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Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Hellcats

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Hellcats

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $17.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE HOLY GRAIL OF '60s B BIKER MOVIES!
Review: Hellcats is a campy classic from 1967 featuring Ross Hagen as an undercover narc who (with his murdered brother's fiancee) infiltrates a '60s hippie-biker gang to find out who killed him. So bad it's good!! The film really has a '60s feel to it, and it's worth it for you '60s afficionados to get your hands on the uninterrupted (i.e. not the Mystery Science Theater 3000) version.

The acting is bad, but the hippie/biker parties are classic. This does have an authenticity to it, as actual hippies are used, "cubes" and "Mary Jane" is frequently mentioned, ....This film laid the groundwork for Easy Rider and the hundreds of similar films to follow. "Davy Jones and the Dolphins" make a brave attempt at a psychedelic soundtrack, though THIS Davy Jones sings out of tune. The rest of the soundtrack is some over the top cartoon drama music (i.e. Batman and Crazy Cat and Minute Mouse themes).

... I give it a 10 as a classic B '60s film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointing for MST3K
Review: I am THE biggest MST3K fan in the world, but I found this particular episode to be a real disappointment. It has some laughs but not nearly so many as most MST3K's, and the sound quality of the actual film is really, really poor. It's very hard to hear what's going on. (Mike and the 'bots sound fine, but what they're riffing on is pretty incomprehensible.) Apparently this is the (only?) episode without the usual writing talents; once again, a disappointment. I'd recommend it mostly for those who already have every other MST3K available. There are lots of great episodes for sale--get those first!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Cure for the Common Cold!
Review: I first saw this when I was about fourteen or fifteen. I had a wretched cold at the time and woke up that Sunday feeling like total crap. The only thing I had going for me was the anticipation of watching the previous evenings Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I had taped. Things finally went my way when I pushed play, for this is without a doubt one of their greatest efforts! Though I haven't seen it in years I do remember that the plot of the alleged "film" was virtually non-existent and that Joel and the 'bots wisecracks were razor sharp. Buy or rent this tape at once, especially if you have cold because after watching this I swear my cold symptoms all but vanished.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: MST3K! at it's worst
Review: I love Mst3k! More than any other show. I love it a lot. But this episode is worse than any other episode ever. Why Rhino released this one is totally beyond me. This (as said on the official site)is the most unenjoyable episode, not only of season 2, but the entire series. I did not laugh one time during all of THE HELLCATS, but only slight chuckles here and there. Still, it was not very funny at all, and I do not recommend this to anyone except MiSTies who want to complete their tape collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely Hilarious!!!!!!!!!
Review: I loved this episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 featuring the film, "Hellcats"! "Hellcats" revolves around a biker gang in the sixties as they get drunk, stoned, and beaten up for random reasons. The dance/party sequences are hilarious thanks to the commentary by Joel, Crow, and Tom Servo! I also liked that fact that you could watch the uncut version of the film without the MST3K commentary. It's almost like night and day without Joel and the gang!

I would highly recommend this DVD to any fan of MST3K as well as people would love a good laugh!!!! You won't be disappointed!!!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Average early episode
Review: I'll tell you first that I can guarantee that I am as big an MST3K fan as anyone (I DO have every episode from KTMA to season 10 on tape). With that said, I just can't get into any of the episodes before season 3. I can't point out why exactly, other than that I think the jokes just aren't as funny. I don't know if it is because the best jokes ended up coming from Paul Chaplin and Mary Jo Pehl (who didn't join the team until season 3) or if they just hadn't hit a groove yet, or what. But it just seems to me that none of the early episodes have the edge and laugh-out-loug humor of the later episodes. As far as I'm concerned, MST hit its peak with season 4 and continued strong though season 7 (and even season 8). The episodes from seasons 1 and 2 I just cannot watch anymore.

Anyway, off my soapbox, and onto this episode. The movie is basically about a guy who works with the cops to bring down a gang that caused his brothers death, and ...uhhh...then other stuff happens... and they have strange orgies of licking and groping.....and then it ends. Yeah, pretty bad, really. Not a lot of plot here, to tell you the truth. And the orgies were pretty lame, too, as far as orgies go. And the Joel and Bots commentary just wasn't up to snuff with later episodes. There were some funny moments, but nothing that made me shoot my drink out through my nose or anything. However, this episode had some classic host segments from episode's past(all cut to in nifty flashback form) and that saved it from the 2 rating that I would have given it.

So, I really didn't like this one all that much, I guess. Oh well, they got better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: And that was number nine (of Season Two)
Review: I'm not sure where and how the most dangerous radioactive material in the world is secured, but The Hellcats should be stored in the same place, as far removed from mankind as possible. The evidence indicates that the movie is supposed to be a video of people endlessly riding bikes out in the middle of nowhere, but at the last minute someone decided to insert a few moments of a largely incomprehensible plot into the final product. Even writer Mike Nelson later admitted that this is a movie that should never have been subjected to the MST3K treatment, but fortunately Joel and the Bots manage to extract some real humor out of this monstrosity of moviemaking. Here's the story (or what might be the story if it actually existed): The Hellcats is a group of skanky young hippie types who spend their lives getting stoned, getting drunk, overdosing, riding motorcycles, and engaging in free-spirited, unhygienic parties--oh, they also run drugs from Mexico for a big boss man (who is played by the man who perfected the art of reading his lines just as if he were indeed reading them). Two cops are out to bust Mr. Big, and one of them gets knocked off when he starts to get too close. The dead cop's fiancée and brother team up and go undercover in an effort to nail the bad guys. Much drinking, carousing, biker hijinks, bad dancing to utterly horrible music, and unintelligible mumbling follow.

Somehow, Joel and the Bots make what would be an otherwise horrifying situation bearable with liberal doses of comedy. This is fortunate indeed because the skits on the Satellite of Love consist largely of flashbacks to previous skits (the reason for this is that the whole staff went to New York for a meeting with representatives of the Comedy Channel at the time this episode was being filmed). If you are looking for commercially released MST3K shows, I would place this one close to the bottom of your list unless you are determined to purchase the videos in order of original air date. The most important thing is that you do not, under any circumstances, watch the original The Hellcats movie by itself, for only Joel and the Bots can see you through this one safely.

I must say a word about the summary available on the back of the video. I have no idea how this happens and is not caught, but the summary says that Mike Nelson rather than Joel Hodgson is our human commentator. This is the ninth experiment of Season Two, and Mike Nelson was a full three years away from replacing Joel on the show.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the first great episodes
Review: If you're like me, and i think many people are, you got in to mst3k too late. you caught it on it's switch to sci-fi, and feel like you missed out on the comedy central episodes which old school fans love so much.

well first of all let me say that i now have every single episode of mst3k, and i claim categorically that the sci-fi era is better. but the comedy central episodes (which are the only ones that are available on dvd) are still great, and hellcats is a good one to check out in your effort to discover the older era of mst3k.

hellcats was aired early in the second season, and is one of the first episodes that is truly hilarious (season 1 was not as funny as later seasons, i hate to say). the skits in this episode are flashbacks, clip-show-style, to skits from earlier episodes, so they provide a nice smorgasbord of mst3k humor. the movie is bad and the music is funny, which we all know makes for great riffing from joel and the bots.

so sit back and enjoy "hellcats, careening down the street..."

p.s, if you're confused by all the ross hagen/"chili peppers burn my gut" references in this episode, check out "sidehackers" which is available in the mst3k collection vol. 3 boxed dvd set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the first great episodes
Review: If you're like me, and i think many people are, you got in to mst3k too late. you caught it on it's switch to sci-fi, and feel like you missed out on the comedy central episodes which old school fans love so much.

well first of all let me say that i now have every single episode of mst3k, and i claim categorically that the sci-fi era is better. but the comedy central episodes (which are the only ones that are available on dvd) are still great, and hellcats is a good one to check out in your effort to discover the older era of mst3k.

hellcats was aired early in the second season, and is one of the first episodes that is truly hilarious (season 1 was not as funny as later seasons, i hate to say). the skits in this episode are flashbacks, clip-show-style, to skits from earlier episodes, so they provide a nice smorgasbord of mst3k humor. the movie is bad and the music is funny, which we all know makes for great riffing from joel and the bots.

so sit back and enjoy "hellcats, careening down the street..."

p.s, if you're confused by all the ross hagen/"chili peppers burn my gut" references in this episode, check out "sidehackers" which is available in the mst3k collection vol. 3 boxed dvd set.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good early-years MST
Review: Not to be confused (unfortunately) with the 1957 Ronald Reagan-Nancy Davis movie 'Hellcats of the Navy,' this episode reunites many of the actors who brought us another Season Two MST epic, 'Sidehackers,' which is also on Rhino video. Like 'Sidehackers,' 'Hellcats' is an unpleasant film about drugs, murder, biker gangs, and the basically good kids who get caught up in all that stuff.

The riffing on this film is pretty good, and captures the playfulness and exuberance that especially characterized the early seasons. The host segments are a little lame, in that they're largely flashbacks to other episodes (this episode came about three-fourths of the way through the second season, so there's not even that much to flash back *to* yet). On the other hand, none of the episodes in which these segments originally appeared have been released on video (yet?), so from that standpoint I suppose it's nice to see them here. But they're not as topical as they often are in other episodes.

Still, I love MST's early years even more than I love the later years, and encourage all fans to stock up on Season Two episodes whenever possible.


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