Rating: 
Summary: Hokus Locust Poke Us
Review: Turkey or treasure, there will always be a special place for this film in my heart, as it was the first sci-fi I was able to sit through without getting scared. Who could be scared of grasshoppers, whatever the size? They were my favorite insects, which made this movie all the more cool in my wild kid-dom.That being established, I must concede that the MST3K treatment does this fractured effects fiasco proud, right from the relentless 5/4 "march of the mutant locusts" title theme, a fall-on-the-floor yuk-fest that lets up only during the rather lame commercial break intros that were left in. Poor Crow can't handle the vaporously fading opening credits and gets violently ill. The three can't get that marching theme out of their heads, but they sure aren't taken in by the California locale filming ("Guys, this is so NOT Illinois!"). During an interminable scene in which two armed guards are just staring at each other, the comment is "Now here's an improv that really went nowhere". They poke fun of the hearing handicap of Frank, Peter Graves' ill-fated lab assistant. The oscillator drone the scientists use to trick the bugs reminds them of Brian Eno. Like most MST3K installments, I can only remember about half the barbs because I was laughing so hard through the rest. Funny thing is, after all these years, parts of the story are actually rather clever, and wrangling those live superimposed grasshoppers must have been no easy chore. And even if it was a postcard of a building the bugs were actually climbing, the effects crew did a good job of keeping their shadows off of the sky. And you gotta wonder how they created that noise ..... sounds like two strong men having an intense tug-of-war with some chicken wire fence, yanking it repeatedly. It's those little touches that make films like this a labor of love. So it was an easy film to grow out of. The boys and droids of MST3K have given it a whole new life, and me an excuse to purchase the title with minimal embarassment. I appreciate that the original release (as seen on many a late night TV sleepover) is made available for the viewer who wants to make up his/her own jokes, even though the print is not as cleaned up as one would expect for a DVD re-release. Oh well ..... chestnut though this may be, I have to say, it definitely holds its own against the likes of "Eight-Legged Freaks". Nuke up some popcorn and hop along! I'm not Peter Graves .........
Rating: 
Summary: Easily the weakest MST3K on DVD... pretty dull
Review: Perhaps 2 stars is too low. Perhaps I should have settled on 3. Should I watch the DVD again to decide? No. I want to stay awake. Yeah yeah, you've probably heard about the great bits. The hysterical finale where monster-sized grasshoppers attack Chicago's Wrigley building. Only a child's imagination could ignore that "The Building" is a postcard, and that many shots show grasshoppers falling sideways or hanging in mid-air. Classic. Director Bert I. Gordon would go on to do better work - the wonderfully bad 'Food of the Gods' (1976), but the "Wrigley sequence" in 'Beginning of the End' says all that could be said about the man. The scene really is hysterical. There. You're welcome. That's the funny part in this episode. Really the only part. And here's the problem: an MST3K episode lives and dies by pace - the actual movie can be silly/goofy/awful, but it's gotta have pace. If it doesn't, the jokes will get lost in the boredom. This is easily the dullest episode ever released on DVD, why others are raving loyal praise, I have no idea. You wanna hear the other good parts? I... don't remember. It's also worth noting that there are no "features" on this disc, aside from the uncut film version of 'Beginning of the End.' Gee thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Anything MST3K is simply Great according to me.
Review: Well it seems our buddies Joel, Tom and Crow are at it again with Forrester's Experiments and this time, it's a Killer
Giant Grasshopper movie called " Beginning of the End", in which
Grasshoppers are exposed to Nuclear material and are turned into
Giantic Killers attacking the Windy City. I must say, the movie shown here, has the creepiest Grasshoppers to appear on film even
though they are Rear-View projected but they can still give the
viewers the creeps. The Movie is kind of like in the style of
" Jaws", " Alligator", " C.H.U.D.", " Slugs", and " Squirm" all
rolled into one bad movie, but watch it with the MST3K guys.
Rating: 
Summary: Great show, lousy DVD
Review: I LOVE MST3K. I can't stress this enough. This is another great episode, even though I'm more of a Joel fan than a Mike fan. The reason for my mediocre rating is not the show. It's the DVD, and specifically the quality of the DVD. This DVD was one of five episodes I received for Christmas this year. Three of the five DVDs were defective and were returned. Then returned again. And again! The issue is not with Amazon. Rhino is using cheap DVDs, and they plain old stop playing at the same point in the show. Rhino really should put a little more thought into their product before releasing a collectible show on sub-par media.
Rating:
Summary: One of MST3K's best!
Review: It's been so long since I saw this lousy cold war radiation horror story on MST3K that I'd forgotten how much I liked their version of it. Mike and the 'bots are at the top of their form in this schlock-fest, in which Peter Graves plays a scientist who accidentally turns a swarm of locusts into giant, man-eating beasts that threaten to destroy Chicago. (Chicago wisely declined comment.) The sketches on the Satellite of Love are among the best ever done, giving us a glimpse of what Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank REALLY did while Mike and the 'bots watched the movie and Crowe's rendition of the life of Peter Graves. Fair warning for MST3K fans, though -- for some reason the box credits Joel, while this is actually an early Mike episode. If you have a preference, don't be fooled.
Rating:
Summary: Mike, not Joel
Review: BEWARE: This is not a Joel episode. It's a Mike. Nothing against Mike, just thought I would warn y'all. I bought it thinking it was a Joel (ditto for Wild World of Batwoman) because it listed Joel in the main credits and has a BIG GIANT PICTURE of Joel on the back. But it's a Mike.
Rating:
Summary: Moral: no radiation in the fridge, please
Review: Ho hum. Yet another 1950s movie about the horrors of nuclear radiation, complete with rubber monsters and postcard (literally!) backdrops. It takes something special to make this movie palatable, and Mike and The Bots (M&TB) are it. What dedicated MSTie can't quote from memory Peter Graves' preachy final oration? (Well, I can't, for one. But I know it's there!) One of the best things about the MST series was its unrelentingly positive worldview. Even in the midst of cheap and obvious movies like this one, M&TB riff their little hearts out and come out winners. The host segment where Mike calls the Mads and uncovers their hidden secrets is one for the highlights reel. Alumni and friends of the University of Minnesota should particularly appreciate Crow's touching screenplay, 'Just Plain Peter: The U of M Years.'
Rating:
Summary: Original uncut version included!
Review: This is a must for SF B-movie lovers! Peter Graves (of TVs MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE fame) against a horde of giant grasshoppers which try to invade Chicago. Now that's a lot of fun! But, by all means, don't watch the MST3000 version, use the included uncut version instead!
Rating:
Summary: Far far too boring for human consumption
Review: This is one of the most painfully bad movies that I've ever had the misfortune to experience. It's horrible, even when compared to similar monster films of this era. At times, I honestly thought I was going to pass out due to the sheer boredom that this film was giving off in waves. Every time I nearly collapsed, a joke or wisecrack from one of the MST3k crew would revive me, but it would have been a mercy to leave me unconscious. In case you haven't understood me, I'll state it more clearly: this movie is really dull, incredibly dull, extremely dull. Dull, dull, dull.
.
The effects are lousy, the acting abysmal and the script is horrible. Even the MST3k crew couldn't save this turkey, though they do have several good gags and funny put-downs. Take my advice and watch this in small segments. Watching it all at once could bore you to death. As big of a fan of MST3k as I am, I'd have to recommend a different episode of that series to watch. MST3k is at its best when the movie they are mocking is entertainingly bad in its own right. THE BEGINNING OF THE END has some painfully horrible parts, but they get repeated over and over again so much so that you're just sick to death of it. I fear that if I attempted to view this movie again I'd end up expiring the third or fourth time those insects start crawling around on a postcard of Chicago.
Rating:
Summary: One of MST3K's best
Review: There have been many great movie teams over the years. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are just a few. Well I think you can add another pair to this list. "Director" Bert I. Gordon and MST3K. I don't know why, but MST3K always turned it up a notch for a Bert I. Gordon flick. Bert I. always made them sharper and funnier. Here, MST3K takes a swing at Gordon's ludicrous giant grasshopper movie, Beginning of the End and jacks this hanging curve into the upper deck. As usual, Bert I. gives MST3K more than enough to work with. Cars start by themselves. Central Illinois looks like Arizona. And no one will be seated during the terrifying grasshopper "attack" in which hundreds of normal-sized grasshoppers crawl over postcards of downtown Chicago. I didn't notice a slow spot the whole time. Mike and the bots were hysterically funny from start to finish, including the side bits. And as seems to be usual for an MST3K DVD, the regular movie is also included here, in case you want to do some amateur MST3King. This would be a good one to try this at home with. It's a target-rich environment.
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