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The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark |
Author:
Published: 2007-07-10 |
List price: $19.99
Our price: $17.99
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As of: November 20th, 2008 05:58:11 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Sub-par outing from folks who can do better
After MST3K, Mike Nelson and company needed something to do. And after 10 years of a steady Mystery Science Paycheck, they needed something to put food on the table as well. Their first post-MST3K foray, the Film Crew movies, are unfortunately just a limp, not-terribly-funny retreat of the MST3K concept. The host segments are downright painful to watch. OK, it's fun to see what Brain Guy looks like sans makeup, but their hearts just aren't in the host segments. When they get into the movie, you can imagine that it's Mike and the bots, what with the voices and all. But this movie is such a stinkbomb that even a MST3K-lite treatment can't keep you from pressing "info" repeatedly to see how much of the hour and 18 minute running time is left. Unless you are desperate for more MST3K at all costs, avoid. If you can't stay away, rent this rather than buying it.
MST junkie
The film crew, at least gives MST lovers an extra couple movies to watch. The movie is scary bad, which does make it hard to watch even with The Crew making fun of it.
Look at other film crew movies before this one.
 I wish I could give it more stars
Beauty is in the eye- etc. etc., but I've got to say I'm a bit amazed at all the 5 star reviews here. I think I have about every mst3k since the first year and have watched many of them multiple times. I don't think this piece is in the same league. Mike is good, the others ok, but the whole format is disruptive and irritating. And something about the robots always allowed them to be extremely critical without coming across as nasty, an advantage they lose here. This is passable entertainment, and I'm not saying don't waste your money if you are totally jonesing for some new mst3k- but it's going to be about equivalent to giving the Marlboro man a nicotine patch.
 We've got "Film Crew" sign!
I haven't been keeping up with what Mike Nelson and company have been concocting over at their RiffTrax project, so these Film Crew DVDs are my first exposure to the televisual movie mocking that some of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni have been up to. For anyone who doesn't know (though I doubt anyone is on a purchase page for a Film Crew DVD without any knowledge of this), MST3k ran for years on basic cable as a guy and his two robot friends who were trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch the worst movies ever made. Their only hope of remaining sane was to make as many jokes as possible.
The premise of the Film Crew is slightly different, although the end result is the same. Three guys (Mike Nelson, who played Mike Nelson on MST3k; Kevin Murphy who voiced Tom Servo; and Bill Corbett who voiced Crow T. Robot) work at a DVD-authoring factory. Their boss, Bob Honcho, wants DVD commentaries on every disc he releases and so forces his three employees to record a voice-track over the on-screen action. Unlike the traditional DVD commentary, the annotations provided by The Film Crew consist not of insightful behind-the-scenes information, but rather sarcastic comments, hilarious jokes and mocking observations.
The first movie in The Film Crew series is a 1968 flick called HOLLYWOOD AFTER DARK which stars a stripping Rue McClanahan. Yes, you read that correctly: Rue McClanahan of the Golden Girls plays a stripper.
Yikes. And you wondered if MST3k had already found all the really bad films.
The movie features quite a lot of the stripping that goes on at Rue McClanahan's strip joint. The other portion of the plot involves a weedy guy (Rue McClanahan's love interest) getting involved in some sort of heist. What the heist is about never really gets explained, nor is the audience allowed to know why exactly the movie's two-dimensional bad guys need this particular character to help them.
For this MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER fan it was great to hear those three voices mocking films again. I think the biggest mental shift for me was the lack of the shadowrama (the silhouettes of the three captives on the "Satellite of Love"). You may think that's a minor issue, but consider this. When you were watching MST3k and they were doing a more risqué film, the silhouettes immediately conveyed to anyone who unexpectedly walked into the room that you watching a comedy spoof and not spending your time watching some 1950s sleazy cheesecake film. Given that much of HOLLYWOOD AFTER DARK involves long sequences of bad and awkward stripping, you may want to make sure you have the volume up for the sake of anyone observing you.
Another fun aspect of The Film Crew experience is that the jokes are more up-to-date. MST3k always had multiple references to current events and the popular culture. Since the show hasn't aired since the late 1990s, a few of the jokes when watched on DVD can seem a little dated. So I was happily anticipating the first post-1999 reference. And, boy, it was a good one. I've missed hearing these guys make fun of the present day.
Now, the big question is: how does this format and presentation compare to MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER?
I had fun watching this. I'd rank it alongside an average episode of MST3k, which for my money is still funnier than most other stuff out there. One thing I feel does hurt this project is simply that the number of writers is fewer than on the old show. It's just the three of them here, and I think that the variety and unexpectedness of the material on MST3k was helped by the fact that they had over half a dozen very talented comedians on the writing staff.
In any case, I'd recommend HOLLYWOOD AFTER DARK for any fan of MST3k in need of a fix. You can even cheer during the closing credits when you see the names of Beez McKeever and Brad Keeley roll by (I did). It may not be as good as MST3k was at its peak, but it's still pretty hilarious.
Disturbing but funny...Better to rent?
I must admit, this was my first Film Crew purchase for one and only one reason - it has Blanche Deveraux STRIPPING!!! It's worth the movie just to see her (and a disturbing assortment of jiggling strippers) in long, nightmare inducing dance/strip scenes (the same "more wierd than arrousing" type of scenes as in "The Incredibly Strange Creatures...) However, I don't think I'll ever watch it again. It's really more bizarre and "is this really happening?" than it is funny, but you can never go wrong with anything MST related. It's just not as re-watchable as some other titles (which is a great reason to rent it with Amazon Unbox - I've had great success with this Film Crew On Demand offering!)
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