MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 COLLECTION, VOL. 2

Mostly I said some uncharitable things about how the whole DVD region thing merely exists to protect existing markets and that it is contrary to the ideals of the free market. Well . . . I haven’t changed my opinion, but Amazon seems to have reversed its policy.

If you order a DVD from them now you’ll be warned about how evil capitalist media conglomerates (not their choice of words) like Warner Bros. actually bring out DVDs that refuse to work on Region-derestricted DVD players like my own.

Yup, that’s right: apparently the Region 1 The Patriot (one example) uses newly developed technology to simply not play on any derestricted machines! (Not that any sane person would want to own The Patriot on DVD . . .)

Well, the free markets aren’t all that free. No surprise there, especially for someone who lives in Africa and knows all about the trade regulations the West throws up to protect their own markets.

Anyway, this whole issue began for me when I tried to order some Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVDs from Amazon and couldn’t. See, the Catch 22 goes like this: Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVDs are marked Region 1 (for sale and Canada and United States only) and not for sale in any other Region.

OK, no problem, except that official Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K in short) products are only available in Region 1! There are no Region 2, 3 or 4 DVDs! At all! Anyone see the logic in that? Just what markets are we protecting here?

Anyway, back then a Rhino (the company that produces the MST3K DVDs) suggested that I try E-bay. Not very helpful. Once I tried buying some 1970s Howard the Duck comics via E-bay and ran into a flood of local banking rules and regulations. A nightmare! So fat help that was . . .

However, thanks to Amazon’s change in policy I now have in my possession Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Vol. 2.

Don’t know what the hell I’m talking about?

Fans in the know would want to skip the following paragraph.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a cult comedy TV show that first ran on the Comedy and then the Sci-Fi channel for the greater part of the 1990s. You might have seen photos or clips from it of three silhouetted figures sitting in a cinema making comments and jokes about onscreen proceedings.

Yes, that’s right: Mystery Science Theater 3000 makes an art form out of the rude habit of talking aloud in the cinemas. Except, unlike the drunk punter sitting in front of you, these guys are actually funny, VERY funny!

However, be warned: this show makes fun of some extremely bad movies. If you thought Wing Commander was bad, you’ll change your opinion after the likes of Eegah . . .

If you like South Park, The Simpsons or Futurama, then check out Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is funny stuff indeed!

THE DISCS: Where’s Volume 1?

Well, I decided to buy Volume 2 instead after seeing that it features the so-called “shorts” from the first season of the show. These shorts are very bad educational films dug up from the 1950s, and while they are highly regarded by MST3K fans, I have never seen any of them.

Are they as funny as fans insist they are?

Yes, they are, and some of these shorts will probably evoke some memories of the “educational films” one had to endure at school: badly made and shown on a 16 mm projector whenever exam time is near and there is new material left to teach anymore.

The funniest of these shorts is “A Date with your Family” – a 1950s treatise on how families should behave at the dinner table and what etiquette is to be followed. Hilarious – and alone practically worth buying this four disc set for.

The box set consists of:

A bad 1970s Charlie’s Angels rip-off called ANGELS REVENGE (starring Jack Palance – cue a lot of City Slickers 2 quips). Probably the funniest episode in this set.

CAVE DWELLERS, a very 1980s sword & sorcery “epic” starring one Miles O’Keeffe who began his career playing the title role of Tarzan in the very bad Bo Derek version. Hands up those of you who has seen this particular waste of celluloid? Judging from Cave Dwellers it would seem that O’Keeffe’s career actually went downhill from here on – difficult as that may be to believe!

POD PEOPLE. More 1980s crap – and actually the only really science fiction effort in this set. (MST3K usually featured mostly science fiction efforts.) A mixture of E.T. and bad horror movies, Pod People actually doesn’t feature any pod people . . . at all.

SHORTS (VOLUME 1): The highlight of the set as I’ve said.

Incidentally, all these episodes have appeared on VHS, but were previously unavailable on DVD. (I have used the covers of the VHS copies as illustrations in this review.)

WORTH IT? Unlike previous Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD releases, Collection Volume 2 has no option to watch the movie being lampooned without the comments being made.

No big loss to be honest, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to actually sit through Cave Dwellers without the MST3K crew mocking it.

When my newbie brother-in-law borrowed my Eegah disc, he made the mistake of watching a huge chunk of the movie without the MST3K jokes and comments before realizing his mistake. I think he has probably suffered irreparable mental damage in the process . . .

There are no other extra features besides the usually scene access and menu functions.

RECOMMENDATION: To be honest, while these four discs are quite funny, they’re not the best MST3K episodes available. Fans would want to check them out, but newbies should rather try Mystery Science Theater 3000 – the Movie or the aforementioned Eegah instead. Then try the Shorts disc . . .