The cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 can be a tough sell to new viewers. Though essentially just joke carriers, the episodes require a good attention span and a pretty wide knowledge of pop culture; like The Simpsons, it's the kind of show that allows you to get more jokes the more you know. Of course, it helps to have an appreciate for bad science fiction movies, but it's not necessary. It can be easy to reduce the show in value simply by saying "if you've seen one, you've seen them all" (an all-too common critique I hear about the show, actually). But that's a little like saying that if you've heard a stand-up comic once, you never need to hear him or her again. Sure, the vessel may be the same, but the material is entirely different with every new outing. Fans of the show -- and they are a fervently devoted lot -- get that, but outsiders don't always get it.
Shout! Factory's newest four-film MST3K set is one of the strongest collections we've had yet. Included on Volume XVIII are four more titles split between the Comedy Central and Sci-Fi Channel years: Lost Continent, Crash of the Moons, The Beast of Yucca Flats and Jack Frost. The two strongest movies in the set are probably Lost Continent and Beast of Yucca Flats, the latter being particularly strong despite being from the Mike Nelson years (I've always preferred his predecessor, Joel Hodgson, though I've warmed to Nelson over time). Jack Frost, the only entry representing the Sci-Fi Channel years, is a hoot as well, not so much for the jokes made by Nelson and his robot buddies (Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, for the uninitiated), but because the movie is so downright bizarre. Like Santa Claus from a previous collection, you almost can't quite believe what you're seeing. There's not a weak show in the bunch, and it seems like over the last three or four volumes these MST3K collections are just getting progressively better.
A few of the episodes are getting up there in years and, having been shot (and not always carefully preserved) on videotape, don't always look that great. Shout! Factory is fully aware of these defects (even including a warning before one episode) and appears to have made the concerted effort to present the best possible transfers. MST3K is more about verbal comedy than visual jokes, anyway, meaning that even a troublesome video transfer won't get in the way of one's enjoyment of the series. The four episodes collected here are all very, very funny, and Shout! Factory continues to release new Mystery Science Theater volumes at an almost alarming clip. It can be hard to keep up with the shows at the rate they're hitting shelves, but you'll hear no complaints from me. I hope they keep on coming.
DVD Details
- Release Date: 7/6/10
- Running Time: 360 minutes
- 1.33:1 Full Frame Format
- Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)
- Studio: Shout! Factory
DVD Bonus Features
- Introductions
- Featurettes
- Trailers
- Image Gallery
