|
|
The Movie:
For those not familiar with the long-running cult series, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" revolved around the tale of a lowly worker (originally played by Joel Hodgeson and then by Mike Nelson - this is a Nelson episode) sent against his will into space on the "Satellite Of Love". There, he's forced to watch really bad old movies by Dr. Forrester and his assistant Frank, as they monitor his mind.
I've never been too fond of the "between" sequences as Mike chats up his robot friends Crow and Tom Servo, but soon enough there's always a "movie-sign", signaling that the show (and the fun of the series) is about to begin. In this case, "Begining Of The End" tells the tale of a group of mutant grasshoppers who take over Chicago. Although the other new MST3K release, "Wild World Of Batwoman" scored a number of laughs, "Begining Of The End" is more consistent in it's jokes and had me laughing non-stop throughout.
The DVD
VIDEO/AUDIO: As for the segements where the group is talking outside the theater in the satellite, the image quality is probably the best the episode has ever looked - crisp, clear and with strong colors. As for "Begining Of The End", it looks even worse than the previous episode that I just watched, which featured "Wild World Of Batwoman". There's heavy grain throughout during the black and white film. Some damage both mild and fairly severe, including noticable marks, scratches and worse on the print. Some darker scenes look especially murky.
As for the sound, the same formula applies - the dialogue between the group in the outside segements is crisp and clear, and the sound from the movie is pretty terrible. Although we can clearly hear the comments of the group, the sound from the movie sounds sharp, rough and thin.
MENUS:: All menus are wonderfully animated with MST3K graphics, and there's even a chapter index with clips playing for each chapter. Nice work by Rhino.
EXTRAS: The uncut "non-MST3K" version of "Wild World Of Batwoman" is also included. There's also trailers for other MST3K discs, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", "Eegah!"(a favorite) and "Wild World Of Batwoman".
Final Thoughts:
Positive: The episode is hilarious, and filled with great comments against the movie.
Negative: It seems to be rather hard to find the new MST3K discs, but they're worth seeking out.
|