James Reviews Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XVIII [DVD Review]

I feel as if this Mystery Science Theater 3000 review is the toughest one I’ve ever had to do. Not because the films themselves are hard to review. I’m one in the belief that MST3K works on so many levels and am always in the mood to watch the gang rip into some of the shittiest films in the history of filmdom. To review the films would be benign, mainly because do you review the films themselves or do you review the content of the comedy? And how can one review comedy in general?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XVIII has some of the best episodes, one of which I had forgotten existed up until watching it again. Shame on me, I know. The films are Lost Continent, Crash of the Moons, The Beast of Yucca Flats and Jack Frost (no, it’s not the Michael Keaton film or the horror film). A lot of people who love the show have been complaining that some of the more popular fan favorites haven’t reached DVD yet, but to them I say, ‘Just wait and enjoy what’s out now.’

First I’ll speak about the Joel Hodgson episodes briefly. Lost Continent stars one Caesar ‘Joker’ Romero and his colleagues who are in search for a missile that somehow ended up on this ‘lost continent’. What this episode is most famous for is the ‘Rock climbing, Joel. Rock climbing.’ line that still doesn’t disappoint after all these years. It’s truly a stinker and the boys have a great time ripping it apart.

Crash of the Moons is the second Rocky Jones adventure film, one of his space adventures that Joel and crew love to riff on because of how riduculous this serial truly is. This one is preceded by one of the many General Hospital shorts that are hilarious in their awfulness and completes the trilogy of those shorts started by Manhunt in Space (Volume XIV) and The Beatniks (Volume XVII). All I can think of is the word ‘boopie’ now.

Next up are the two Mike Nelson episodes, who I greatly prefer. I know that must be some sort of sacrilidge, but that’s my preference and I’m sticking to it. The Beast of Yucca Flats is probably one of the most painful movies I’ve ever seen, so I can only imagine what the MST3K went through when they had to re-watch this film multiple times to attain such a classic episode. It’s one of director Coleman Francis’ (Red Zone Cuba) episodes and stars Tor Johnson of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame. What’s great about this episode is that the film itself was shot with no sound, so you never see people actually speaking; all of the dialogue being recorded much later on and it’s a prime suspect for ridicule. It is preceded by two shorts, with ‘Money Talks!’ which has a silhoutte of Ben Franklin telling a kid of the necessity to save and manage money and ‘Progress Island, U.S.A.’ which is about the new tourist attraction of Puerto Rico.

The last film of the set is one Jack Frost, which they did during the Sci-Fi Channel years. They got them to bend the rules every so often, to stray from the usual sci-fi fare and to do something more out of the ordinary. And what’s more out of the ordinary than a Russian fairy tale film in beautiful color? We have a hero turn into a bear, an evil stepmother, a witch in a house with legs and a mushroom man. And I’m not making any of that up. It’s actually one of the better films they’ve ever covered, but because of the horrid dubbing within, it makes for great banter for the crew. They somehow take one of the crazier films and turn up the goofy factor to 11 and we all win because of it.

Shout! Factory has once again put out an amazing collection of 4 films with tons of extras that we’ve grown accustomed to, so thank Shout! Factory for that. We get a trailer for Lost Continent and an introduction from TV’s Frank Conniff, a collection of the wrap-around segments on Crash of the Moons, a half hour documentary about the making of The Beast of Yucca Flats called “No Dialogue Necessary: Making an ‘Off-Camera Masterpiece'”, a trailer for Yucca Flats, a still gallery and an 8 minute interview with cameraman Lee Strosnider speaking about Coleman Francis and finally an introduction to Jack Frost by Kevin Murphy.

We sadly can never have season sets because of all the issues pertaining to rights, but for now these are the best thing to making a time machine, going back to the 90’s, watching the show on Comedy Central and Sci Fi Channel and being the nerds we all were. Nostalgia is only a good thing when the show or film we’re nostalgic about is as good or better than we remember. And luckily Mystery Science Theater 3000 is still a brilliant snapshot of comedic gold.