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Joel InterviewPlanetOut writer (and “resident MST3K expert”) William Rankin interviews Joel.
24 Replies to “Joel Interview”Commenting at Satellite News
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Well, I’m more than a little depressed that Joel reveals they are heading for more recent films (those in the 90’s) — they might lose me the same way Mike has for the most part.
But on the interview I can’t help but note the interviewer seems to have a drug bias (twice he asks Joel if he was doing different drugs even though the lead up hasn’t got much if anything to do with that). Then again, I note the website is probably a culture for which I am not at all familiar.
The interviewer might have been on something when he interviewed Joel. He repeated calls it “Cinema Titanic”.
This was a little off wasn’t it? Umm maybe a public article is not the right place to ask such a personal issue such as drug use. Joel, I don’t care if you did, didn’t, do, don’t or will do. That’s your business – period!
I wonder if Joel gets annoyed being asked the same questions over and over again. I was kinda glad the interviewer didn’t ask him “Why did you leave MST3K”.
Ah – patches on jumpsuit explained. The Bruce Dern look.
Oops. Left my “I did it” moniker on from yesterday. :razz:
It felt like the interviewer was looking for a bonding moment with Joel on the drug topic. I think a lot of people make the assumption that his sleepy-eyed demeanor and weirdness-which-leads-to-creativity is drug-induced.
I agree with # 1 (Mike), and if Cinematic Titanic does indeed do somewhat new films (1990 and beyond), then I’ll have to say goodbye to them…Unless they make fun of a Uwe Boll movie…then I’m right back in again. :mrgreen:
Yeah; that interview was weird. However; I definitely see why someone would ask Joel if he does do drugs. There are plenty of pot references throughout MST3k and a handful in Cinematic Titanic. But I have no idea why he would ever mention speed; seems out of place and quite creepy. In short: Up with weed and down with speed. :)
#1 and #8. Why say goodbye if they start doing newer movies?
WEREWOLF (1996).
MERLIN’S SHOP OF MYSITCAL WONDERS (1996).
TIME CHASERS (1994).
QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS (1993).
SPACE MUTINY (1988).
HOBGOBLINS (1988).
ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE (1986).
Just a few of the more recent MST3K offerings,
and some of the best eps ever (Mike era). The late 80’s and 90’s produced a ton of crappy riffable movies.
I’d love to see Cinematic Titanic use some newer movies. In fact, that was the question I submitted for this site’s Q & A with Joel.
I have found that the newer bad movies are a lot cheesier than the older ones, resulting in greater riffing.
Agree with #10. Who cares when the movies were made? A bad movie is a bad movie. There were great MST3K eps. that riffed on films from the 50’s through the 90’s. If everyone stopped watching MST3K the minute they riffed on the 80’s flick “Cave Dwellers” back in Season 3 (after doing all 50’s, 60’s and 70’s fare in Season 2), the show might not have taken off like it eventually did.
Garth (and others),
I’m going to make a rather small leap here and assume you are much younger than I am (I’m retired). For those of us in the “older” generation nothing is more beloved about the whole MST3K experience than seeing the rotten movies we grew up with torn apart. I find that younger viewers (say those in their 30’s) tend to not make such a distinction.
Indeed, it’s *exactly* the movies you mention that prove that point — I dislike a lot of them (I can’t even bring myself to watch “Hobgoblins” again). Of that group only “Zombie Nightmare” is one I really care about — and, guess what, not a 90’s film.
I don’t just hate in the way that I hate Manos but hate to see them riffed because they seem to be made by people who did not take themselves seriously, much less the work they were doing. It just seems very obvious they were trying to make a buck and thus laughing at their expense almost seems self-defeating (because I suspect they are laughing at us all the way to the bank).
Remember the wise but true saying — the older the cheese, the more rank it is. As it is true in Real Life, so it is true with movies.
But it’s okay — I’m probably not CT’s target audience anyway (although I suspect I’m closer to Joel’s age than you are). Just because I won’t buy isn’t such a big deal.
I’m 22. I love all era’s of MST3K, and don’t really care what year the film comes from. I enjoy Robot Monster just as much as i enjoy Werewolf. A B-movie is a B-movie, no matter the year.
Now, when you start multi-million dollar Hollywood films like Rifftrax…then you start to lose me. :smile:
I don’t care what year a movie is made because if it stinks,it stinks!! I would like to see CT do “Maniac” from the 30’s to “Frankenstein’s Daughter” from the 50’s and whatever else they can find. If possible,I would like for them to do a movie that’s just as bad or worse(if that’s possible)than Manos!!! Plus,since MST3K did “Manhunt in Space” and Crash of the Moons”,then why not the rest of the sequels or series they made????
Hey, funny’s funny. Old, new, who cares? I love “Werewolf” and “Hobgoblins”, and I love “I Accuse my Parents” and “Leech Woman”. This is almost like that old “Joel vs. Mike” conversation.
I kind of see your point, Mike K. However, believe me: there are plenty of more recent bad movies that were made where the filmmakers actually DID have some pretense of possessing talent and making a good film.
“Hobgoblins” is a bad example because yeah…that was cranked out to just make a buck, and the filmmaker just didn’t care. But guess what? That wasn’t a 90’s film, either.
Of the 90’s films listed above, I would say that “Werewolf” and “Time Chasers” were made by people who–despite their low budget and lack of talent–probably thought they were making decent time-travel or monster movies. Especially in “Time Chasers”, you can sense a little love for the story going on behind the camera, they just had limited resources. To me, it’s like the 90’s equivalent of a cheesy sci-fi movie from the 50’s with bad props, bad sets, bad dialogue and bad acting.
I don’t think CT is going to start riffing on “Police Academy IX”. I’m sure they’ll pick pretentious claptrap that was made within the last couple of decades instead of the last few decades. Like maybe this one:
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3468362009/
And let’s face it, a lot of the garbarge from the 50’s and 60’s featured on MST3K were ALSO cranked out with limited talent to make a cheap buck, too. Only instead of going straight-to-video, they were straight to the back-end of a drive-in movie double feature. Roger Corman, anyone? (HE made movies in the 90’s, too, you know.)
:-)
Aha! So, I guess they’re alternating “head writing” duties, then? Maybe that has something to do with the variable quality (at least to me, YMMV). I wonder who was running-the-show for “Legacy of Blood” — my favorite so far…. Of course, my variations in laugh-level may have nothing to do with that, but perhaps he/she would be willing to do a tutorial for the others, when their time comes? ;-)
#15 – They already did a movie worse than Manos. It was Doomsday Machine. God, that sucked!!
It’s interesting that you mentioned “Legacy of Blood” as your favorite, Doug. It’s mine, too. I think a lot of it has to do not just with the writing, which was fast and funny, but it felt like an MST episode. All it was missing was the bots and an invention exchange. When I saw Joel last night(!!!) at the CT show in SF, I told him how much I loved it, and he mentioned that it was his favorite so far as well. He said that he wanted to do it on the tour but the sound recording of it didn’t make it a good candidate.
Meadows,
I don’t know if I agree with you about Corman — I think, like Ed Wood, that Roger had some aspirations (and, yes, dreams) that he was actually doing good work. Quick, fast, *cheap* good work, but good work none the less. Otherwise it’s hard to explain the heartfelt soliloquy at the end of many of his films (“Teenage Cavemen”, “It Conquered the World” to name a few). However, I do agree with you that several of those 90’s films were made by earnest filmmakers who were less likely to simply be out to make a buck.
However — there almost comes a time when it is *too* meanspirited to make fun of young filmmakers. That’s another problem I have with more current films. Let’s face it, filmmakers from the last 20 years are WAY more informed than folks in the 50’s who were just then dealing with television as an industry. There is a certain risk in putting yourself out there knowing you may be ridiculed and it definitely cuts down on my enjoyment versus a film where the makers are essentially saying “boy, am I better than you because I am making a film” that pervades a ton of earlier efforts.
By that same token, of course, recent trash seems ripe for such riffing and, in fact, I actually enjoyed Rifftrax’s take on “Battlefield Earth” or whatever the heck it was called. That actually was kind of the exception that proved my rule. As much as I hate Michael Bay type films I just don’t think they are cheesy in any way shape or form — just sad, glossy Hollywood “epics” that are better off forgotten.
Having said all that — the link you provided does indeed look suitably cheesy enough. So, yes, I guess there are other exceptions and I will view all efforts by CT on an individual basis to decide what I will buy or not (the nice thing about both CT and RT is they provide enough preview information so you can make an intelligent purchase — the RT previews do nothing but convince me completely that they are way off track in their recent film selections, at least in terms of entertaining *me*).
Mike, maybe I did sell Corman short, although the films of his that did include stabs at legitimacy were his earlier ones. I think as time went on he became more hack-like, much like Ed Wood (who also started out making movies he really wanted to make, but in the end wound up making nudie zombie flicks.)
But I agree: I’m hoping CT picks cheesier 90’s enterprises like “Curse of the Mummy” (a random example) over more blockbuster fare like “Independence Day” or any given Michael Bay movie. I, too, despise those movies, but they are despicable in a much different way that doesn’t add to the enjoyment of riffing on a “bad” film. Besides, we have Rifftrax for when we feel like watching “Transformers” riffed. I don’t think CT will go into that territory.
time era doesn’t bother me.
They definitely need to riff on Fist of the North Star – I think that’s 90’s.
#23, bad, bad, bad. Thanks for digging up that horrible stink fest with that Penn brother and the exploding body parts. I had that nightmare buried.
Is CT going to be funny (Wasp Woman) or over the top mean-spirited (SCCTM) with the newer crap-fests? But I would think that getting the rights to older material would cost less something from the 90’s. (Oooh, how I would love to see a riff of “Dragnet”).