Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: Awesome now we can watch a movie of people watching a movie. Great if you dont have any friends.
Rating: 
Summary: MST3k
Review: This DVD set is honestly the first I have seen or bought from the sci-fi channel era. I have almost the entire collection (missing maybe 8 episodes) of the entire comedy central era. I must admit that these are good but do not compare to the comedy central episodes. If the Comedy Central Episodes were to be released on DVD I would most certainly buy them to replace my worn out and out dated VHS collection. I would however recommend to anyone looking for a good laugh at a very creative and underated show to buy this DVD set. And to others that are avid fans lets hope Rhino gets the rights or are able to release the comedy central episodes as well.
Rating: 
Summary: wow, now this is entertainment!
Review: Set 5 of the funniest show on earth is here, and trust me it doesn't dissappoint. Sure the episodes in this set cannot compare to classic episodes like Space Mutiny, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Girl in Gold Boots, The Brain that Wouldn't Die, or Manos The Hands of Fate, but these episodes hold there own.The Legend of Boggy Creek 2 (which is actually 3)...and the legend continues - 4/5 Decent episodes with some great laughs and jokes, however they had little to work with in this film, considering it is one of the more decent, and I use that term very lightly, movies they've rifted.
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders - 4/5 This movie is just plain terribel! Was this suppose to be for kids? The acting is non-existent, and the jokes are okay, but when the monkey comes, dang doesn this episode get funny. This is probably the worse in the set.
Time Chasers - 5/5 Yes a golden apple. This movie is just, holy crud. The jokes are just non stop, there is so much to work with here. This is easily the best and funniest episode of this set.
The Touch of Satan - 5/5 Another gem. this time Mike, Servo, and Crow have to sit through some cheap 70s horror film, and boy do they deliver in joke department. You know it's a real shame that they ended the show. GUYS IF YOU'RE READING THIS, GET BACK TOGETHER AND DO SOME MORE!!! Let me here all the fans out there, WE WANT MORE WE WANT MORE WE WANT MORE!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: another great collection of hilarious movie spoofs
Review: All of us who love this program can't wait to get as many of the episodes on DVD as possible. The four "movies" in this collection are as funny as any I've seen from the sci-fi station days of this series. "Time Chasers" is probably the best in this group but the others are well worth watching for a lot of good laughs. "Boggy Creek" is hilarious. After watching Mike and bots skewer it, you can see what a ridiculous movie it was. Both "A Touch of Satan" and "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders" provide many funny moments. If you are new to MST3K, this is a good volume to start out watching. The quality of the DVDs is great. I had no problems at all. I had seen earlier reviews where some viewers reported a problem with the episodes as being too dark, but mine were fine. To me, some of the greatest episodes were the early ones. Many of these are available on VHS or DVD. I like "The Leech Woman", "Radar Secret Service", and "Night of the Blood Beast", to name a few. The worse the movie, the better the zingers Mike, Crow and Servo deliver. One thing I have found about this program is that it will lift you out of a blue mood as quickly as anything. If you like funny, off beat comedy, give any of the MST3K episodes a look. I think you will be highly entertained.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent collection from the Sci-fi Era
Review: Given that MST3K currently doesn't air anywhere, the fact that this is a sci-fi era set does have a point. Not that I dislike Comedy Central episodes, they're amazing, but its good that they've moved to this era. Considering how all of season ten had its rights intact towards the end, I think it'd be wonderful if they could manage to make a season 10 set. It'd be extremely expensive, but I think it'd be worth everyone's time. To the DVD, however First episode is Legend of Boggy Creek 2: The first time I saw this episode, I flipped it off after a couple minutes, it just wasn't that funny to me. On the second viewing, which was because I bought this I found that I enjoyed it. The episode pales in comparison to the other excellent episodes on this set, but it holds up well, and is an above average episode of MST3K. 7/10 Second is Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders: I have to be honest that I might be biased towards this one, it was my first episode (aside from various snippets and the movie, which lead me to tape this episode). I taped it that first time, and that copy was all I had of that episode up till now, and now its wonderful to have a DVD quality version of this. The episode is one of the best of season ten, with several wonderful jokes. The sketches are good, and it has one of the few effective uses of the ill-fated (and Sci-fi channel enforced) Institute of Mad Scientists. Given the form that it gave the opening sketch, and how funny it was, I think that if they refined it it could have been the next invention exchange. Given that they hated doing it, and the show ended, it was not to be. 10/10 Third episode is Time Chasers. Time Chasers is another one of the best sci-fi episodes. This one is from the end of the eighth season, when they managed to fire off several great episodes in succession (two of which are on the last set). Time Chasers has some of the strongest riffs and sketches of the entire series. This episode is very odd compared to others as well, considering it has an entire film segment with Mike's very different (but some how the same) brother, and an interruption at the end during the credits. I highly reccomend this episode. 10/10 The fourth is Touch of Satan: This episode is a half and half episode. The first half is very strong, the second is okay. The movie, which is incredibly boring doesn't help, but it provides excellent fodder. I enjoy the episode, but it isn't as good as the previous two episodes. 8/10 This DVD set also includes an interview with Kevin and Mike which is pretty good. Most of the information isn't anything really new, if you read the episode guide's introductions and various interviews along the way, but the way that Mike and Kevin bounce off each other is very entertaining. Also, it's more interesting to hear it straight from them instead of reading it. Included as well are some really short introductions by Mike about each movie. His introductions are okay, but too short to comment on, and not really worth buying the whole set if you have pristine tapes of these four episodes. The video quality is quite high, but it might be due to the fact that most of these episodes I have on an EP tape which has terrible quality, so the comparison is amazing. All in all, a good set of episodes, two episodes which are amazing, and two others which are strong, but not very memorable.
Rating:
Summary: Rock'n'Roll Martian!
Review: Four more episodes from the Sci-Fi Channel era of "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Four more really lousy movies. From my point of view, the only bad thing about picking movies from these later seasons is that I've already seen them. I'd prefer more films from the earlier years, although I can't complain about having these episodes on DVD. (Personally, I can't wait for the release of RIDING WITH DEATH.) In addition to Mike Nelson's all-new introductions that run before each episode, this DVD set also includes an interview with Nelson and Kevin "Tom Servo" Murphy (it's on the second disc, but you wouldn't know that from looking on the box). There probably isn't anything here that fans don't already know about, but it's fun to hear those two discussing everything from taping the opening-door sequences to what they've been up to since the series ended. After name-checking rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc, they offer some stories about the network executives who just didn't "get" the series. I've heard them complain before, but I still laughed when they talked about the suit who suggested that they run complicated multi-story-spanning plot-arcs in an attempt to bring in and retain viewers. Yeah, that's exactly why people watched the show. Here are some comments on each of the four episodes: BOGGY CREEK II: AND THE LEGEND CONTINUES. I'm a little ashamed to say, but I kind of liked this movie. Well, pieces of it anyway. Certainly not the poop flashback. Or the skinny, shirtless, son-of-the-director-getting-a-movie-role guy. Well, anyway, this is the movie that did for Arkansas what GIANT SPIDER INVASION did for Wisconsin. As Mike Nelson points out in the DVD-bonus intro, this is actually the third, not the second, film in the Boggy Creek saga -- figure that one out. A great big monster with nothing better to do terrorizes some huge, filthy Arkansas character (in a weird alternative universe, this frightening man at the end would be played by Orson Welles). MERLIN'S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS. Somehow Ernest Borgnine got roped into... this. He plays a kindly old man telling his grandson some bedtime stories. (Does this remind you of the linking elements in THE PRINCESS BRIDE? The comparison ends here.) Apparently Borgnine's character was a TV writer and during the course of this movie he tells his son of two rejected scripts involving Merlin the sorcerer running a magic shop in the USA of the 1970s. The first story involves an evil guy who writes reviews for a living (Amazon Top 100: beware) accidentally learning magic and lighting his cat on fire. The second is about an evil monkey toy that kills all the pets in a small suburban household. Oh boy, this movie was just awful. Apparently I wasn't the only one to think so; most of the riffs just involve the cast blatantly insulting the film rather than coming up with amusing quips. I can't say I blame them, but this ends up being a lesser episode. TIME CHASERS. The film that does for Vermont what BOGGY CREEK II did for Arkansas. Here lies a goofy science-fiction movie (that's not all that bad actually) about a computer geek who builds a time machine out of a charter airplane and a Commodore Disk Drive (I, too, once owned a Commodore 1541, but I never thought of hooking it up to a airplane -- this is why I'll never be a time-traveler). This is quite a lot of fun, although the time-travel logic doesn't quite seem to make sense. It looks like what would happen if a film crew shot a film in locations where they didn't have to pay any money. So, a public library becomes a corporate office building. A mall food court becomes a mall food court... of the future. And a rather modern-looking group of Revolutionary War re-enactors becomes, well, you can probably guess. In the DVD introduction for TIME CHASERS, Mike Nelson informs us that the producers of the film found out about their film's imminent featuring on MST3k and threw a big party on the night of the premier. While they said they were fans of the show, they didn't quite seem to expect the "savaging" that the film received. Apparently, the party ended up being a bit of a depressing event. But the party should be lots of fun for everyone else; the mocking that this movie gets is hysterical. Crow starts out refusing to accept Mr. Hockey-Hair as the film's star, and things just get funnier from there. THE TOUCH OF SATAN. This movie would be about a half an hour long if they cut out all the awkward pauses. The film's protagonist (who looks quite a bit like a young Gen. Wesley Clark with 70s hair) wanders into a nice country walnut farm that happens to be where Satan lives. Or maybe it's just Satan's bride. Or his daughter. Or something. I just finished watching it, and have no desire to say anything else about it. The sarcastic comments directed at it are well aimed and well deserved. The release of these MST3k DVD sets serves to remind me of how much I miss this show being in production. By a strange quirk of fate involving rights issues, MERLIN'S SHOP, although the third episode produced in the show's tenth and final season, ended up being broadcast about a month after the final episode aired. "The movies," Mary Jo Pehl coyly predicts during what would end up being the last host segment, "are only going to get worse." Well, the years since MST3k went off the airways have proved the evil Mrs. Forrester correct. And how can we expect to survive the awful films that the future will throw at us without our three friends in the bottom right corner easing our pain?
Rating:
Summary: Another great set, especially TIME CHASER
Review: This fifth collection of episodes from the TV comedy, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (the program where a silhouette of a man and two robots in theater seats provide comedic commentary for rotten movies), contains four episodes from the Sci-Fi Channel seasons. Mike Nelson is the host, Billy Corbett does Crow's voice, and Pearl Forrester is the evil scientist holding the crew of the Satellite of Love hostage. Some fans aren't fond of the host segments in these later seasons, but there are some occasional funny ones. The riffing, however, is good as ever, and has changed to an angry, sarcastic style different from the Joel years. (This is the second collection in a row of Sci-Fi Channel episodes. Although some of these episodes are hilarious, I hope Rhino turns to some of the early seasons in later collections to keep balance.) Disc 2 has a great extra: a half-hour interview with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy (who wrote for the show for all ten seasons, and played Tom Servo for nine). The interview covers the show's origin, history, and the process of making an episode. Both men are incredibly funny and have a great time reliving memories. For fans, this interview makes the collection a must-have on its own. (As with the last collection, Mike Nelson also does a brief intro to each episode.) The episodes all good, and one is fantastic: BOGGY CREEK II: AND THE LEGEND CONTINUES. Episode #1006. This 1983 movie is actually the third Boggy Creek flick. Since the producer of the first film had no involvement in the first sequel, he ignored it an declared this "Boggy Creek II." Based on a legend of a Bigfoot-like beast in Arkansas called the Fouke Creature, "Boggy Creek II" isn't much of a horror movie; it's more like a PBS nature film with some gross backwoods characters and some mild tension. Mostly we watch a bland college professor (writer/director Pierce) and his students, two semi-hot chicks and a scrawny guy who never has his shirt on (and happens to be Pierce's son) stare at equipment and get their vehicles stuck in the mud. Crenshaw, a forest hermit, is one of the most disgusting characters to appear in an MST3K movie. It's a decent episode. The highlights are the ludicrous series of flashbacks -- one of which is so gross that Mike and 'Bots can't believe it -- and the sickening character of Crenshaw. There's also a funny sketch that makes fun of the flashbacks. MERLIN'S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS. Episode #1003. Sounds like a cute kids' film, right? Eee-yikes, what a nasty surprise! More like an episode of "Tales from the Darkside"! In this 1996 film, Grandfather (Ernest Borgnine) tells Grandson stories about Merlin setting up a shop in modern times, to 'spread wonder.' But what happens instead? An obnoxious reviewer ("My reviews can destroy cities!") gets hold of Merlin's spell book, demonizes his cat, ages, meets the devil, breathes fire, and tries to bleed his wife to death. The next story is an edited version of an earlier film from the same director called "The Devil's Gift" (the source is obvious, since Merlin never interacts with these characters). In this stinker, a demon-possessed monkey toy from Merlin's shop tries to slaughter a family. The flick is nasty, but once Mike and the 'Bots get into the inappropriate rhythm of it, the episode has tons of laughs. TIME CHASERS. Episode #821. The best episode in this collection ironically contains one the better movies that MST3K took on! Late in season eight was when the Sci-Fi Channel shows were at their best, and with"Time Chasers" they create a masterpiece. "Time Chasers" was shot in Vermont by David Giancola during the summer of 1990 on a budget of $150,000. Giancola shows genuine talent, and the script is a clever story of time paradoxes, where the inventor of the first time machine tries to undo the mistake he made when he sold the invention to an ambitious company. But the budget kills the movie: the actors are awful (the villain is played by a dairy farmer), the "good" future is a mall, the "bad" future is a slightly trashy alley, and the villain's corporate headquarters are in a branch library! (Actually, the Rutland Opera House.) It's impossible to take it seriously, and the MST3K boys have a blast with it. This episode also has one of the better set of host segments: a time screw-up causes Mike to be replaced by his tough-talking brother Eddie (his comments in the theater are REALLY mean). A great episode! THE TOUCH OF SATAN. Episode #908. Director 'Don Henderson' is a pseudonym for Tom Laughlin, who a year after this 1970 horror picture had a major hit as the star and director of "Billy Jack." Laughlin was an awful director even before "Billy Jack," and here's the proof. As a director, his major technique is making his actors put huge pauses in their dialogue, and the MST3K boys rip this apart: "They're just pausing out of spite now!" The plot has a wandering scrawny guy fall for a girl on a farm, but she turns out to be a witch. There's also a cranky grandma who enjoys pitch-forking folks. It's less interesting than it sounds, and there isn't much witchcraft, magic, or Satan, but this is a funny episode because Mike and 'Bots really nail down the film's tone. In an interesting change, the character of Pearl Forrester is absent; she's replaced by a baby-sitter (long-time prop mistress Beez McKeever) who's looking out for Brain Guy and Prof. Bobo. This isn't as strong as some of the earlier Rhino collections of MST3K, but it's on the level of the previous volume of Sci-Fi Channel episodes. "Time Chasers" and the interview are worth it on their own, but you get three pretty darn good episodes along with them.
Rating:
Summary: Never knew Joel
Review: I got hooked on MST3K when Mike was hosting. Although I think Mike is the better host, Joel is hilarious in Cave Dwellers and Angels' Revenge. The shorts are awesome too! Study home economics ladies...do it for your future. And the little kid in Pod People is actually quite the little wierdo. The Snugaluffigus look-a-like should have just ate him.
Rating:
Summary: Once again, excellent
Review: Personally I'm glad they're releasing Sci-Fi channel episodes, not that there's anything wrong with the earlier seasons but for awhile I thought the only way I'd ever own the Sci-Fi episodes were on bad VHS copies from the TV. This has 4 more hilarious episodes and I can only hope they keep releasing even more MST3K discs.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Collection Yet
Review: I just received my copy of MST3K volume 5, and I have to say this is the best boxed set yet. "Boggy Creek 2" is worth the price of the box set alone! "Time Chasers" "Merlin's Shop" and "Touch of Satan" round out the box set. If you are a fan of the show, no matter who the star is, or no matter what network the shows are from, you have to be happy Rhino is still putting these sets out. These 4 episodes feature the some of the funniest moments from the Sci-Fi era. The writing is great and the movies are wonderfully bad. On "Merlin's Shop" they have included a 1/2 hour interview with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy where they talk about the shows inception and evolution. "Touch of Satan" has the movie's original theatrical trailer and Mike offers a 1-2 minute commentary at the beginning of each film. But overall the extras are pretty thin. I would love to see them once again include Un-Mstied versions of the films on each DVD. But this is the perfect set to introduce someone to MST3K, and it is a must have for all true fans of the show.
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