Tell us about your first experience of “MST3K: The Movie.”
I was living in the Philadelphia area on April 19, 1996. I took the day off from work and my buddy Geoff went to the very first showing at the one theater in town where it was showing. A large line formed behind us, and by the time the movie started the place was almost completely full. The crowd loved it, laughing uproariously throughout, and applauding at the end.
Then Geoff and I jumped in his car and we hit I-95 and headed north to New York City. We got there in time to join a lot of our NYC-area AOL MSTie buddies for the 7:30 show (completely jammed, raucous laughter and applause). Afterwards we went out for pizza and later we hung out until the wee hours. It was a great day.
Did you see it the first weekend? On some weekend after that? Or was your first experience via VHS or DVD? Tell!
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Basically my family rented a VHS copy at Hollywood Video when it came out.
Nothing really special, I was/am a major fan of the show and my pareants were/are casual viewers.
Now, what I remeber of watching the film for the first time with a now ex-girlfriend is her wanting to see it, because I would occasionally say a quote from it out of the blue and her sister would get the joke since she had seen it with her boyfriend.
So I bring the dvd copy over to watch at her house. After watching for a while, I look over and she has pissed off look on her face. I paused the movie and ask why. Turns out the whole time, we’re watching the movie, I’m silently mouthing the riffs to myself with out knowing it.
I can’t remember the exact year, but it was whatever year it was put out on video. I had seen a few of the video episodes thanks to Blockbuster and had enjoyed it, even though I was still kind of too young to enjoy all the comments or pay attention to the whole movie.
I remember being out of school, sick. To make me feel better my mom rented MST3K: The Movie for me while I recuperated. I put it in and I was hooked forever. Not only was it hilarious, it made me want to really get into the show (sadly, I had to wait until Sci-Fi picked it up to get regular viewings).
I love the movie, no doubt, because it was THE jumping off point for me. I still have my VHS copy and eagerly picked up the re-release last May. It really opened my heart…followed eagerly by my wallet.
Saw it in a junky Cinema Cafe-the only place close by that I could find that played the movie. Seriously, in the state that MST3K was MADE, you’d think there would have been a lot more theaters showing it. :???:
Ate greasy pizza and tried not to get distracted by rowdy kids whose parents let them run around the room during the movie.
All I can say is thank the good robot-maker above for DVDs. My children know better than to disturb me while I’m watching MST3K. Sometimes they even join in watching it.
I was a huge fan by the time the movie came out. On the day of its release, I scanned the theater ads, but it was nowhere to be found in Gainesville, FL. I didn’t get to see it until it showed up on DirectTV. Later, I caught it on the Encore channel and recorded with my new (at the time) DVD recorder.
I liked the film, but to be honest, I’m glad it tanked because I enjoyed the Sci Fi years a lot more.
I rented it from the video store and watched it with my mom. We had lots of fun watching it. :mrgreen:
I remember the day like it was only ten years ago…
A local movie theater (now defunct), known for playing more offbeat movies got MST3K:TM and I went to see it opening weekend. I laughed until I couldn’t breathe over riffs like:
Joe: “You know what my kids would say…”
Crow: “You’re not my real father!”
The following weekend I took some friends with me to see the movie and they too were stricken with can’t-breathe-itis. The theater was half-full the second weekend which was cool because opening week I think there were only about 8 people there. It played a LONG time at that theater and we went as often as we could. I also remember that it was the only local theater that showed, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” so it was a cool place while it lasted.
Saw it on HBO while channel surfing.
I drove down to Baltimore City to catch it at the Charles Theater towards the end of its release. What a great room to see it in!
My uncle took my aunt to see it for their first date. I was rather amused by that.
I first saw it on YouTube. I was amazed. We were getting closer to the Bots with new camera shots and everything.
In Denver, the only theater showing the film was at the old Tivoli brewery. My rommates and I drove down from Boulder for the 10:00 pm showing on opening weekend (classes, unfortunately kept us from going earlier. I know – poor prioritization, but I was young…).
Audience response was terrific. Needless to say, Servo’s riff, “So, this is Denver’s new airport,” absolutely killed.
Saw it at the Ritz theater in Philadelphia. When it opened.
I had direct TV and Starz was showing it non-stop over a period during one summer post-96. My friend and I saw a preview for it and thought it would look interesting. We watched it and loved it. You could not stop us from chanting “Normal View” to save your life!
This movie really got me hooked into MST3K in the most perfect way. The TV series had better performances, better skits and all the things that were necessary to pull me in.
It was so rarely in movie theaters and so poorly promoted that I didn’t even know it was at the philadelphia Ritz :mad: so I din’t see it until it finally came out on dvd.
I saw it at the Varsity in the U-District in Seattle the second Saturday afternoon it was out. The Kingdome riff predictably got the biggest response.
I was at BYU in Provo, Utah when the movie came out. It wasn’t showing in any local theaters, so naturally my friends and I decided to just drive to a theater that was showing it.
…in San Francisco. Twelve hour drive each way.
Ah, the carefree days of youth.
I was visiting my dad in Champagne, Ill. We were both big fans, and he mentioned he had just seen it at a tiny theater (near campus, I think) and would be willing to see it again.
What I remember most about that time was the “I’ll gas up in Des Moines”riff. I threw my hands up in the air, since Des Moines media references are rare. I then felt silly, since I wasn’t at home.
When I did see it in Des Moines, that riff got a huge reaction.
I didn’t see it until maybe a year ago, when I finally got round to renting it. I had been reluctant to give it a look because I’d heard it was a bit disappointing. And it was. :( It wasn’t horrible but if it were a show I’d call it middling.
I watched the movie last year for the first time. My exgirlfriend loved the show in the early 90s, but I never watched it (couldn’t get it in D.C.) and thought it sounded stupid. Then, during the last year they ran reruns on Sci Fi, I saw (I think) the Screaming Skull one morning and got hooked. Yeah, way after it had been cancelled and probably six months before they stopped showing them on TV. But I have all the DVD sets and my wife even likes it, in small doses. (She also loves the Venture Bros.) So I came to the MST3K party late, and as such cop to being a loser. But I did get to see Kurt Cobain live :)
I had a local video store special order a copy for me. Back when rental videos were insanely expensive. I asked if they bought it.. and let it rent for a year to make back what it cost to bring in.. I would pay the difference.. I think it was like $130 for the store to buy it.. I think I ended up paying $30 when it went up for sale.. Although most of the $100 in rentals were by me as well.. Up here only 3 or 4 people even had a clue what MST3k was.
Saw it with my folks at the now-defunct dollar theatre at the East Town Mall in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was a tiny crowd, but appreciative, and I’m delighted that I at least got a chance to see the movie on the big screen.
Of course, what was even more exciting was seeing This Island Earth riffed live at the first Conventio-Con in 1994. Being in an auditorium full of hard-core Misties watching all laughing hysterically was a wonderful experience I’ll never forget.
I remember a few things….
– I got the theater manager to give me the MST3K movie poster after the run of the film was completed. It was two-sided and it was awesome. Still have it…not in the best of shape but I have it.
– I remember someone sniffing throughout the film.
– Most importantly, I remember liking it but definitely being disappointed. No opening theme???? No Frank??? The feel was all wrong…I guess I was just hoping for another typical episode with a bigger budget.
I saw it in May of 1996. The closest place that had it was about 50 miles away. It was a pretty small theater that I think showed nothing but limited release movies, though as I remember it still wasn’t full for the showing I saw. I watched it with a few people I knew and we all enjoyed it, though we agreed it was just too short. I can’t remember any jokes getting especially big laughs, except of course “Give Uncle Scrotor a hug.” After it was over I went home and told my brother about it, and I think the next night he went out there to see it too.
Well, my first real experience with it was the live show at ConventioCon I, which was practically a run-through for the movie. Favorite riff not repeated in the actual movie: when the title “This Island Earth comes up, Mike & the ‘bots started singing “‘This Island Earth’ doesn’t shine for me anymore!”
I didn’t see the actual movie opening weekend because no theaters in NJ were playing it. (Every multiplex, though, was running the lame Dan Ackroyd comedy “Celtic Pride”.) Two theaters in NYC were running it and, after two weeks, it was down to one. (I called one of them for showtimes and the kid from the theater told me, “The movie isn’t funny.” So much for customer service.)
My brother Bri and I took the train into the city on a Sunday afternoon and took a cab to the theater. (I’d never been to NYC by myself before, so Bri came along to keep me from getting lost. He said he did it so that I wouldn’t whine about missing the movie, which I freely admit was a certainty.) We missed one showing and had to wait at a local bar (Sam Adams for Bri, Ginger Ale for me), then caught it later. I remember going up several escalators to get to our theater, the promos for “The Cable Guy”, and laughing a whole lot. Great experience; we even managed to catch the train home from Penn just in time.
A few weeks later, the movie reached two (and only two) theaters in NJ. I saw it again at an art house place in Red Bank. Later on, I saw it again at ConventioCon II, and picked up a screener VHS (with special promos) off of Ebay.
So, I saw it three times in a theater setting in three different states. I’m kind of proud of that.
I touched on it in the “episode” discussion thread, but I was a student at Drake University at the time. I went with one of my best friends from the dorm to see it at the theater right across from campus. It drew a really good crowd, considering Des Moines didn’t have Comedy Central at the time. The “I’ll just gas up…” line caused us all to erupt, but there was a slight pause, like we were all thinking “Did Crow really just say that?” Finally bought MST3K:TM on DVD a few years back, and I can still hear that reaction every time I get to that part of the movie. And the “Recognize me now, Ruth?” line also got a big response, but what else would you expect for a theater that’s virtually on a college campus? :)
On VHS, actually.
It didn’t come to any theaters around here. At the time, I just got into the show because of its syndication.
When I received the movie in the mail, I played the hell out of it. Most of the riffs were quickly etched into my memory.
That’s why I’m so glad the DVD was re-released recently. I’m sure that I would have worn out the VHS tape eventually.
I just started watching MST after the movie came out. Once I traded for some MST tapes and was really hooked I thought it would have been great to see that in the theater with other misties. I tried to find it on Ebay, but it was out of print, and the price was $150! One day I was at the drug store and there was a used VHS copy of MST TM, so I snapped it up. Kind of fun to see other parts of the SOL, and the movie was a great choice to riff. All in all I liked it. I just wish I had been a mistie when it came out and had gone to the theater.
I feel lucky that I got to see it in a theater. I don’t think it was the opening weekend but my wife and best friend drove to Kansas City for 2.5 hours to be able to see it. It never played any closer to us that I could find. Even at that I seem to remember that we could only find one theater in KC playing it. I remember it was a pretty good crowd, not packed, but good. I also have very fond memories of seeing the outtakes at the second ConventoCon Expofest Orama. That was really a good crowd to see it with.
Geez I wish I had a col sotry,but I didnt.It was coming on HBO..I freaked,sat down,watched a little of it,and it just didnt..wow me.So ive never seen the whole movie.But its coming on again and I plan to pop some pocorn and have a time
Once I learned about MST it was about 5 weeks before it went off the air. So After that my first instinct was to go to a video store and I found and rented MST3K the movie. I didnt know who dr. forrester was (I only knew of a couple sci fi episodes) but I overall enjoyed the movie. It lead me to rent other VHS titles (the place that rented out VHS’s had a good amount of discontinued episodes looking back) and then to buying box sets as they where released.
I think it was shortly after I discovered the show on Sci-Fi in 1998 (“The Thing That Couldn’t Die”) that I went to a local video store. They had a VHS copy of the movie, and I figured it would be worth a shot.
At first, I was just confused. Unfamiliar with the CC years, I didn’t know who this guy in the green lab coast was, why Crow’s voice was different and where the hell Pearl was.
So for me, that first experience was kind of odd. After I familiarized myself with the history of the show I understood the context and the movie’s stock immediately rose in my mind.
Saw it at the AMC on 3rd Street in Santa Monica opening weekend. For the most part, the crowd was into it (there was even a guy in the front row with a homemade Crow robot). But about 30 minutes into it, one guy got up walked to the back doors of theater and announced for the whole theater (most of whom had been laughing throughout) to hear: “You all must be friends of the filmmakers, because this movie SUCKS!”
Then we all went back to the movie and continued to laugh more, as that poor, humorless sap went out into the Santa Monica night, probably looking for a hooker.
I live in western North Carolina; the closest it came was Raleigh, which was out of the question as I was just starting high school at the time, and my parents weren’t willing to put in the two hour drive for a movie.
So, I had to wait for VHS. To my dismay, all of the local video stores were out of copies the first weekend it was released…except the late lamented Mega Movies! Good ol’ Mega Movies…the clerk was kind enough to hold their sole copy until we could go pick it up. Hooray!
I’m surprised it never came to Asheville to the brew and view.
I don’t remember the year, but I saw it on VHS. In fact, that was my “first time”, so to speak, with Mike Nelson. I had only seen Joel episodes at that time. I didn’t get Comedy Central then and the show was broadcast on some obscure local channel that also featured ECW. But that’s bascially how I saw the movie. I don’t think it was released anywhere in South Jersey near me.
Saw it in the theaters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am pretty sure it was “opening weekend” aka the first weekend it was available in Tulsa — didn’t they do a rolling opening?
I am hazy on the experience. I am pretty sure the theater was medium full and the audience had a good time, laughed at the appropriate spots. I had previously seen This Island Earth at the first convention and felt confused since I was pretty sure there were parts of TIE I had seen them riff that weren’t in the movie.
Comedy Central still wasn’t available on cable in Tulsa at this time, so it was pretty great to be able to enjoy it without the aid of satellite technology. I remember thinking at the time the movie was enjoyable but short.
I intended to see it more than once, but something came up the next weekend and by the weekend after that, it was gone.
I have a VHS copy I’ve only watched a couple times. If they ever released an unedited version of the theater segments, I would happily shell out for it. The version we saw was okay, but could have been much better.
I bought it on VHS many years ago and watched it once or twice. Already a fan of MST-3000, I found it merely okay, like a stripped and shortened version of the excellent TV show. Even then it seemed the source movie had been severely cut in running time, and that was just confirmed for me on this website. As mild as it was compared to the TV show, I don’t see how it would lasso any more fans to the show.
I was planning on seeing it when it first came out in theaters, but it happened to be released right when I was leaving on a two week vacation. I thought that wouldn’t be a problem because I could see it when I got home. Sadly, when I got back in town it only ran one more week and I missed it.
I picked up a VHS copy as soon as it was available, so that’s when I saw it first.
I did finally see it on the big screen last summer at a film festival in Saginaw, MI. The really cool thing was that Kevin Murphy was there and acted as master of ceremonies.
I really loved the show but the local cable outlets did not carry Comedy Central. I had only seen a few episodes via the short-lived “Mystery Science Theater Hour” that was briefly shown in syndication. I didn’t know Joel had left the show!!
I was very excited to see the movie when I heard about it. I was worried that it would not play in a smaller city like Boise, but it was picked up by one of the local chain theaters. I remember feeling like I shouldn’t procrastinate because I knew it wouldn’t play long (I think it was yanked off the screen after one week). When I saw the movie, I was angry and bewildered; where’s Joel???? I thought they had been forced to replace him by typical Hollywood meddling, Joel wouldn’t translate on the big screen so they replaced him with this Mike person, who seemed like a jock compared to Joel (like I said I’d only seen a few episodes). I was really offended, I was totally ignorant of the fact Joel had departed.
There only about 12 other people in the theater and at least half were scratching their heads, very confused by all the “talking during the movie.” Despite my confusion at Joel’s absence, I was still delighted to see MST on the big screen, it really made the silhouettes look right!
My husband and I had to drive to a theater in Dallas because it was the only one in the area showing the movie. It was not the first day, but I think it was opening weekend. The theater was about 2/3rds full. We had a great time.
Where I live in New Hampshire, it seems like hardly anyone has even heard of the show (although I did see someone with a “MST3K” NH license plate). So, despite the numerous movie theaters that were within reasonable driving range (at least 7 to my count), there wasn’t one that carried MST:TM. (All carried “Barb Wire”, though!!! :evil: ) The closest movie house that might have had it was in the small town of Peterborough, but that would have been too far for me to drive to.
I did buy the movie on VHS eventually, I believe about two years after the movie’s limited release in theaters. I had to watch it twice, since the first time around I was interrupted by several telephone calls and other small disruptions. Even after two viewings I remember being disappointed with it. It didn’t sour my view upon the show any; I had heard that the powers-that-be at Universal had had a heavy hand at editing the joke contents, and therefore the overall product was watered down from what it could have been. That said, my wife surprised me with the newest DVD release of the movie last year, and watching it again recently it was better than what I remembered from before.
I do believe that if they riffed on a cheesier, more outrageously bad movie, MST:TM would have had a larger audience. TIE, while certainly not a classic by any stretch, didn’t have that *WTF?* factor that episodes like “Manos”, “Wild World of Batwoman” and “Space Mutiny” all had.
I was actually too young to see the movie in theaters, so after the Sci-fi seasons were in full swing we rented the movie from our public library and even to this day we all sit down in front of the tv every once and a while and make it feel like we are watching the show.
I first managed to see the movie when it got on the movie channel up in Canada, although actually I got my grandparents to tape it for me, as they got the channel and I didn’t… I’m sure they didn’t have the slightest idea of what they were seeing, but they taped it anyway, bless them. That tape unfortunately went missing after a while (it might have wound up loaned out to friends), but I was lucky enough to spot a video store’s tape in its “used movies for sale” bin, and luckier again for the recent DVD release.
The local video store carried a precious few MST3K titles, which I ravenously snapped up. One was TIE, which I had seen prior many times and enjoyed its colorful kitchiness. [I would love to know where that rotating light bulb-molecule thing is- I want one!]
The movie felt a little bland and restrained compared to their other work, and subsequent reading of the difficulties of working with a major studio explained why. Still it was a great afternoon all around, delightfully getting my fix of more MST3K.
I wanted to see MST3k:TM in theaters so bad (I only caught the trailer once on TV), but apparently it wasn’t playing nearby, so my first time seeing it was on rental VHS. Later on I learned all about the changes to the movie (I had seen THIS ISLAND EARTH un-MSTied before seeing MST:TM, so I was confused when many scenes didn’t turn up).
Years later, acquiring the wonderful deleted scene & alternate ending has made watching the DVD a bittersweet experience. It’s so great at some parts, but could have been SO much more had Grammercy/Universal not tried to strangle a beautiful thing.
“MY HASH!”
Like The Toblerone Effect, I lived in NH at the time, and therefore never got to see MST3KTM in a theater.
Bought it on VHS when it came out, but the whole point of making a movie is to show it in theaters, with an audience. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more in a theater setting, but on video, its just a slightly sub-par episode.
Long time reader, first time poster…
I remember seeing MST3K:The Movie at the “arty” movie theater in Hartford. The girl I had a crush on at the time, my best friend and the rest of our gang went after school on Friday opening night. We had gone to dinner beforehand and hit a 7PM show.
The theater had just enough people to make it intimate and part of a great group. From the get go the laughs started and then never stopped.
We went out for coffee after the show and then went back to a late night screening. We were pretty much the only ones there and it was awesome.
My experience with MST3K in the early 90s was one of a fan basically in the dark. My cable company didn’t carry Comedy Central and I got my MST3K fix sporadically. I had limited internet access and got most of my knowledge of the show from the rare magazine articles I came across. I almost didn’t even know a movie was coming out until I saw a blurb about it somewhere.
There were no theaters with MST3K:TM where I lived. Not even close. And believe me I checked.
So I waited for the VHS release. Better than not seeing it, right?
As I watched it the first time I wondered “Where is Frank?”. Remember I was an in the dark fan.
Then I got to the end of the movie and I thought “That was quick”. I checked the running time on the box and to my astonishment the movie was shorter than a regular episode of the show. A movie that is shorter than the series its based on? It was just a little odd to me.
Since I had so little access to the series during the early 90s watching the movie on VHS still seemed more grand to me. I thought better of the movie then than I do now as a result of how I came across it.
A few years later I was fully plugged into the net and filled in all the holes in my knowledge of the series and movie.
MST3K:TM snuck into theaters in my area (Charlotte, NC) about four weeks after the initial release. I found out about it perusing the newspaper. (What’s a newspaper? Think the internet, but on paper.) I headed to the theater after my shift was over and caught a 4 pm showing, and laughed until I hurt. I went back three more times to catch the movie with different family and friends, and MST3K:Tm was only in that one theater in Charlotte for one week.