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Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Beginning of the End

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Beginning of the End

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

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Top-rate MST3K
Review: This has to be one of the best MST episodes ever. Mike and the Bots just pummel this movie mercillesly, and they have so much fun doing it. The comments and host segments are hilarious, such as the cheery "Hey! I'm vindicated! How many dead?", and especially Crow's screenplay, "Peter Graves at the University of Minnesota," and the disturbing look into the Mads' lives. This episode is an absolute MUST buy.

By the way, why is the name of this product "mstk3"? (or at least it was when I wrote this review)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the funniest for MST3K lovers
Review: All I can say is that this is one of the funniest MST3K episodes I have ever seen, except maybe for that fake James Bond movie that is, as of now, unreleased on video.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How can I not rate this highly?
Review: It seems that Rhino's strategy for releasing MST3K tapes is to include a film from every genre. Not really a bad idea to tell the truth. There is a western (Gunslinger), UFO flick (MST3K:The Movie), 70s cop movie (Mitchell), etc. The only qualm is that eventually you will get a movie that, while incredibly hilarious, isn't at the peak of the best MST3K movies.

That is the feeling I have for BotE. It is funny, but I am sure there are even better episodes to release.

By the way, how was the woman able to get a cell phone for her car way back in the 50s?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: '50's Atomic Freak-Out
Review: Funny,yet somehow sad,this nadir of big bug movies has Peter Graves trying to save postcards of Chicago(really-in one scene,it's quite obvious the building the bugs are on is a postcard) from giant mutant grasshoppers.Overwrought acting ensues,and don't be surprised if you end up rooting for the bugs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: They're big, they're hungry and they're hopping mad!
Review: If you love classic science fiction, keep looking. However, if you love the early superbug pics with just a touch of unintentional comedy, this one's for you. Too bad they couldn't point that Praying Mantis toward Chicago.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: LENARD MALTIN: PLEASE
Review: REALIZE THE MOVIES WORTH FOR ITSELF. AFTER ALL THIS IS COLD WAR CLASSIC. THE UNKNOWN FEAR HAS FINALLY HAS A FACE AND WINGS. STARTED FROM RADIATION TO CONCER THE STATES. BUT IN THIS ONE WE WIN, JUST AS IN THEM, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, DEDALY MANTIS, GIANT BEHOMEATH. THESE ARE A PART OF OUR FILM FOLKLORE. LET'S GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. AFTER ALL HOW ELES CAN A PERSON PUT A FACE ON SOMETHING THAT THE GENERAL POPULATION DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. FILMS HAVE THE PULSE OF THE NATION....THE 50'S PULSE WAS RAGING. ALL AND ALL GOOD FARE.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great
Review: This comedy is great. In my opinion, the best in the series. It is a most buy. You won't be disappointed. If you like to laugh, you'll love this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: makes you think about 3 mile island. plant food or reactor!!
Review: graves is good. peggy is thin. and ofcorse the stars are very hungery. the combined miletary could not stop them. a capture grasshopper is grilled to give up the voice code. finally after several days of this and hooked up to a lie dector he had no recouse but to give in. he did get revenge before he died. as with all condemed creatures he got his last meal. for the rest well it was good. keep an eye for the swarm on the office building. was the end the beginning of graves? you decide. (jt s.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Saving the world from giant grasshoppers
Review: A review by the students in ENT 201, Insects on Film (Clemson University, Clemson, SC) Spring 2005

When better to meet your new man than while saving the world from GIANT radioactive grasshoppers! That's what happened to Audrey Ames in Beginning of the End. The black and white movie, produced in 1957, takes place in a small Illinois town called Ludlow, near the big city of Chicago. The main character, Audrey, is a persistent reporter who discovers a new and interesting story on her way to write about a lackluster flying demonstration. On her way to the flying demo, she is stopped at a roadblock in the town of Ludlow, Illinois. It seems that the town has been mysteriously destroyed overnight! Following a lead, Audrey goes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and meets with the project director named Dr. Ed Wainwright in order to find out more about what happened. Dr. Wainwright tells Audrey about a wheat factory that was demolished in the same area before the destruction of Ludlow. Ed, Audrey and Ed's co-worker, Frank, go to investigate the abandoned grain bins. While they are there, a locust comes from the woods and eats Ed's co-worker. They finally realize what is destroying the towns and eating the people-although it's a little too late for poor Frank Johnson.

Determined to resolve the problem, the military enlists the help of Dr. Wainwright, who tries to find a sound frequency that mimics the sound grasshoppers make before they attack. The viewer of this film will be held in utter suspense, until, at a climatic moment, Dr. Wainwright discovers the right frequency and saves the city of Chicago from the military's impending drop of an atom bomb. The sound is broadcast from a boat in a lake outside of Chicago and the sound attracts the grasshoppers to the lake. As the grasshoppers follow the luring sound, they eventually end up in the lake where they meet a watery death. The city of Chicago is safe and everyone lives happily ever after (except, sadly, those who were eaten alive by the radioactive grasshoppers).

While this movie has extremely entertaining moments, such as when the grasshoppers scale the skyscrapers of Chicago looking for food-the movie, in general, is a B attempt at science fiction. Also, the movie was produced during the 1950s, resulting in minimal attempts at realistic special effects. The special effects are entertaining at best and add humor more than substance to the movie. The viewer also might be left with several questions after watching this movie-like why can't the National Guard protect the citizens from grasshoppers? Or, why is it more funny than tragic when Dr. Wainwright's deaf/mute assistance gets eaten alive by a grasshopper?

On a scientific or scholarly level, the movie has several errors. The most important error, in the entomological sense, is the noise that the grasshoppers make throughout the movie. To make the noise that they did in the movie, they would need wings. In the movie though, the characters say that the grasshoppers could not fly because they didn't have wings. Also, the scientist indicates that the giant vegetables were produced through radioactivity, which allows for photosynthesis to occur both day and night. For photosynthesis to occur, light must be present, thus raising the question of how the vegetables could continue to expand during the darkness of night. The inability of the grasshoppers to burn in the fires set by the military reflects an error as well. In reality, grasshoppers are highly flammable because of their wax-like coating. Finally, the plot as a whole is completely unrealistic and so bizarre that the movie should be placed in the comedy (opposed to science fiction) genre. While Clemson University research may have led to the evacuation of mole crickets from golf course greens, using technological concepts similar to those presented in the movie, the likelihood that radioactive grasshoppers would eat hundreds of people is improbable.

Beginning of the End is an amusing movie to watch! The acting is traditional of the sci-fi movies of the era. The special effects are mediocre, but the humor, in retrospect, is delightful. If you are a fan of cheesy sci-fi suspense movies, give this flick a try! You will not be disappointed. Who knows-maybe you'll learn something that could save the world the next time we are attacked by radioactive BUGS!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gordon's long-winded film
Review: Mike and the robomabots tear this movie a new one. Peter Graves and a dull actress with a name are attempting to get to the bottom of a town's destruction. With his deaf, mute assisstant Frank, Pete grows giant vegetables that have no real purpose. It turns out that he accidently made grasshoppers giant with the madness of the progression of science... but his hair still looks damn good...
Crow's Peter Graves impression no doubt gets people through this film, and you'll enjoy Crow's version of Pete's admission and graduation from the U of M.


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