The-Silent_Photoplayer said:
Actually, for what most MSTies seem to think, Universal did a real marketing blitz for MST3k: The Movie, at least in the major city areas. The problem was that the film had such a limited release, that the summer sweep in '96 completely obliterated it. Also, its writing was terribly off-par with the esoteric comments fans came to know the show for being wiped out by executives with fart jokes instead. It completely alienating fans who would have gone to see the film a second of third time. THAT's why it flopped!
However, they chopped the hell out of what was a good movie, and unfortunately, like any teen with a "fanboy" complex, many MSTies don't listen to their own taste, but to the tastes of those they respect. And even more unfortunate are those of us who LIKE the movie who have to wade through threads like this to talk about one of our favorite movies. I'm sure if many sat down, watched THIS ISLAND, EARTH as a film unto itself and analyzed it as such, they'd find a well-scripted, well-acted and polished "A" picture from Universal. It's no CITIZEN KANE, but for what it is, it was a poor choice on Best Brains' (or Universal's) part to riff on.
I'm a little late to this thread, but I have to chime in and say that the above post is the dumbest, most ill-informed thing I have read in a while.
There was never any "marketing blitz" for MST3K: The Movie. It is pointed out on various sites (even here on IMDb) that the movie was massively under-marketed.
When Universal originally released the movie, they thought that a limited release in a select group of "college towns" (where they believed MST3K was most appreciated) over a longer period of time would lead to a box office bonanza and keep it from having to compete with the early summer blockbusters. Instead, very few fans of the show were even aware that the movie had been released and the film languished in relative obscurity throughout the spring and early summer. This was the first (and last) time that Universal attempted such a plan.
As far as the DVD goes, lack of sales was not the reason it was pulled from shelves.
MST3K: The Movie was released on DVD in 1998, as a discount title with an MSRP of $14.99. The disc was sold until 2000, when the DVD distributor (along with several other Universal titles) were named in a lawsuit by Universal Studios accused of under-pricing their titles. MST3K: The Movie was one of about 10 titles affected by this lawsuit and was pulled from distribution.
The only time there was ever a fart joke in the TIE spoof, was the scene where Cal and Ruth are in the pressure tubes, other than that, there are none. The movie is packed with loads of great jokes, some silly and some sophisticated, but certainly not a drop in quality from the show. I'm pretty convinced that you haven't really spent any time watching a lot of MST3K, and now you're getting your panties in a bunch cause someone dared to riff on one of your favourite films.
As for 'butchering' the movie to the point of it making no sense, that is absolute rubbish. The only scenes that were cut for MST3K were the scene with Neutron the cat which was shortened, the ship passing through the thermal barrier, the conversation between Exeter and his superior (after Cal discovers the Metalunan's plans to relocate to Earth), and a few shots of the Zagons attacking Metaluna. Hardly butchery when, in the context of things, those scenes hardly add anything to the movie.
And yes, This Island Earth is a good movie. I enjoy both the movie and its spoof equally and for different reasons. However, as someone else already pointed out, the movie was chosen to try and get audiences outside the usual MST3K fanbase to watch the show, so a classier film was chosen to riff on. It's as simple as that.
As for the clown who said that the writers were running out of material by this point, he must have forgotten about the three - count them, three - seasons which proceeded the movie, and which provided some of the best loved episodes of MST3K ever produced.
"The Dude Abides"
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alltare2
18 years ago
In fact, Movieaddict666, didn't the producers state that that they chose TIE as their subject because it was such a "turkey"? And wasn't their stated goal to "subject humanity to the worst movies ever made"? This does not mesh with your claim that a classier film than usual was intentionally chosen for the movie. Perhaps that's an excuse they came up with later on, when the criticism was piling up.
MST3K does seem to have pretty well butchered the movie, too. Consider this: TIE is 86 minutes long and the entire MST3K movie is 74 minutes long, including all of the added robo-humor. So it's immediately obvious that there's at least a 12-minute loss of footage. Let's be generous and assume that the 74-minute MST3K includes only 10 minutes of "added enhancements", and we see that we've lost at least 22 minutes of the original movie (I haven't taken a stopwatch to MST3K, but I'll bet there's really a lot more than 10 minutes of tomfoolery). Any time 25 percent of a film is excised, "butchery" is an appropriate term. You give your opinions more importance than you should when you say that the deletions were of scenes that added nothing to the movie.
... As for 'butchering' the movie to the point of it making no sense, that is absolute rubbish. The only scenes that were cut for MST3K were the scene with Neutron the cat which was shortened, the ship passing through the thermal barrier, the conversation between Exeter and his superior (after Cal discovers the Metalunan's plans to relocate to Earth), and a few shots of the Zagons attacking Metaluna. Hardly butchery when, in the context of things, those scenes hardly add anything to the movie.
... However, as someone else already pointed out, the movie was chosen to try and get audiences outside the usual MST3K fanbase to watch the show, so a classier film was chosen to riff on. It's as simple as that...
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movieaddict666
18 years ago
alltare2 said:
In fact, Movieaddict666, didn't the producers state that that they chose TIE as their subject because it was such a "turkey"? And wasn't their stated goal to "subject humanity to the worst movies ever made"? This does not mesh with your claim that a classier film than usual was intentionally chosen for the movie. Perhaps that's an excuse they came up with later on, when the criticism was piling up.
Nope. They even refer to TIE during the move as "The Universal classic, This Island Earth". The plan was always to pick a better film than usual, because it is plainly obvious that an average movie audience would not sit through the kind of cheap, badly shot, badly lit, badly acted movies that MST3K normally deals with.
Plus, any film is fair game to be riffed on. I don't know why you have some need to act like "classier" movies are somehow beyond parody, and get all offended when someone dares to shake the comedy stick in the direction of your favourite movies.
Regardless, you're going to believe whatever you want to anyway. I find this is usually the case with film snobs. And it isn't just "my claim". Do a search, it's all there for you on various MST3K related sites.
MST3K does seem to have pretty well butchered the movie, too. Consider this: TIE is 86 minutes long and the entire MST3K movie is 74 minutes long, including all of the added robo-humor. So it's immediately obvious that there's at least a 12-minute loss of footage. Let's be generous and assume that the 74-minute MST3K includes only 10 minutes of "added enhancements", and we see that we've lost at least 22 minutes of the original movie (I haven't taken a stopwatch to MST3K, but I'll bet there's really a lot more than 10 minutes of tomfoolery). Any time 25 percent of a film is excised, "butchery" is an appropriate term. You give your opinions more importance than you should when you say that the deletions were of scenes that added nothing to the movie.
Best Brains originally wanted to riff on the entire movie, but Universal weren't convinced that the audience would endure the full running time, so they insisted that cuts were made.
The scenes I mentioned are exactly what have been cut. Film Four, a channel here in the UK, has been showing TIE quite regularly, and I watched it last week. That put me in the mood to watch the MST3K version afterwards, so everything was fresh in my memory. The scenes I described in my last post are the exact scenes that were cut.
The scene with Neutron was slightly shortened, removing the infamous "cause he's so positive" line, and a line where Dr Meacham explains to Ruth and Steve why Neutron screamed - a piece of exposition that we also get from Brak and Exeter, so it's not essential.
The scene with the ship passing through the thermal barrier is pointless, because all it is is a red filter over the camera, and Ruth and Cal looking a little hot under the collar. It doesn't add anything to the story whatsoever.
The conversation between Exeter and his superior is essentially just Exeter trying to convince him that Humans don't need to have their minds altered and to leave Cal and Ruth alone.
The final part that was cut was just scenes of the Zagon attacks (with the meteors) and a hint of tension as to whether Exeter's ship would escape. Again, nothing major.
Again, these cuts were Universal's doing, and not Best Brains, who had originally written a script which covered the whole film.
"The Dude Abides"
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alltare2
18 years ago
Why do I even try?
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movieaddict666
18 years ago
I'm not convinced you have tried. I've backed up all my points and explained them. What have you done? Posted a lot of baseless info that a quick google search can disprove, and now because you have been proven wrong, you come in with this "why do I even try?" crap.
If you can't even argue against my points, then why do you even try?
"The Dude Abides"
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alltare2
18 years ago
movieaddict666-
I'm not here to argue with a juvenile, nor will I do your Google searching for you. For some reason, you have very strong feelings about the "artistic" value of the hacked movie, to the point of being offensively defensive. I'm quite sure that as you gain adulthood, you'll find this kind of humor to be less entertaining, and you'll discover that TIE isn't such a bad film after all. In the mean time, you might try to be less abrasive to those who disagree with you.
Perhaps, if you don't want to be repeatedly corrected, you might take your arguments over to the MST3K board, where you'll find many who agree with your viewpoints and who will give your opinions the respect you think they deserve.
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movieaddict666
18 years ago
Well first of all, I'm 28, you patronising arse. Second of all, If you bothered to read my other post, you will notice that I said TIE is a good film and I enjoy it a lot. I'm a huge SciFi fan, have been for years, and I love old SciFi movies. It just seems odd to me that people like you seem to get so annoyed when anyone dares to have a laugh at these movies.
And you're accusing me of being defensive? Grow up and get a sense of humour.
I don't need you to do my Google searching, I've already done it. Although, I guess if you did actually take a look, you'd have to admit that you were wrong, and we can't have that now, can we?
I never once claimed that MST3K was "artistic". It's simply fun. You know, fun. Like when you stop being a film snob and actually have a laugh for a change. See the funny side of something, rather than being all offended that someone is laughing at your favourite film.
And if you think that MST3K humour is juvenille, then you really haven't watched any at all.
"The Dude Abides"
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georgiaparz
18 years ago
When the MST3K movie was first released, the advert copy went something like 'We chose a turkey to make a turkey' or something like that . I remember wondering how the Mystery Science Theatre people could have such a poor opinion of such a good movie. I am happy to discover that I am not the only person to feel that way. Well, curiosity ultimately got the better of me and I could not resist buying the tape when I found it in the bargain bin .Being very familiar with the origional, I quickly noticed that many scenes were missing or shortened, and not to the betterment of the movie. Mostly I woud think for commercial and comedic purposes because many of thedeleted scenes presented little opportunity for MST3K's trademark wisecracks. I would not be surprised if the cuts amount to over 30 minutes in total.
MST3K's adaptation is funny at times, but that kind of humour gets old quickly and it is probably not something that you would want to watch very many times. I would prefer to watch the original, and I will now that affordable DVD copies are available again.
You will be interested to know that my US videotape box says what you said, Alltar2. It does say that Dr Forester wants to subject humanity to the worst movies ever made. The Movieaddict person is in UK, and he likely has different teasers on his box.
GP
Alltare2 said:
In fact, Movieaddict666, didn't the producers state that that they chose TIE as their subject because it was such a "turkey"? And wasn't their stated goal to "subject humanity to the worst movies ever made"? This does not mesh with your claim that a classier film than usual was intentionally chosen for the movie. Perhaps that's an excuse they came up with later on, when the criticism was piling up.
MST3K does seem to have pretty well butchered the movie, too. Consider this: TIE is 86 minutes long and the entire MST3K movie is 74 minutes long, including all of the added robo-humor. So it's immediately obvious that there's at least a 12-minute loss of footage. Let's be generous and assume that the 74-minute MST3K includes only 10 minutes of "added enhancements", and we see that we've lost at least 22 minutes of the original movie (I haven't taken a stopwatch to MST3K, but I'll bet there's really a lot more than 10 minutes of tomfoolery). Any time 25 percent of a film is excised, "butchery" is an appropriate term. You give your opinions more importance than you should when you say that the deletions were of scenes that added nothing to the movie.
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