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Summary: Treat for any fan of good comedy
Review: I've seen a lot of episodes of MST3K and I still consider this the best one.
Rating:
Summary: Comedy at it's finest
Review: This hast to be the funniest episode of Mystery Science Theatre EVER (maybe a close tie with "Pod People") and it's also the worst movie they've ever riffed ('cept maybe "Red Zone Cuba"). I reommend it to anyone who's ever seen the show (probably not a great choice if you've never seen it). If you've only watched MST3K on the Sci Fi channel, or you don't know who this "Joel" guy is, I COMMAND you to get this tape! The master has spoken!
Rating:
Summary: The finest MST3K episode ever!
Review: This is the finest MST3K ever made. I laughed, I cried... If you buy only one MST3K video this year, this should be the one.
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate mst3k hit!
Review: MANOS would be embarassing to watch if it weren't for MST3K. The jokes are timed perfectly. This clanker of a horror movie is prime fodder for the denizens of the Satellite of Love because it has nothing going for it. The flaccid script takes itself so seriously, as does the directing, and that makes any film fair game for skewering. Then there are the characters: Torgo, the igor-ish idiot savant without the savant. There's the pathetic family performed in equally pathetic form. And of course there's Manos, who looks like Mr. Fawlty after too much abuse from Sybil. The crew of the SOL, especiall Crow, are merciless, as fits the crime of this movie. This is a great place to start if you've never had the joy of watching MST3K
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Summary: Wow MST3K REALLY saved this monstrosity
Review: Rhino Home Video has seen fit to deliver another episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" on DVD, and they've picked a winner this time. In the season finale of season four, show #424 sees Joel, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot suffer through the hideously awful Manos: The Hands of Fate. The story begins with a young couple driving out into the desert with their young daughter. They become lost and arrive at a small shack at nightfall where they are entreated to spend the night by a odd bow legged man. They soon discover that the shack belongs to "The Master" and that he intends to keep the woman as one of his undead wives. Now I think this is what the "film" was about. Doesn't matter because Joel, Tom, and Crow are here to save us, but boy oh boy was this movie terrible. It's a good thing they had ALOT of material to work with. 1966's Manos: The Hands of Fate might very well be the worst movie I've ever seen on "MST3K" and is the only film that could give Plan 9 From Outer Space a run for it's money for being the worst film in hystory. Even though the jokes from Joel and the bots come fast and furious, you can still feel the painful burn of this massive stinkaroo. It has something to do with a family lost in the desert who end up staying with some guy with huge knees named Torgo. Torgo stumbles around like a drunk on COPS, muttering about "the Master", someone who doesn't approve of children and dogs. Later, a half-dozen women in nightgowns kinda wrestle for 20 minutes straight. Then, Torgo is almost slapped to death. The music, the story, the acting, just everything is wretched. Oh and ya know what, even Frank and Dr. Forrester apologize to Joel for forcing him to watch this one. I still don't know what was going on with the film. Maybe that's why I tried to explain it twice. This is a must have for any MST3K fan. Hilarious!!!
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Summary: I'll always have Torgo...
Review: This is HILARIOUS. The worst movie ever made and the MST3K guys made it one of the most quotable. Get this... I did it and I don't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Best MST3K Episode
Review: "Manos: The Hands of Fate" is by far the best episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" ever. The film itself, about a family who stay in a sort-of motel run by satanists, is also coincidentally the worst in MST3K history. The pacing is horrible beyond belief, the acting is atrocious, and the script is underdeveloped, to say the least. The MST3K riffing is constantly hilarious, with barely a dry patch in sight. The host segments, while not among the series' best, are acceptable.
The host segments on DVD looks perfectly fine, slightly better than the VHS tape and certainly better than old bootlegs. The colours are vibrant and the image is sharp. The movie itself looks absolutely horrible, but really, what does one expect? I doubt that "Manos: The Hands of Fate" looked particularly good when it was first released. The menus are played to Torgo's theme music, for those who just want to hear it again and again and again. As a special feature, an MST3K blooper reel ("Poopie!") is included. Clocking at about 30 minutes, it's fairly funny, although certainly not for the casual MST3K fan.
Rating:
Summary: "You Know, It's Been Two Hours, But It's Still Pretty Warm."
Review: "Manos, The Hands of Fate" is considered by many to be the single greatest episode of MST3K in history, and I find it difficult to disagree. "Manos" is one of the worst movies ever made, appropriately by fertilizer salesman (really) Harold P. Warren. (Is he perhaps a distant relative of "Batwoman" director Jerry Warren?) The film is a tale of a family caught in the snare of pure evil, symbolized largely by Torgo, a caretaker with big knees. ("Uh, that's not how you wear your Depends, Torgo.") Everything about this movie is the worst in class; those people who believe that Ed Wood is the worst director of all time have clearly never seen "Manos." On a genuinely somber note, the experience of making "Manos" evidently took a serious emotional toll on several of the cast members, several of whom (including John Reynolds, "Torgo") committed suicide after the film was released to horrible reviews.
As if "Manos" weren't enough, the same episode features an otherworldly short ("Hired, Part Two") featuring a man on a porch in a rocking chair swatting at flies, and demonstrating that it is possible to look demonically possessed with a handkerchief on your head. ("Ah! Flying elves are back!") This is truly a wonderful short.
The DVD also contains a reel of outtakes ("poopie") which range from amusing to hilarious. For my money the best of the bunch is the attempted "Torgo's Pizza" sketch. ("Let me just get your complimentary crazy bread." "No!") I would guess that I have seen "Manos" probably thirty-plus times over the years, and it still endures as the pinnacle of MST3K as a concept. Besides, who can forget the haunting "Torgo Theme"?
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: Another great MST3000 video. A horrible movie made watchable with some great lines by Joel and the crew.
Rating:
Summary: The Ecstasy Became Too Much
Review: I have my MST3K membership badge, and when the show was still on Comedy Central, I would often sleep in/watch MST3K on Saturday mornings. I had seen "Sidehackers", "Master Ninja"'s I and II, "Mitchell", and I had laughed. Yet, I had not seen "Manos: The Hands of Fate". I had heard the whispered legends, but I did not believe them. For I had seen "The Brain Wouldn't Die". Nothing could shake me. Then... Then... I saw it.
I warn you, gentle reader. This movie is for the strong of stomach. From Torgo who did not learn how to wear his Depends undergarments to the "Master" who could control the wheels of fate but chose the wrong artist for his self-portrait, I was transported into a world where pretentiousness meets imcompetence and all known rules of the universe slip into irrelevance.
I survived twenty-seven minutes and twenty seconds until I was forced to pause the movie for a full ten minutes to calm myself. The ecstasty of laughter had turned to pain, and "Manos: The Hands of Fate" clutched me more firmly than Torgo attempted to clutch the "protagonist"'s wife. Yet I carried on, but the ecstasy overcame my abillity to reason many more times to the point that two minutes of movie triggered ten minutes of hysteria at the point when the "Hands of Fate" wrung the life from poor Torgo. Afterwards, I was left numb, drunk. I could not move, and I found myself whispering: "The horror.".
So, I recommend this movie, but be warned, Manos is graduate-level MST3K. I advise those watching to prepare for what cannot be prepared for.
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