justice," is a ridiculous "Charlie's Angels" rip-off starring Jack Palance, Jim Backus, and Peter Lawford. "Pod People" is a ridiculous "E.T." rip-off, featuring one of the worst-designed aliens in movie history. "Cave Dwellers," my favorite in this box, is a ridiculous "Conan the Barbarian" rip-off starring Miles O'Keeffe. In addition, there is a disc of shorts hosted by Tom Servo, which is very, very funny.
The DVDs are in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The intermission segments look bright and sharp and sound fine as well. The movie segments are dark, muddy, and soft, however that's the way they've always looked, and to digitally remaster them would be pointless. Unlike some MST3K DVDs, there are no extra features.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another great collection from the funniest show ever!
Review: This is Rhino's second DVD collection of four episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and it's excellent. It has three great episodes from various seasons, and a fourth disc of hilarious short subjects. And it comes in a nifty package with moving parts!

In case you're new to the world of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (MST3K for short, that's what us fans -- "Misties" -- call it), this is the famous TV show where a silhouette of a man and two robots in theater seats provide running commentary for some of the worst movies ever made. The ninety-minute episodes are scattered with sketches and songs and amount to some of the smartest, most pop-culture savvy, side-splitting comedy ever made.

This DVD contains three episodes, plus a compilation of short subjects from different episodes. The episodes cover a wide spectrum: two are from early in season three, when Joel Hodgson was the host and the show was just kicking into high gear. The third is from late in the sixth season, when the show had developed a much more slick and sarcastic approach with host Mike Nelson. People new to the show will get a good chance to compare the styles of the show. Personally, I love both, but they are quite different. The Shorts are brief films that the host would sometimes make fun of before the movie. Originally, they watched episodes of old movie serials, but when those quickly became tiresome, they turned to educational, commercial, and industrial filmstrips (you know, those annoying things you had to watch at school assemblies in sixth grade?). They contain some of the funniest riffing in the series, and are favorites of the fans.

Here's what's on this collection:

ANGEL'S REVENGE. Episode #622. A 1978 film originally titled "Angel's Brigade," this is an hysterically awful rip-off of the TV show "Charlie's Angels," only it's worse, if you can imagine that! A group of attractive and not-so-attractive women decide to wage war on L.A.'s drug dealers by dressing in white jump suits. The female leads (including Playboy Playmate Susan Lynn Kiger) are horrendous actresses, but what's really embarrassing is the presence of well-known guest stars slumming at the pits of their careers: Jack Palance, Jim Backus, Pat Butrum, Alan Hale, and in a depressing performance, Peter Lawford. Poor Peter appears to have been drunk for the entire filming. Mike and the 'Bots have an absolute field day making fun of the relentless 70s style ("Entertaining was a lot easier in the 70s!") and the poor, unfortunate guest stars ("Do you think Peter knows where he is?"). This is one of my favorite Mike Nelson episodes, and it's the best disc in this package.

CAVE DWELLERS. Episode #301. This film was originally released in 1984 as "Ator the Invincible" and then as "Blade Master" on video. It's a sequel to "Ator the Fighting Eagle," and is one of many cheap-o copycats of "Conan the Barbarian." This stinker stars Miles O'Keefe as beefy warrior Ator, who also knows lots of sciencey stuff (like how to manufacture a hang-glider in two minutes with just sticks). Ator travels to the Ends of the Earth to stop some John Saxon-like villain from obtaining some vague object with a funny name that might do something really bad. Or whatever -- the film is just fantasy of the worst kind. It's so cheap there are no special effects, and the only monster is an immobile velour snake. This is first episode of season three, and this is really when the show entered its golden phase. Joel and the 'Bots have some good times here, especially at the outlandish finale, and there's a hilarious parody of the movie's opening credits. A good episode, and the start of great things.

POD PEOPLE. Episode #303. The poor dubbing in this film automatically marks it as foreign, but since it's obviously trying to pass itself off American, it's tricky to figure out where it was really shot. Mystery over: this is a 1983 Spanish film called "Los Nuevos Extraterrestres," released in America as "The Unearthling." It's an awful attempt to copy "E.T." and combine it with a horror film. Aliens that resemble miniature two-legged versions of Snuffleupuggus from "Sesame Street" invade the mountains. A high-pitched little kid befriend one of the aliens, Trumpy, while the rest start killing people for no reason. There's an awful pop band on a trip (their performance in a recording studio is one of the highlights of the episode), some poachers, and a dysfunctional family up in a cabin. None of it fits together, but Joel and 'Bots create some classic running gags. It's the perfect kind of film for the MST3K treatment. You'll love their re-creation of the incomprehensible "song" performed by the band in the move. ("It stinks!")

SHORTS, VOL. 1. These come from many seasons, and all are great. Tom Servo does a joking intro for each one. "The Home Economics Story" (from episode #317) is a 1950s film for high school girls that encourages them to study home economics in college, implying that they aren't destined for anything other than being housewives. "Junior Rodeo Daredevils" (from episode #407) tells how a group of kids in a tiny town set up their own rodeo, and then broke all their limbs and snapped their spinal chords -- all in good fun! "Body Care & Grooming" (from episode #510) informs college students how to spend all their time grooming their hair and skin, because people will only like them if they're pretty! "Cheating" (from episode #515) tells the tragic story of Johnny, who cheated and rose to power, and then fell into the pits of despair not unlike a Kafka novel. "A Date with Your Family" (from episode #602) is the best of the bunch: a nightmare about the perfect 50s family having a perfectly repressed 50s dinner. The riffing here is as sharp and satiric as anything ever done on the show. "Why Study Industrial Arts" (from episode #609) is the reverse of "The Home Economics Story," encouraging young men to risk sawing off their limbs in shop class. And finally, "The Chicken of Tomorrow" (from episode #702) explains breeding techniques to create meatier chickens. It's very depressing.

(In a bit of a mistake, two of the shorts are already available on other DVDs: episode #609, "The Skydivers" is on the first Rhino DVD collection, and Episode #515, "The Wild World of Batwoman," is available as a single DVD, so you might have already seen two of these shorts.)

This is another awesome collection from Rhino. There's more laughs here than you'll find in a year's worth of Hollywood comedies. A must for MST3K fans and newcomers alike!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Joel, is in the house!
Review: Three of these four releases from rhino are clssics, The cave dwellers is a confusing and poorly acted caveman feature starring miles o'keefe. Pod people...features one of the crabbiest bands ever, poachers, an ultra-annoying kid, and some aliens who look like biped anteaters. Shorts features a selection of shorts from the seasons of Mst and is delightfully hosted by Servo. As for angels revenge, this is the only MST I could not sit through Mike and the bots do their best but, in a season that already featured such horrors as the creeping terror, skydivers, the beast of yucca flats, and red zone cuba, they may have been worn out. The heroines of this movie, who cannot act worth a dang, by the way, foil a drug ring run by Jim Bakus, and Jack Palance I think. Anyway these movies are a better collection than the first one. I always liked Joel better but that is just me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Much Better Than Volume 1
Review: Volume 1 of MST3K had horendous movies in it: The Unspeakable Creeping Terror, The bizarre and unfunny Bloodlust, the overrated Catelina Caper, and the only redeeming value: Skydivers. Volume 2 has the best of the MST3K episodes released by Rhino: Cave Dwellers and Pod People, the two best Joel episodes of the Rhino series. So those of you who have been waiting for these to come out on DVD, your wish has been granted. ..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic episodes from one of TV's greatest achievements
Review: What is there left to be said of MST3K and the hilarity it so generously gives us?

If you're even reading this review, it means you're probably a fan already, so I'll just say that "Cave Dwellers" and "Pod People" are two of the best episodes of the entire series (all ten years of it!). Whenever I eat potatoes of any kind, I say, "Oh, little winged potatoes. This potato has big ears..."

Buy this boxed set, and hold it dear to your heart.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Films great! Shorts a plus!
Review: When I saw this collection I knew I had to have it. 3 of the best episodes they did are all here. I was delighted to see 'Shorts Vol. 1' included. The 'Date With Your Family' segment is ne of my favorites! The stereotypical 1950s family is a scream when viewed today. All in all I loved the set, but only gave it 4 out of 5...like many others I found the cases a drag. Neat box effects but a word to Rhino - make the DVD spindle a bit SMALLER then the DVD center hole!


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