Original Cast of MST3K Return with Cinematic Titanic
I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve never actually watched a full episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I’m sure it’s something I would probably like, but for whatever reason I just never got into it. I think in some way I was put off by the thought of someone else providing their own running commentary over top of an old b-movie; most of them have more than enough intrinsic comedic value, thank you very much!
Anyway, the show officially ended in 1999, and although the members have kept themselves busy with other various little projects here and there, they haven’t really topped it. Mike Nelson, former writer and star of the show in its later years, recently started up an online movie commentary service called RiffTrax, poking fun at more popular, mainstream movies. At the time it looked like that was the closest anyone would come to a MST3K reunion, but now series creator Joel Hodgson is back with another project of his own that’s going to have fans wetting themselves.
It’s basically the exact same format as MST3K, complete with silhouettes, and it stars many of the original cast members. It’s called Cinematic Titanic, and, just like RiffTrax, it will be distributed independently using the power of the internet. The first episode “The Oozing Skull” is currently available to order on DVD, and will be available to download in the near future. (Apparently some of the rights holders are being a little hesitant to sign away digital download permissions.) Check out the official website below where you can watch a trailer for the premiere episode, and bask in the warm glow of b-movie goodness.
» Related Link: Cinematic Titanic
Comments (9)
I would be interested in checking this out, but no way am I paying money for it.
Posted by Henrik on January 15th, 2008Omg, this is awesome. I am a cult follower of MST3K, watched them on Comedy Central and Sci-fi back in the day, and even downloaded a bunch of them from the digital archive sites. Haven’t checked out any rifftrax yet, though.
Posted by joe on January 15th, 2008Sweet zombie jesus! This is awesome news! I’ve loved MST3K since I used to watch it on my grandparents’ cable when I was a kid. I’ve been meaning to get around to trying out an episode of Rifftrax, but haven’t done so yet. I had been catching up on all the episodes of MST3K I missed in my youth via TV Links when the site went down, so I’m really excited to hear that the old crew is back in business again. I’m all for this.
Posted by Rian on January 15th, 2008Download our first episode now on BitTorrent:
http://www.isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=oozing+skull
Posted by Joel Hodgson on January 16th, 2008Hmmm was that the real Joel?
Posted by Paul on January 17th, 2008DVD menu for your downloaded copy of OOZING SKULL:
Posted by VapoRub on January 18th, 2008http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8851/cinematictitanicdvdmenuxy2.jpg
CINEMATIC TITANIC 01
THE OOZING SKULL
First, I’m glad to see this and I want to see more. The warm sense of reunion is a fairly good substitute for genuine entertainment.
But, it was something of a let-down. Maybe my expectations were too high. MST3K is one of my favorite things. This production feels as if it was done either as a bored lark or in desperation. It is not inspired. It has the feel of a relic… a leftover… serving a niche market-within-a-niche market. The jokes refer to such a wide span of pop-culture eras, it’s practically a sure thing much of the audience will be baffled at any given time during the show. MST3K referenced a more narrow window of familiarity.
The absence of Mike Nelson as head writer is keenly felt. Mike, Joel, and the rest made up a wonderful team. That team is now fragmented. RIFFTRAX, uneven as they are, are on average much funnier than the CT-riffed OOZING SKULL. The FILM CREW’s version of HOLLYWOOD AFTER DARK is much funnier than OOZING SKULL’s riffing. The ideal riffing entertainment experience was provide by Joel as front man with Mike as the best brain. We may never get that combination again, which is too bad.
In CINEMATIC TITANIC, There are too many on-screen riffers. Each riffer has relatively few jokes. The riffers are shown from such a long shot it’s difficult to get any sense of their presence and gestures. The whole thing looks like a post-production “cheat”, not that there’s anything wrong with that. The riffs could very easily have been recorded comfortably in advance, and various takes of the silhouette guys just standing around could be combined in editing and compositing. The simple immediacy of three clearly-seen guys in seats offered by MST3K has been replaced in CT with a less visually-involving presentation. There are long sequences in CT 01 in which individual silhouette characters appear to be held frames.
Mary Jo is hardly used. She has few lines. And while it sounds sexist, it is not easy to understand the typical female voice compared to that of a typical male voice. Mary Jo’s voice is perfectly lovely, gorgeous even, but it doesn’t have the edge that makes it easy to understand in a riffing situation. Her lack of lines and the difficulty in making out what she’s saying suggest that she should be the first casualty among CT’s onscreen characters.
The assaulted movie, retitled here as OOZING BRAIN, was an excellent choice. It is prototypical MST3K material and presents more than enough opportunities for witty derision. Unfortunately, many of those opportunities were missed by the CT gang. While I understand the need to let a riff session “breathe”, there are many dead spots in this first episode – incidents which cry out for obvious jokes and receive none, and long stretches of silence from the riffers while hilarious incompetence unfolds on the big CT screen. Five riffers should make for more riffing than three riffers, and there was certainly room for more riffing. Instead of a high-speed barrage of appropriately deadly jokes offered in the best episodes of MST3K, CT 01 gives the viewer a painfully relaxed, almost disinterested stream of moderately funny observations. There are very funny moments, and I’m sure you know what they are, but there aren’t many of them. It appears the group wasn’t really giving its fully-focused effort.
Both the FILM CREW and MST3K have a structure that provides a pleasant rhythm: the silhouette/voice over sequences are peppered with host segments that serve as a resting place, some eye relief, a useful summation, increased familiarity with the riffing characters in sketch material that amplifies the riffing humor in a setting that offers more freedom than the commentary offers alone. CT (and RIFFTRAX) does not offer this pleasing, desirable, interlude. The complete lack of any explanation of why the little silhouette guys are stuck in an auditorium riffing on movies is disorienting. MST3K wrapped up the entire reason for its existence nicely in a short theme song. CT offers nothing. Beyond the instrumental theme, there is no wrapper material. No extras. No explanation. What the dang heck anyway.
I hope CINEMATIC TITANIC is successful and there are many more CT shows. It has to get better, and it’s great to hear these people work together again. This first show, however, is way off.
In terms of value-for-money, CT 01 is a bust. I don’t need to rehash the oft-repeated complaints about CT’s despicably shoddy packaging and extremely high price. DVD replication and packaging is surprisingly inexpensive these days, so the corners cut here are baffling.
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Addressing one of the more foul-smelling elephants in the room: piracy may slightly affect the bottom line of CT. It’s impossible to believe in a 100% lost-sale correlation, as put forth by MPAA/RIAA. Each copy downloaded via P2P does not result in a lost sale. Most downloaders wouldn’t have bought what they download at any price, even if piracy was completely eliminated. It is possible, however, that a small segment of the potential market, one that might have purchased CT 01, downloaded it for free instead in a moment of ethical weakness. The exact impact of illicit digital acquisition will never be known, but this may prove interesting to the idly curious:
Posted by VapoRub on January 19th, 2008I will ignore, for the moment, binary newsgroups, IRC, FTP sites, and emule, and stick to discussing the popular bit torrent protocol. I have over 200 bit torrent sites bookmarked. Just for kicks, I searched every one for CINEMATIC TITANIC. I found several torrents, and removing all redundant hits from aggregating sites, I found that torrents for the show have been grabbed over six hundred times. Assuming each torrent resulted in a download, that’s six hundred pirate copies of CT 01. Many P2P users dupe downloaded video for friends. Let’s wildly claim that 20% of CT downloaders did that. That would make 720 illegal copies generating no revenue for Joel and The Gang. How much does the CT crew get for each copy? That’s private info and we can only guess. Let’s guess that EZTRAX keeps more-or-less 33%, and that CT receives about $10 per disc. IF we accept the plainly fallacious assertion that each downloaded copy is a lost sale, from bit torrent alone, that would mean $7200 lost. That’s not so bad, really. If an entertainment company can be damaged by a $7200 loss, it’s not doing well.
seems the MST3K magic will be lost in time forever…
Posted by cyberen on March 31st, 2008Leave a Reply