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Weekend Discussion Thread: Season 11 Movies

Well, the spoiler commands have been lifted, but before we begin discussing each of the episodes, I’m going to you another week to get some of these watched.

So, in the meantime, here is the official list of the movies that will be riffed in season 11:
1101- Reptilicus
1102- Cry Wilderness
1103- The Time Travelers
1104- Avalanche
1105- The Beast of Hollow Mountain
1106- Starcrash
1107- The Land That Time Forgot
1108- The Loves of Hercules
1109- Yongary – Monster from the Deep
1110- Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
1111- Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II
1112- Carnival Magic
1113- The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
1114- At Earth’s Core

Thoughts?

180 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Season 11 Movies”

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  1. KidFlash says:

    Four episodes in and Cry Wilderness and Avalanche are the clear winners.

       5 likes

  2. Jay says:

    I watched the first five yesterday. Most obviously a great deal of work went into this new production and the actors seem to be getting more comfortable in their roles. It would be nice to see the new Mads have more interaction with the movies, but that is just a suggestion not a complaint. Good Job, New Brains!

       3 likes

  3. Kansas says:

    I’ve only seen Reptilicus and Cry Wilderness so far and enjoyed them both. I’m looking forward to Beast of Hollow Mountain, which my local television station used to play a lot when I was growing up. I felt kind of cheated because the beast doesn’t show up until the latter part of the movie. I’m interested in seeing if the MST3K crew have the same complaint. I once saw The Time Travelers on the big screen, so I have a particular interest in that one also. It’s not a bad movie, but it does have plenty of ammunition for riffing.

       0 likes

  4. gf120581 says:

    KidFlash:
    Four episodes in and Cry Wilderness and Avalanche are the clear winners.

    Same here. Especially “Cry Wilderness.” That one is a outright classic. The movie is just so bat**** insane. It’s like they took “Pod People”, “Boggy Creek II” and “Final Sacrifice” and threw them in a blender. I don’t know what else to say about a movie that has a talking Bigfoot yelling cryptic warnings outside windows late at night.

    “Paul! Your father is in danger!”

    “I’ve yelled outside three different schools so far! I hope this is the one!”

       4 likes

  5. Bad Wolf says:

    I have to say it’s a strong list, good variety and high(er) production value films. Better than the films available for Cinematic Titanic, anyway. I’ve just started so to work solely from the list (thanks Sampo!), I do appreciate several genres present that I always enjoy in MST: giant monster/kaiju, 80s sword&sorcery, Hercules,Christmas; as well as a handful that I’ve wanted to watch riffed from anyone: Starcrash, the Lost World films.

    There’s a couple of genres I don’t see that I would like to: biker film, 60s European spy, 50s b&w Sci-fi/giant monster.

    Does anyone else have a genre they’d like to see? (Perhaps upcoming seasons will listen!)

       3 likes

  6. bartcow says:

    I’ve owned the blu-ray of Starcrash for a while now (I wonder how I developed such a tolerance/appreciation for “bad” movies?), so I’m very excited to see what they do with that one. It’s a glorious mess all on its own. And there’s David Hasslehoff.

       1 likes

  7. John Hanna says:

    Unfortunately, I don’t have Netflix. (I’m way behind the times.) So it might be a while before I see the episodes. I have seen some of movies on this list, most notably ‘The Time Travelers’, with its mutant blow-up doll robots. I can only imagine what the crew has to say about those.

       0 likes

  8. underwoc says:

    Strong choice of movies – with some obvious parallels to their “Greatest Hits” from the old series. Cry Wilderness = Pod People/Track of the Moonbeast. Starcrash ( a personal favorite in its unriffed form) = Space Mutiny. Yongary = Gamera. Ect. I don’t have a problem with this per se. It is going to make movie selections for future seasons more difficult (assuming they get picked up for future seasons).

       0 likes

  9. I’ve only seen 1101 so far, but already I like the new cast. Especially Jonah. So far, a winner.

       6 likes

  10. underwoc says:

    Bad Wolf:

    There’s a couple of genres I don’t see that I would like to: biker film, 60s European spy, 50s b&w Sci-fi/giant monster.

    Does anyone else have a genre they’d like to see? (Perhaps upcoming seasons will listen!)

    You can’t make a steady diet of it, but another ’40s era noir/musical a la I Accuse My Parents would be fun.

       4 likes

  11. Norman says:

    Didn’t Rifftrax do Wizards of the Lost Kingdom? It was dropped very quickly (before I could get it).
    I wonder if they dropped it because MST3K was doing it??

       1 likes

  12. AlbuquerqueTurkey says:

    So far, I have just watched Reptilicus; I’ll try to get in 2 per weekend so I can stretch out the fun. Very good start on the first one; sometimes the riffs were too rapid-fire, one-on-top-of-another. At least with Netflix, I can immediately rewind to catch the ones I just missed. It will be fun to see how the rhythm changes as they get more experience. I am excited about the Doug McClure movies!

    Nice cameo by Wil Wheaton, and Erin Gray STILL looks great after all these years!

       0 likes

  13. David Mello says:

    Haven’t see all of them yet. Have to take a break tonight for Doctor Who. Still, the guys are back, and the Mads, whoever they are, are still totally clueless on why showing bad movies to a guy and two bots won’t break their spirit. They don’t get that when Jonah and the bots mock movies, they’re avenging every guy who thought blowing 15 bucks on Suicide Squad in 3-D was a good idea.
    Faves so far are Reptilicus, Time Travelers, and Loves of Hercules (mainly for one specific riff where the head Amazon talks about what she does to ex-boyfriends).
    However, I also saw the last three, and I’m sure there will be lots of theories on what might happen if they come back (if they come back) in 2018.

       0 likes

  14. Pemmican says:

    At Joel’s request, I waited until the Netflix debut, and I wasn’t disappointed! I could have redeemed my digital rewards, but that would mean I’d be watching the episodes on my computer… which… I’ve never done…

    Anyway, I’ve only seen Reptilicus so far, and I was pretty pleased with the results. The biggest learning curve is getting used to the new voices, so I often wasn’t sure who was saying what in the theater.

    I’m not horribly in love with the skeleton band that pops up during the commercial breaks, and I wonder if their in-world purpose is going to be explained at some point. Clay and Lar never had a band, they did their own music!

    But, it’s just my favorite show, I should really just relax. I will put my faith in Joel McLargeHuge’s vision for the new season, and repeatedly watch all the episodes until Netflix suffers a server crash!

       2 likes

  15. Ro-man, aka one of several possible Steves says:

    So far, the ones I’ve seen (just Reptillicus, Cry Wilderness, and The Time Travelers, and I started last Sunday- I’m savoring and and allowing them to sit on my palate for a while before moving on) have been great – 1102 being, as many have noted, a truly bizarre movie and a rare find, and so in my mind sort of in the same class as “Manos”. (Who knew this movie existed; oh, and WHY does it exist?)

    This opening trio was a good group to begin with; I thought of the three Time Travelers was the strongest both as a MST3K-able film and in the quality of the riffing.

    Overall it looks to be a pretty good cross-section of genres that work best for MST3K. I mean, I loved the Girls Town’s and I Accuse My Parents’ in the MST3k filmography, but the science fiction and fantasy realm seems to be the best (and of course, it does not hurt that those were the kinds of movies I enjoyed watching as a young’un). So with a few others thrown in for variety – I’m really good with this list.

    I am really REALLY looking forward to Starcrash and Yongary.

       0 likes

  16. Pemmican says:

    Sorry to spam, but I forgot something: The credits list Joel as having a small part in 1101, but I didn’t see him.

    Anyone catch his cameo in this ep?

       0 likes

  17. gf120581 says:

    Pemmican:
    Sorry to spam, but I forgot something: The credits list Joel as having a small part in 1101, but I didn’t see him.

    Anyone catch his cameo in this ep?

    He’s the guy in the mask who loads the movies. Catch phrase: “Movie in the hole!”

       5 likes

  18. Herandar says:

    Pemmican:
    Sorry to spam, but I forgot something: The credits list Joel as having a small part in 1101, but I didn’t see him.

    Anyone catch his cameo in this ep?

    Joel is Ardy, the guy in the hazmat suit that sends the liquid film to the SOL.

       2 likes

  19. Pemmican says:

    gf120581: He’s the guy in the mask who loads the movies. Catch phrase: “Movie in the hole!”

    Ah ha, thank you, @gf120581! No wonder I didn’t recognize him.

       1 likes

  20. MSTie says:

    John Hanna:
    Unfortunately, I don’t have Netflix. (I’m way behind the times.) So it might be a while before I see the episodes. I have seen some of movies on this list, most notably ‘The Time Travelers’, with its mutant blow-up doll robots. I can only imagine what the crew has to say about those.

    You can sign up for a free one-month trial of Netflix, watch all the new eps, and then cancel if you’re so inclined. Just FYI.

    I’ve only watched the first two so far and think both are huge winners. Cry Wilderness is, as gf120581 said, a PUMAT of Pod People, Boggy Creek II, and The Final Sacrifice. There’s even a resounding callback riff of “Rowsdower!” to delight all of us except the resident troll of Satellite News. I hope I can parcel out the eps slowly and not binge too much. I’m looking forward to Time Travelers and am also thrilled that there will **finally** be a new Christmas movie in the pantheon.

    At first I thought they were riffing too fast but now I think that’s going to add to the replayability enjoyment. And I do think the three voices are too similar but oh well, I’ll learn.

       4 likes

  21. I’m still disappointed they couldn’t get Night of the Lepus.

    One of my hopes is that if there’s a Season 12, they’ll be able to re-do some ones from the KTMA era like SST Death Flight.

       4 likes

  22. Majorjoe23 says:

    Brandon Pierce:
    I’m still disappointed they couldn’t get Night of the Lepus.

    One of my hopes is that if there’s a Season 12, they’ll be able to re-do some ones from the KTMA era like SST Death Flight.

    I’m guessing they tried to find stuff RiffTrax hasn’t already done. (Wizards was probably just an odd coincidence of something RT already had in the the pipeline).

       1 likes

  23. Sitting Duck says:

    As I noted in the Weekend Discussion on the topic, I intend to pace myself at one episode every Sunday afternoon. As a result, so far I’ve only seen Reptilicus during the sneak peak last Sunday. It was a good start, especially how the film thought that regeneration and mitosis are interchangeable terms. Two I’m especially looking forward to are Starcrash (which I’ve seen before and know it’s perfectly suited for MST3K) and At the Earth’s Core (I’ve read the original book and am curious to see what changes were made aside from the fact that the characters won’t be nude).

       1 likes

  24. Majorjoe23: I’m guessing they tried to find stuff RiffTrax hasn’t already done. (Wizards was probably just an odd coincidence of something RT already had in the the pipeline).

    Wait…. Rifftrax did Night of the Lepus. Wasn’t aware of that…

       0 likes

  25. Droppo says:

    I am loving the new season so far. The movie selections are great. 1102 and 1106 are my early favorites. I’m through half of 1109 and every episode has been strong.

       0 likes

  26. DirtyTerry says:

    On 11-07 and LOVE it so far. Agree with everyone about Cry Wilderness. The only thing ,I really miss (besides Hexfield) is that they don’t ever make each other laugh. J/M & the Bots were always cracking each other up.

       3 likes

  27. Mibbitmaker says:

    Only seen Reptilicus thus far, though I’m already going to watch the 2nd one in spite of my preferred one-new-MST3K-a-week schedule. Probably because of the picture used in the next episode slide Netflix used.

    The movie in 1101, at least the early going, is the only big problem I had with this awesome debut. That post-drilling scene was really gross. It’ll go in the hide-my-eyes pantheon with the operating scenes in Fu Manchu and Laserblast, the heart scene in Cave Dwellers, and the burning Torgo hand in Manos. Although I did get a good Dan-Aykroyd-as-Julia-Child-on-SNL riff of my own on the initial sight of blood.

    Perfect choice of stinger, which I predicted. That scene’s “acting” was right up… er, down… there with the peeping toms in Eye Creatures. Yikes!

       1 likes

  28. Kenneth Morgan says:

    I’ve only seen 1101 so far, and I’m pacing myself at one episode a week. This is the first time I’ve seen the full, confirmed list and it looks good. There are a few I’m not familiar with, but there are ones I know are enjoyable on their own, which makes the experience less painful.

    I just hope they really go after that lousy kid in “Yongary”. He’s an annoying little so-and-so.

       1 likes

  29. Torque the Dorque says:

    Haven’t read any of the above comments.

    I work full time so binging is strictly weekend oriented.

    You lucky pups!

       1 likes

  30. PrezGAR says:

    I used to watch The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t all the time on HBO in the early 80s. I bought it on DVD a few years ago.

    I’ve seen part of The Loves of Hercules under it’s alternate title, Hercules versus The Hydra.

       0 likes

  31. gf120581 says:

    Kenneth Morgan:
    I’ve only seen 1101 so far, and I’m pacing myself at one episode a week.This is the first time I’ve seen the full, confirmed list and it looks good.There are a few I’m not familiar with, but there are ones I know are enjoyable on their own, which makes the experience less painful.

    I just hope they really go after that lousy kid in “Yongary”.He’s an annoying little so-and-so.

    I’ve not seen that yet, but I’ve heard the kid there is perhaps the worst one yet. Worse than any of the Kennys from the “Gameras” or that helium voiced, tight panted brat from “Godzilla v. Megalon.”

       2 likes

  32. MSTie: You can sign up for a free one-month trial of Netflix, watch all the new eps, and then cancel if you’re so inclined.Just FYI.

    I’ve only watched the first two so far and think both are huge winners.Cry Wilderness is, as gf120581 said, a PUMAT of Pod People, Boggy Creek II, and The Final Sacrifice.There’s even a resounding callback riff of “Rowsdower!” to delight all of us except the resident troll of Satellite News.I hope I can parcel out the eps slowly and not binge too much.I’m looking forward to Time Travelers and am also thrilled that there will **finally** be a new Christmas movie in the pantheon.

    At first I thought they were riffing too fast but now I think that’s going to add to the replayability enjoyment.And I do think the three voices are too similar but oh well, I’ll learn.

    I was in the same boat. I don’t have a “smart” tv. I signed up for the free month and I’m watching on my tablet.

       3 likes

  33. Rip McStudly says:

    I’m only through Hercules, but I’m not looking forward to Wizards. Rifftrax put out a really solid riff of it a little more than a year ago, but it was yanked down about two weeks later and they never spoke of it again. The rumor then was rights issues involving the music, but now I’m worried that its going to ignite a new fan war. Let’s be honest, it looks pretty bad, and it wouldn’t be the first time that someone from the old guard stomped on Kevin Mike and Bill (Jim Mallon got litigious to try and stop Film Crew, eventually leading to Rifftrax).

       2 likes

  34. Majorjoe23 says:

    Brandon Pierce: Wait…. Rifftrax did Night of the Lepus. Wasn’t aware of that…

    A few years back:

    http://www.rifftrax.com/night-of-the-lepus

       1 likes

  35. John Hanna says:

    #20 MSTie. Thanks. I’ll have to try that.

       1 likes

  36. EricJ says:

    My opinions on binge-watching are well-known, but my curiosity’s been peaked on 1102, and I have to see how 1103 survived.
    If they’re still going to use “commercial bumpers”, I’ve found that’s been a nice marker to sample a half-hour at a time when watching the old eps on Netflix/Hulu over consecutive nights (so it’s sorta like “watching one episode a week”, which is eww, evil and outdated, and not invisibly displaying my symbolic diehard loyalty to the world while fully enjoying the youthful rebellious individualistic fruits of our enlightened streaming age)–So it may take me two weeks to get through the first few, and I may have to save Wizards and Christmas for their respective weekly-episode-thread rotation, after Diabolik.

    PrezGAR:
    I used to watch The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t all the time on HBO in the early 80s. I bought it on DVD a few years ago.
    I’ve seen part of The Loves of Hercules under it’s alternate title, Hercules versus The Hydra.

    Finally tracked down the unrifled Christmas (which I remembered from the long-ago days of special PD “Christmas afternoon matinees” during the 70’s golden-age when nothing else was playing in theaters for kids) a couple years ago when it was on Netflix–And while it’s no I Believe In Santa Claus, Santa does appear to live in the same little cramped tumbledown mining shack in the middle of nowhere.
    And think Loves/Hydra is still unriffed on Netflix, but couldn’t get all the way through the original either. Jayne Mansfield was a sharper business cookie than her onscreen image suggested, but couldn’t find any work for husband Mickey Hargitay, and this was her best shot.

    Looking Loves/Hydra up on IMDb, I see that “Fans also liked” the entire S11 canon, which means we’re dangerously back to the SciFi era fandom that insists that any film reference to Space Mutiny, Touch of Satan or The Deadly Bees in the outside world must be for their pleasure alone (one of ours, one of ours!) and the movie never existed as anything but the episode of an overly-culted TV series…Let’s try to avoid that this time around, people. Mike was the Kool-Aid Cult-Master, Jonah’s…just some guy, y’know?

       1 likes

  37. Stoneman says:

    So far I have watched the first two episodes. I am very quickly warming up to the whole presentation. I played the beginning of episode 1101 to my wife (who has put up with my MST3K obsession for years), to see the new premise. She rolled her eyes (smiling) when TV’s Son of TV’s Frank introduced himself. She said the new set-up was “weird”, but all told she liked it, and watched most of “Cry Wilderness” with me. Yes, the riffing is rapid fire, but solid, containing references to old TV shows like “The Munsters”, all the way to comments about Twitter feeds and phone charger cords. I especially loved the “kaiju hip-hop” host segment in “Reptilicus”, and the cameo appearance of Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy in “Cry Wilderness”. As someone noted on another thread, I have enjoyed the Skeleton Crew playing instrumental versions of classic MSTie songs: so far recognized “Creepy Girl” and “Wild Rebels Cereal”.

    I am absolutely looking forward to more! Um, “Keep circulating the tapes?”

       4 likes

  38. MarcusVermilion says:

    I’ve always thought “Starcrash” would have been perfect foil for MST3K back in the show’s original run. Now that it’s being featured, along with “At The Earth’s Core”, I’ll get to see one of my 1970’s celebrity crushes get riffed: Caroline Munro!

       3 likes

  39. Tab Hunter says:

    Watched the first 4, and Time Travelers is my favorite so far. I like movies that are apocalyptic/futuristic, plus it has actual magic tricks as special effects. The host segments and invention exchanges are getting progressively stronger, too.

       0 likes

  40. Mibbitmaker says:

    Stoneman:
    She rolled her eyes (smiling) when TV’s Son of TV’s Frank introduced himself. She said the new set-up was “weird”, but all told she liked it, and watched most of “Cry Wilderness” with me.

    Glad she liked it. When she said “weird”, you might’ve added “…which results in creativity”, much used in the Joel era.

    Just watched the second one, using the TV this time. Somehow, watching a brand new MST3K on TV on a Saturday morning was like going back to what it was like in the early ’90s. That was great! My modern day viewing habit is usually on my computer at night with “theater snacks” and most of the lights off (where applicable)

    In regards to Starcrash, that movie was riffed wonderfully by “Media Center Theater 3000” (on YouTube), especially brilliantly during the space battle scene. Got to see if Jonah & the bots can top it!

       3 likes

  41. Johnny's nonchalance says:

    Hampton and Patton are the show stealers

    2 words, punt bunnies!

       2 likes

  42. Mike "ex-genius" Kelley says:

    John Hanna:
    Unfortunately, I don’t have Netflix. (I’m way behind the times.) So it might be a while before I see the episodes. I have seen some of movies on this list, most notably ‘The Time Travelers’, with its mutant blow-up doll robots. I can only imagine what the crew has to say about those.

    Free trial of Netflix for a month so start today!

       0 likes

  43. Captain Howdy says:

    EricJ:
    …Let’s try to avoid that this time around, people. Mike was the Kool-Aid Cult-Master, Jonah’s… just some guy, y’know?

    How about you avoiding stealing my material posted in another thread, windbag?

    If you thought no one would notice, then you’re slipping.

    I might have been willing to share if you had merely had the decency to ask.

    Chowder-head.

    Captain Howdy: Oh, I don’t know. I’m seriously considering joining his (EricJ’s) cult.

    Free Cherry Kool-Aid for eternity.

       9 likes

  44. Mike "ex-genius" Kelley says:

    Sitting Duck:
    As I noted in the Weekend Discussion on the topic, I intend to pace myself at one episode every Sunday afternoon. As a result, so far I’ve only seen Reptilicus during the sneak peak last Sunday. It was a good start, especially how the film thought that regeneration and mitosis are interchangeable terms. Two I’m especially looking forward to are Starcrash (which I’ve seen before and know it’s perfectly suited for MST3K) and At the Earth’s Core (I’ve read the original book and am curious to see what changes were made aside from the fact that the characters won’t be nude).

    Our exact plan as well. Last Sunday morning my dear wife and I sat down to a waffle breakfast (Waffles!) and watched the first one, which I thought was okay but not great. We’re doing this again tomorrow morning (complete with waffles, which we are now kind of addicted to. Sigh). It’s kind of an homage to what we used to do with the original show, when I’d record it at night and we’d watch it with the kid the next morning over pancakes. That was a LONG time ago, and we now serve alcohol with our brunch and the kidlet has kidlets of her own.

       2 likes

  45. Chief McCloud! says:

    KidFlash:
    Four episodes in and Cry Wilderness and Avalanche are the clear winners.

    I’ve watched them all but the Christmas episode (saving that for later) and I still think the above is true.

    I also enjoyed Time Travelers and Wizards 1 a lot. The “wandering hero” from Wizards 1 reminds me of a slightly less smug Deathstalker and I swear the evil wizard is doing firebender-ish moves in both his magic fights. Also, I’ve only seen each once, but from first impressions, Wizards 1 > Wizards 2.

    Carnival Magic is probably the one movie from this season I don’t think I could bear to watch unriffed. It’s completely nonsensical, but not nearly half as charming as the equally ridiculous Cry Wilderness.

    And, is it just me, or did this season’s Hercules look kinda scrawny compared to the Reeves/Steel portrayals we’re used to?

       0 likes

  46. Chief McCloud! says:

    Bad Wolf:

    Does anyone else have a genre they’d like to see? (Perhaps upcoming seasons will listen!)

    I’d love to see another spy film or something Russo-Finnish! And the return of SHORTS!!!

       4 likes

  47. Kansas says:

    Bad Wolf:
    I have to say it’s a strong list, good variety and high(er) production value films.Better than the films available for Cinematic Titanic, anyway.I’ve just started so to work solely from the list (thanks Sampo!), I do appreciate several genres present that I always enjoy in MST: giant monster/kaiju, 80s sword&sorcery, Hercules,Christmas; as well as a handful that I’ve wanted to watch riffed from anyone: Starcrash, the Lost World films.

    There’s a couple of genres I don’t see that I would like to: biker film, 60s European spy, 50s b&w Sci-fi/giant monster.

    Does anyone else have a genre they’d like to see? (Perhaps upcoming seasons will listen!)

    You can’t go wrong with Bela Lugosi. Maybe Devil Bat, Zombies on Broadway, or Invisible Ghost.

       3 likes

  48. KidFlash says:

    Majorjoe23: I’m guessing they tried to find stuff RiffTrax hasn’t already done. (Wizards was probably just an odd coincidence of something RT already had in the the pipeline).

    There was a recent interview in the run-up to Samurai Cop where Kevin did say that they tend to touch base about the movies done. That’d definitely answer the question of why Wizards got pulled (and why the new crew probably won’t touch Night of the Lepus, since it was already done by Rifftrax).

       1 likes

  49. NoMad says:

    Just finished laughing hysterically at ‘The Time Travelers’… damn, why is Danny such an idiot?

    It felt so good to sit down on a Saturday morning and watch a new episode of MST3K…haven’t done that in a while!! I think I’m with the people who want to spread this season out 1-at-a-time to savor this great feeling! Who knows if it’ll come again?

       1 likes

  50. jason says:

    I think the people dressed as skeletons are suppose to be a take off of the skeleton people in the famous short a trip to the moon.

       1 likes

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