MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 COLLECTION, VOL. 3

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 3

Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Format: Black & White, Colour, Box set

Rated: NR
Number of discs: 4

Movie: * * *
Discs: * *

I have to be honest here and express a vague disappointment with this particular box set.

Fans of this now defunct TV show which parodies really bad movies will be delighted, but newbies would be better off beginning elsewhere, maybe Mystery Science Theater 3000 – the Movie or Eegah. I don’t know, but except for the so-called “Shorts” disc (which consists of short educational films mostly from the 1950s being lampooned – hilariously funny!), this set feels a bit average.

Some fun is to be had, but the jokes could have been funnier and - I know that one shouldn’t admit to such ignorance - but it felt as if I had to look up a lot of the obscure pop culture references in the jokes being made here.

The episodes are:

Episode 202: THE SIDEHACKERS - A motorcycle revenge tale featuring a hero called, ahem, Rommel.

Episode 320: THE UNEARTHLY (with shorts: Posture Pals and Appreciating Our Parents) - The shorts here are the best. The movie itself is about an evil scientist (played by John Carradine) and Tor Johnson (of Plan 9 from Outer Space fame) as his slow-witted lab assistant.

Episode 518: THE ATOMIC BRAIN (with short: What About Juvenile Delinquency?) - Similar to The Unearthly, the action in The Atomic Brain is set mostly in a huge mansion and again has an evil scientist experimenting on the victims lured there under false pretences (in this case, several au pair posts). Also reminded me of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER: THE SHORTS, VOLUME 2 (featuring Catching Trouble, What To Do On A Date, Last Clear Chance, A Day At The Fair, Keeping Clean & Neat and The Days of Our Years) - The so-called “shorts” are brilliant, maybe because of the sheer delicious subversive thrill of the mere idea of making snotty remarks while watching the sort of documentaries one had to endure as a school kid.

THE DISCS: All of these episodes have been/is available on video as well. No new material then. Unlike some of the MST3K DVDs (Box Set Volume 1, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die) the original non-spoofed movies aren’t included here. I know some die-hard fans complain about this but seriously – do you really want to sit through let’s say, Sidehackers without the jokes?

WORTH IT? Few extras also – as always. And I still maintain more episodes could have been fitted onto a disc. Call me a quantity over quality guy, but here the quality is also lacking. Only available in region 1 DVDs from American online retailers such as Amazon.com (I won’t rant again about how bizarre this particular case of regional coding is).