The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 6

Rating:
Summary: Another Good Box
Review: "Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Volume 6" from Rhino is another good collection of episodes. For those who don't know (and since you're reading this review, that's probably none of you), it's basically about a guy and two robots who make fun of bad movies.
The first episode on the set is easily the weakest. "Attack of the Giant Leeches," executive produced by Roger Corman, is a rather dull low-budget horror flick. Though the leech monsters look pretty goofy, it's mostly slow paced, and a surprising number of the peanut gallery's riffs fall flat. On the lighter side, the short, "Undersea Kingdom Chapter 1," is quite funny.
"The Gunslinger" (directed by Corman) was one of the few Westerns on the show. It's about a woman whose husband has died, and then she becomes the sheriff. While also a lifeless movie, the riffing is hilarious in this episode (which was host Joel Hodgeson's second last).
"Teenagers from Outer Space" is without a doubt the funniest in the box. Some startingly old teenage aliens come to earth, but one of them escapes and gets a girlfriend, all while being chased by one of his alien superiors. This movie has everything - bad acting, a strangely structured story, poor dialogue, and arguably the worst-looking giant monster ever to grace the silver screen. The jokes are excellent in this episode, and the host segments are amusing (and quite surreal).
Finally, "Mr. B's Lost Shorts" is a collection of some of the educational shorts that were tackled on the show. The best of them is "Mr. B Natural," which is probably the "Manos: Hands of Fate" of MST3K shorts. Other shorts are "Design for Living," "Hired!," "X Marks the Spot," "Johnny at the Fair," and "Are You Ready for Marriage." Riffing is solid throughout (the only exception being "Design for Living," which might have been funnier without commentary).
The DVD set presents the shows in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The movie scenes vary depending on the source material, but doing any sort of digital restoration on them would be to miss the point. The host segments don't look quite as bright and sharp as on other releases, but are perfectly acceptable. Once again, uncut versions of the movies are not included as extras (unlike the early MST3K DVDs).

Rating:
Summary: Ok, so a gender-confused woman in leotards...
Review: ...shows up in your bedroom and tries to coerce you into joining the school band, all the while claiming that musical instruments are her family and that she knew Adam and Eve and your father. What do you do?

Well, you can be happy that this is happening to gawky middle schooler Buzz instead of you as you watch Mr. B Natural, a vomit-inducing school film turned into comedy gold by our heroes at MST3K.

The 6th DVD box set breaks away from the Sci-Fi channel era and back to Comedy Central for three movies and a fourth collection of shorts. The shorts include X Marks the Spot, in which a slain motorist is brought before the God of New Jersey who probably won't let him into New Jersey heaven because of his many sinful moving violations, and the mythical Hired Pt. 1 which is just what Manos fans have needed to learn why Jimmy the Salesman doesn't think that sales are an important part of his job.

It also features Teenagers from Outer Space, your usual 50's produced, teenagers-in-their-30's centered hokum about giant lobsters, a "tohcha" loving commander and a supreme race with the supreme technologies, power, and pizzas. Gunslinger (which was already released on VHS) is classic Corman about an old west feud betweeen two rough and tumble women without natural eyebrows. Finally, Attack of the Giant Leeches (or are they guys in black rain ponchos, no wait, they're definitly leeches) which features playful murderous bantering between a slovenly hillbilly and his nymphette wife, a main character who does absolutely nothing, and some semi-intelligent human livestock-raising leeches (as Joel hypothesizes: "They're smart enough to enjoy eating at Chili's, but not smart enough to realize it's a chain).

Unforunately, there are no extras to speak of, but since it has long unreleased episodes of the most original, inventive, and aggressively funny shows to ever hit the airwaves, it can all be forgiven. Fans have no reason not to pick this up and newcomers owe it to themselves to see the cult show that never should have just been cult. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got movie sign.

Rating:
Summary: Buy This, Won't You?
Review: ...with yet another welcome release of a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Collection. This time the episodes are from Season 4 - these haven't been broadcast in almost a decade, and most fans will want these. Some comments about the episodes:

"Teenagers From Outer Space" - There's nothing like watching a movie about sullen, snotty teenagers. This movie's got 'em, and they're dressed in ridiculous spacesuit-type outfits, too. Our hero Teenage Alien, "Derek", is a fugitive from his peers who wield deadly ray guns that turn people into cheap plastic skeletons after an awkward jump cut. (At least I think that's what the director wanted us to think...)

"Attack of the Giant Leeches" - Lots of things to recommend about this one. It starts with a classic 'Undersea Kingdom' serial as the short. Hilarious by itself, Joel and the 'Bots savage this very bad example of late 1930s pulp cinema. As far as the feature goes...thing of it as a hate letter to the South. It involves a giant leech infestation of a Southern swamp, and some sort of love triangle. It doesn't make a lot of sense, actually....but then again we're not here for the feature.

"Gunslinger". Roger Corman. Beverly Garland. Actually, it's not that bad a movie, but something about the pairing of Corman and Garland make for an excellent MST3K flick. Someone once wrote that this dreary western was 'turgid, uninspired, cliched, confusing, and artistically bereft of merit'.....but those are the GOOD points of this classic Corman flick. This disc justifies the entire price of the collection, and it's great to see this on DVD.

"Mr. B's Lost Shorts" Fortunately, this shorts collection pretty much is the last of the shorts shown during the last half of the MST3K broadcast run. The gem here is "Mr. B. Natural", a disturbing short in which an androgynous elf convinces a young boy of the power of music. Jerry Falwell will have a fit when he sees this young boy corrupted by the perky Mary Martin/Richard Simmons/Peter Pan being. One of the greats.

All in all, Rhino seems to have gotten the message about which episodes the fans seem to want most. There is a small but vocal cult for this show and it looks like it will continue to grow with a decent collection of episodes.

Rating:
Summary: Keep it up,Rhino!!
Review: A perfect selection of MST3K eps and shorts in this volume.Now how about if you keep doing it with more obscure eps?? Highly recommended to anyone out there who loves to laugh and loves bad movies..Great writing from a wonderful puppet show!! Keep it up!! Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Attack Of The Giant Gunslinger From Outer Space
Review: ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959) - 5 STARS
Set in the swamps of the deep South, the giant leeches are really men wearing wetsuits with suction cups. Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers (Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman) stars as the wife of an obese grocer who cheats on him. She and her boyfriend both end up in the underwater lair of the giant leeches, which Joel dubs the cave of Dr. Calamari. At one point in the film, we see the scantily clad Yvette writhing in horror at the return of one of the monsters. Crow cracks, "This must be the swimsuit edition of Leech Illustrated." This low budget creature feature is high on the laugh scale and one of the best Joel episodes.

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) - 5 STARS
Aliens, who look like their teenage years were spent in outer space, arrive on Earth. They find it a suitable feeding ground for their Gargon herd. The Gargons look a lot like lobsters, whose giant forms are only shown in shadow! However, when Derek discovers that the Earth contains intelligent life, he opposes the mission. His companion Thor has no such qualms, and uses his disintegrator ray gun to melt the flesh off his victims, leaving only a skeleton with a visible hook on its skull. This movie has so many lapses in logic that it inspires a "Real To Reel" host segment, in which Joel and the 'bots compare scenes in the film to the way events would have occurred in real life. This is a classic episode.

GUNSLINGER (1956) - 3 STARS
This no budget Western was directed by Roger Corman, and stars Beverly Garland as Rose Hood, who is married to the local sheriff. When her husband is gunned down, Rose temporarily becomes the town Marshal. John Ireland plays Cane Miro, a gunslinger hired by the female owner of the local saloon. She wants him to kill Rose but, in meeting and talking to her, Cane and Rose fall in love. One scene, in which they both sit in a tree, is especially funny.
Cane Miro: "Look, you can see the Big Dipper."
Joel: "Hey, it's daytime."
Crow: "He's not talking about the stars!"
Unfortunately, the movie is so relentlessly boring that, even with their jokes and host segments, I can't give it five stars.

MR. B's LOST SHORTS - 3 STARS
Mr. B Natural is arguably the funniest short to ever appear on the show. An androgynous woman plays Mr. B Natural, the Spirit of Music. She appears to a young, shy boy and convinces him to take up the trumpet. Soon, he is playing like a pro and is a big hit at parties. The jokes about a woman appearing in a young boy's bedroom to help him master his instrument are hilarious. I can't help but agree with Joel when he states, "Mr. B, you're hot!" The remaining shorts range from the mundane (Are You Ready For Marriage?, Johnny At The Fair) to the bizarre (X Marks The Spot, Design For Dreaming). Including the short Hired, Part 1 makes no sense without also having Part 2. Personally, I would have preferred a couple of the better shorts being paired with the other movies, and having a fourth movie on the fourth disc. A TOTAL OF SIXTEEN STARS DIVIDED BY FOUR DISCS EQUALS AN OVERALL RATING OF FOUR STARS FOR THIS BOXED SET.



Rating:
Summary: Four New DVDs
Review: Having unfortunately come across this show only through Rhino releases, I've had to wait patiently for new episodes.
This new set isn't disappointing but some of it isn't that special.

Mr. B's Lost Shorts - The "Mr. B Natural" short is more than enough to make this one of the best of all the DVDs released. It even makes it okay that I now own Design For Dreaming for the 3rd time (VHS, MST3K: The Essentials, and Vol. 6). That doesn't matter much since the near pornographic consumerism and downright absurd plot (schizophrenic housewife hallucinates herself to an autoshow accompanied by Michael Crawford and sells her soul for the fabulous Firebird II) make it funny each time you watch. "Hired: Part 1" is surprisingly much less funny than Part 2. "X Marks the Spot" also surprised me by getting funnier every time I've seen it (the first time I was bored out of my mind). The kid in "Johnny at the Fair" actually must have been a good actor. It's kind of creepy because you feel like you are watching an unattended kid wandering around the fair. "Are You Ready for Marriage?" is funny but doesn't top the similar "Is This Love?".

Attack of the Giant Leeches - BORING BORING BORING. I used to think Hamlet was the most boring episode I've seen but this beats it hands down. This movie makes the Coleman Francis films look action packed. There is no way that Joel, Crow, and Tom could have made this movie funny. None of the characters have any personality at all, not even enough to mock. People just stand around wondering whether they should dynamite the bodies out of the swamp. The only characters with any potential to make fun of is the chunky redneck and his strumpet wife. The rest are painfully dull, and not even in a "Skydivers" sort of way. The short for this ep (Undersea Kingdom) is just...bizarre. It starts out with a bunch of sweaty forties-beefcake sailors grunting and wrestling and getting physical examinations. Then somehow a rocket sub, a guy who dies ala Star Trek redshirts, and horsemen who forgot to stop at the gas stop to ask for directions get involved. How Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or Sky Captain were inspired by this is anyone's guess.

Gunslinger - Like "Leeches" this is a Roger Corman film but is much more enjoyable. This is an episode that seemed mediocre at first but gets better each time you see it. The whole movie I rooted for the red-headed madam and her bartender flunkie. They're much more likable than the blonde buttkicking sheriff and the outlaw she falls in love with. Some of the best heckling is done during the opening credits and while the sheriff and outlaw shoot each other to death/declare their love.
The only thing is that I wish an episode I hadn't seen yet had been included in this slot. However, I don't think this episode is available on DVD any other way, only on the probably discontinued VHS releases.

Teenagers From Outer Space - I'd say this is the best of the bunch. If Mr. B Natural's greatness wasn't diluted by the other shorts it would have been more of a tie. I've seen this film in it's original version and it is hilarious even without sarcastic commentary. Many of the jokes made by Joel and the crew are almost the same as what I had thought of. There's the "Rock Lobster" reference, TOR-CHA, "Terminator 2" references, etc. And I knew they'd make their ubiquitous "Harry Connick Jr!" remark. Still, they came up with quite a bit of brilliant, unexpected stuff.

If you're an MST3K fan there is no question that you'll get this set. Even though one episode was lackluster, and one has been released previously, it's still a great opportunity to get some new MST3K.

Rating:
Summary: An awesome Collection!!!
Review: Having watched this set over like 50 times I can now review it! If you are unfamiliar with the show, well get familiar with it. start watching it. You'll figure it out. This set features Attack of the Giant Leeches, Gunslinger, Mr. B's Lost Shorts, and Teenagers from Outer Space.

Attack of the Giant Leeches: Roger Corman executive produced this flick about men in octopus-like "Leech" costumes terrorizing residents of a swamp. When irradiated leeches grow huge in a Southern bayou, a local storekeeper sees his chance to be rid of his trashy, two-timing wife--feed her to the leeches!
Rating: 4/5 - The jokes and the comments are delivered experetly and dude is it ever funny. Even the movie itself is hysterical. The short in the beggining is quite funny, "we're walking really really fast" it's great. The monsters look like garbage bags with popcorn bowls glued on, the plot line was very hard to any find. A few slow parts, but all in all an enjoyable episode.

Gunslinger: Cult bombshells Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes star in this low-budget panthecolor feminist Western directed by Roger Corman. When the marshal of Oracle, Texas, is killed by a hired gunman, his quick-shooting widow, Rose (Garland), straps on his gun and star, puts on some pants, and aims to find out who did the hiring. The likely culprit is Erica (Hayes), a buxom saloon owner involved in crooked land schemes. When Rose starts getting too nosy, Erica hires another gunslinger, Tombstone legend Caine Miro (John Ireland), to take care of her. Instead of killing Rose, though, he ends up falling in love with her, and the stage is set for a gunpowder-fueled showdown between the women and Caine. Corman's seventh film was plagued by rains during the mostly outdoor shooting, which gives the film a muddy look unusual for a Western. Plenty of gunplay, fistfighting, and surprisingly intelligent dialogue helps, as does the film's strong profeminist stance, with Rose capably shooting bad guys left and right yet losing none of her womanly tenderness.
Rating: 5/5 -
Joel, Crow, and Tom Servo are subjected to THE GUNSLINGER, a Roger Corman cheapie western featuring Beverly Garland as a woman who takes over as sheriff from her dead husband. The jokes are great and are delivered perfectly. This is one of the funniest episodes ever done. They did a really nice job on this one.
Mr. B's Lost Shorts: This is just a collection of shorts.
Ok they are all good and all but the true gem on this is Mr. B Natural. This IS the funniest short they ever did. It was literally a tear jerking, gut busting, totall on the floor laughfest! I loved every minute of us. I hurt after watching this one from laughing so hard. The Spirit of Music ruthlessly stalks a nerdy, awkward adolscent until the lad realizes that his whole life could change the very instant he picks up that trumpet. Now this is suppose to be a guy, but it is in fact a gender confused women who so happy, peppy, and perky it drives one INSANE! The dancing in it is by far the most disturbing thing ever put on film. No joke.
Teenagers from Outer Space: As if those on earth weren't strange enough, these alien delinquints plot to exploit our planet as feeding ground for their humanivorous Gargon herds which, curiously appear as mere lobsters. The space ship looks like a sun hate and is like 4 feet in diameter, but somehow when you're in it, it's like 20 feet. Thew teens look like they're in there 20s and thirties. This insidious force means to decimate our world simply to feed theirs. Only the rebellious Derek second guesses the fiendish plot of his people. Surprisingly the humans are very, well, KIND! Heck, they even rent out a room to him knowing that he couldn't pay for it. They also don't ask many questions about his "uniform," which looks strangely like a jumpsuit belted at the waste. Then the bully from the guide ship shows up and zaps people into skeletons all over town. Will derek finally fess up to who he really is? More importantly, can even he destroy the universe's deadliest shellfish? All this and good ol' teenage heartbreak, too.
Rating: 5/5
OVERALL RATING: 5/5
I quite enjoyed this set and strongly recomend it to any fans of the show.


Rating:
Summary: Any MST is good MST, but...
Review: I feel that this collection, while decent, is the weakest collection yet.

Mr B's Lost Shorts is definitely the saving grace of the package, delivering more laughs per minute than any other disc. The infamous Mr. B Natural short is not to be missed! Plus, you gotta see the amazing prequil to Hired Part 2--HIRED PART 1!! WOW!!!

Attack of the Giant Leeches is a yawn-fest in my opinion. Full of so-what gags and plain vanilla jokes. It's one of the most forgettable episodes I've ever seen.

Gunslinger is marginally better, but still drags at points, and for long periods of time. The character riffs are usually very obvious and predictable, but they have quite a fun way of making fun of the fake facades of the western town.

Teenagers from Outer Space is basically solid, but not phenominal. It works, it gets the laughs.

Collection 6 is worth buying for those who are hardcore and obsessed with owning every episode of MST. If you are not one of those people, I would steer toward collection 2 or 4, or Mitchell or Manos.


Rating:
Summary: We've Got Movie Sign!!!!!
Review: I just spent all weekend watching MST3K volume 6 and I have a question......how is this show not on tv anymore???!!! "Attack of the Giant Leeches", "Mr. B's Lost Shorts", "Gunslinger" and "Teenagers from Outer Space" are all great to see again, and it's fantastic that Rhino is putting out "new" episodes on dvd, that is, episodes like "Leeches" and "Teenagers from Outer Space" that have not been released on dvd previously. I like too that we are getting more stuff from the Comedy Central years as my tapes are now 10 years old and wearing out! I know some folks prefer Joel to Mike, and some prefer Mike over Joel....I don't have a preference...this show is just funny and well worth your time and money. If you aren't familiar with MST3K then this is as good a place to start as any. The only drawback to this box set is the lack of extras. I know on earlier releases Rhino often included the Un-Mstied version of movies, they have also included original trailers before, and on the last box set, Mike actually introduced the individual films. Volume 6 has nothing extra. Still, the box set is great, and hopefully Rhino will keep pumping these things out.

Rating:
Summary: Oh my gosh - this is hysterical!
Review: If you're a fan of Comedy Central - you will know this collection is a must have! You're heard of things that are so bad they're good - well, that describes these perfectly! Be prepared to watch this over and over!

My personal fav is Teenagers from Outer Space! The alien monsters are priceless!

Check it out - you won't be disappointed!