The Good

There is a sense of humor on tap here that is keener and sharper than most.

The Bad

Something tells me that this release should have had more bonus features.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 serves up four films and plenty of comic antics from Joel, Mike, Tom, Servo, Crow and others. While on the surface it might just seem like some friends sitting around making calls on a movie, that would be simplifying The Mystery Science Theater experience a little too much. Also, when you consider that the moviegoing audience generally sits around picking movies apart, it should come as no surprise that one of the first reality TV experiments should catch much thunder. For those of you scoffing at me for calling this a reality show, I will tell you that if you don't think those shows are scripted than I've got some land in Beirut I'd like to sell you.

The four movies that are "discussed" are Women of the Prehistoric Planet, Wild Rebels, The Sinister Urge and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. I might be out of my mind but these movies really didn't look that bad...

Features

Introductions

A set like this almost screams for bonus features but unfortunately there really aren't any. Then again, I guess putting a commentary track over people talking about a movie they are watching is probably pretty inane anyway. We have an introduction for Women of the Prehistoric Planet by Irene Tsu, and another one for The Sinister Urge by Conrad Brooks. Tsu and Brooks talk about the movies that are talked about on The Mystery Science Theater . They discuss how the films had no money, poor costumes and generally explain why they look like they do. Nothing too special, and I still find it hard to believe that this is the best they could do in the extras department.

Video

The look of these four shows is basically what you've come to expect if you've ever seen even a portion of an episode. The main actors sit in front of a screen and are seen as silhouettes in front of a screen talking. The movies themselves look how we expect b-movies to look, and overall there isn't too much to say about the technical aspects of these episodes. For me, the most important part was hearing the jokes which leads us to...

Audio

Sadly, the type of audio that was employed for the four episodes available here is not made known on the DVD packaging. I think it's safe to say that for a show that is essentially a director's commentary, everything is in it's proper audio order. What I thought might be a problem was these guys talking over one another, but it seems that if you know people are getting together to tear apart a movie, it's easy to disseminate the barbs as they are spewed out.

Package

The front cover has a drive-in like vibe with cars parked out front, a dashboard with food on it, and our main stars sitting in a pink-lined silhouette discussing what is on the screen (that we can't see). The back is very organized in how it shows us stills from each of the four episodes, gives a description of this set's contents and it lists out each movie and offers some cast information, technical specs and bonus features. A detachable piece of artwork unfolds out of the box with similar artwork, and it gives each film it's own disc. Each episode is also listed out with a small description, chapter listing and another picture of the movie in question.

Final Word

I had never really sat down to watch the The Mystery Science Theater TV show before. I had friends that did but frankly the premise just seemed like it was over my head. My general opinion was, "Why do I want to watch a TV show of people watching a movie and talking about it?" As I got older and I got into filmmaking, I made a film titled Watching A Movie. Without realizing it, I was following the same path that the The Mystery Science Theater folks had gone down.

So what am I trying to say?

After watching The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 9 I can safely say that I was wrong about the show. It is hilarious and it is dealing with humor that is working on a level that is hard for me to fathom. I laughed so much when I was watching this I felt bad because I was no longer trying to follow the movie. Then, after a little while, I didn't feel so bad because I think that was the point.