.
Movie (1992): “I had the strangest dream. I was going to play Dr. Strange but then we lost the rights to the characters and we just made the movie anyway.”
Host: Emily.
Opening: E&tB are desperately seeking Roller Derby names that have not been taken. In Moon 1, the Mads are again visited by Dr. Kabahl, who wants to send the Mads on a time travel mission.
Invention exchange: The Mads are enjoying the wonders of soda water. E&tB invent the Gilbert and Celliphone (and Tom sings its theme song). The Mads have the palm-greaser, perfect for delivering bribes.
Segment 1: Tom’s serious lecture morphs into a (bad) comedy routine.
Segment 2: Emily is a guardian of reality but her landlord duties intervene. After intermission, the bots discover her secret orb is a bowling ball.
Segment 3: The bots “shimmy hypnotize” each other.
Close: The bots call a meeting of super hero league The Arrangers.” The Mads welcome Dr. Laurence Erhardt and ask him to use the Time Bag and bring back an MST3K host.
Thoughts:
• I think the fatal flaw in this episode is that the movie is too good. It’s no classic, of course, but it had a coherent plot I could actually follow, likeable characters (for a change), and actors who actually seemed to realize they were making a movie. They didn’t always succeed, but you can see them trying, which is more than you can say for, say, “Munchie.” Some very funny riffs, but they could have been a bit more plentiful. All in all, I got caught up.
As for the host segments. it’s interesting that they mostly were direct parodies of scenes from the movie. Maybe they got caught up too.
• Nice to see J. Elvis Weinstein with a nifty cameo.
• This episode debuted on June 10, 2022.
• Nice Christmas movie discussion.
• This week’s LOTR ref: “One does not simply walk into Mordrid’s.”
• Stinger: Kabal’s minion goes nutzoid.
• Fave riff: “I don’t work with spiders.”
• Honorable mentions: “For God so loved the world thiiiiiiiis much.” “Raymond, don’t! Everybody loves you!” “…Raven.” “…like Ovaltine and circus peanuts.” “They MIGHT be giants.”
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I noticed that in the photo the caption reads “DR. MORDPID”. Is this a typo or does it fall into the category of “they just didn’t care”?
I thought Demon Squad was the next episode. Oops.
Well, there’s some really good reasons y’all might get caught up, Sampo.
Check out the three leads.
Yvette Nipar (Samantha) was a) *fire*, and b) I thought came across as extremely credible in an essentially silly movie. She had a nice career, 45 credited roles, and got out about fifteen years ago. That ain’t the story. She’s a Gold Star candidate for a biopic, if you wanna do a little digging. If interested, follow the link to her husband Patrick McDermott on imdb.com AND KEEP GOING. It does go on. Oi.
Brian Thompson (Kabal) is ALWAYS a hoot. Again, if you haven’t seen it, check out his imdb credits. Yes, you’ve seen him before. And IMHO genuinely scary in this one.
But Jeffrey Combs? The SO and I just watched The Frighteners, she for the first time. Gruss Gott. NICE DR. MORDRID WAS MILTON DAMMERS IN THE FRIGHTENERS. Either You Know, or you need to watch The Frighteners for the first time.
Yes, Sampo. This movie WAS too good, and I think it started with that absolute knockout of a cast.
For a review of this “MST3K” episode and others go to “Faith’s Take” on YouTube.com.
She reviews Rifftrax as well.
Coming up with a roller derby name is hard. I tried for Jamie Lee Hurtis myself. Taken. Mudville Nine Minus Seven was my second choice. Taken.
So once again the strange financier from future teases another host (an original) an episode in advance. And I do find it odd this is taking place in the cold open as opposed the ending of the episode. Now if only an original set of Bots would come with this unnamed original host. I say that simply for old time sake as both new sets of hosts are definitely growing on me. Also Dr. Kabahl seems to be a lot like my bosses. They do find that if they have to do hard work the future would be irreparably damaged. Anyway, my big question here: Can anyone explain the reason for naming the portal the Time Bag? If this is a pop culture reference, it’s over my head.
Invention Exchange:
Max really had a great line. “If my tongue could talk it would be thanking me.” To me it is up there with “If you’re like me and I know I am.”
Emily absolutely summed up my feelings on smart phones. Being constantly reachable has absolutely destroyed the expectation that one could be allowed time to themselves. I really miss that concept. As for the Gilbert and Celliphone ringtones, well that very much reminds me of the public domain karaoke from 303 Pod People. (A featured vault pick the same month this episode premiered.)
The applications for the Palm Greaser are endless as well. Both ends of this invention exchange were pretty good.
Host segment 1: If the point of this was humor is both subjective and fickle then I’d say this segment made it’s point pretty well. This segment wasn’t great but it was solid and I liked it.
Host segment 2: I guess this was just too much like anybody’s job. Contact interruptions and yet the bosses wonder why we aren’t productive.
Post intermission host segment: Emily explains bowling to the Bots and they threatens to steal Crow’s beak. How has that meta joke not happened before now?
Host segment 3: That was weird yet well written. And Emily plays dumb really well.
Wrap Up Segment: The Resemblers was really clever. I liked all four of the characters and find it hard to pick a favorite.
We all knew Joel would/will return as the host of the past. But seeing Josh again was a pleasant surprise. He was the original cast member most of us never knew. I only gained appreciation of him during Cinematic Titanic.
The Christmas movie debate. I have always been a defender of calling Die Hard a Christmas movie. I admit I’ve long ago forgotten it’s 7/22/88 release date. I also had to see Titanic in the theater because of the person I was dating at the time and my mind is blocking the December part. Anyway these reminders/revelations have me questioning everything I thought I knew. Have I really been dying on the wrong hill all these years?
I don’t have a ton to say about this movie. It was kind of a Ghostbusters meets Dr. Strange. It wasn’t bad just pedestrian and low budget. (That Claymation human figure in the jaws of the animated T-Rex skeleton was just too much.) It was definitely watchable but more importantly teed up riff after riff for Emily and the Bots. The writers completely hit it out of the park for me on this one. This was easily the best episode so far on the season for my money.
Favorite Riffs:
The Yvette Nipar credit comes on screen. Tom “If you play her name backwards it’s an actual name.”
As the camera pans through the opening establishing shots under the opening credits, Crow states “Hey those tapes should be circulating.”
The establishing shot of the Rio Christ the Redeemer statue: Crow “For God so loved the world…this much.”
Crow “I had the weirdest dream. I was going to play Dr. Strange but we lost the rights to the character and then just went ahead and made the movie anyway.”
Dr. Mordid puts a pin on the map. Crow “Hey, he sunk my Africa.”
Detective: “So if I were like wizard…” Dr. Mordid “alchemist” Detective “whatever” Crow “third base.”
Dr. Mordid “and the source of their power was in the amulet that each wore about his neck.” Tom “well a participation amulet.”
Kabal zaps the glass case as the museum closes. Emily “Ah I guess the alarm system shuts off at six too.”
Adrian “I’m on a mission from the master.” Emily “on a mission from gawd.”
When this was announced, it was definitely the movie a few people were like “wait, I’ve seen this and I like this movie.” (I want to say Jonah or someone else on the writing team said it as well) I think a watchable movie (if still kinda dumb, as most are) makes for a better episode, and I really enjoy this one.
Glad you were mostly on board with this episode, Sampo. It was starting to feel like this season wasn’t doing it for you at all.
“these volumes are incredible.” “THANKS! I LIKE LOUD THE BEST!”
“that’s so” “Raven.”
The running gag about the garbage disposal.
“that Stockholm Syndrome set in real fast!”
I haven’t seen any of these yet, so can someone please explain to me why they are (apparently) alternating between Jonah and Emily as hosts/captives?
There are definitely movies that I thought were too good for MST3k but yet were made even more enjoyable by their inclusion. This one isn’t one of them for me, despite the welcome presence of Jeffrey Combs and Brian ‘And it.. is… GLORIOUS!!!’ Thompson. It’s just too loose and silly, but I had fun nonetheless. I wish the ‘Christmas movie?’ discussion had been allowed to run through the full credit reel, like in the past, but that’s really a minor nitpick.
Fave Riffs
[in Arnold accent] Which way to da RenFest?
Hector Elizando, come back! We need your gravitas!
Howl’s Mordrid Castle
“You’re a dedicated cop.”
Notice she didn’t say ‘good’.
Dr Kabal, the mysterious financier from the future, told Kings she needs a second host.
If you examine the Shadowrama carefully, you can see that Tom’s head is blocking part of the R.
I appear to have failed to leave any notes concerning the Bechdel Test results of this movie. To my recollection, the only conversation between two women is near the beginning with Samantha and Mrs. Golden. I can’t recall the subject matter, but will check next chance I get.
During the Q&A following the premiere, the movie’s screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner (who has frequently appeared as a talking head in the Ballyhoo features on the Shout Factory discs) was asked if the movie had been a Doctor Strange movie that had all the names changed because the rights expired. According to him, while it was heavily inspired by that particular property, there had never been any plans to make an official movie.
Random host segment phrase to insert in conversation and make things awkward: “I’m the flashback trancer now, dog!”
Favorite riffs
“May it find its place with the Philosopher’s Stone.”
Now, in America, that’s Sorcerer’s Stone.
I am Mary, mother of God, and I don’t approve this message!
I had the weirdest dream. I was going to play Dr. Strange, but we lost the rights to the character, and then just went ahead and made the movie anyway!
Doctor Mordrid, Sorcerer Supreme, uses his incredible powers to escape awkward small talk.
One does not simply walk into Mordrid’s.
“Oh no. You’re not nosy, you’re…”
Desperate, invasive.
“Well then, we’ve just gotta trust.”
That the new script pages will show up.
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
Until the rent strike.
Is this a dagger which I see before me? Seriously, I don’t know.
Don’t try this at home, kids. This is a paid ameteur actor.
“A sorcerer is not a god.”
But a hot dog is a sandwich.
“It’s in the lab.”
And by the lab, I mean the trash.
“But while one focused on assuming his place as a great sorcerer, and command the worlds of light with understanding and beneficence, Kabal…”
Wanted to talk to girls.
By the powder of gray skull.
“For the next twelve hours, no physical harm can come to you.”
Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.
No one brought donuts today, so I’m not doing nothing.
Meanwhile, at Count Duckula’s castle…
Finally. I’ve been waiting for him to reanimate something.
Hey museum exhibit, no touching the museum exhibit.
Harryhausen and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Frank Frazetta’s Muppet Babies.
Ooh, right in the Kabals.
We can’t afford flashing lights, but we’ve got this heat lamp.
“And I’ll watch It’s a Wonderful Life for the hundredth time.”
Maybe Uncle Billy won’t blow it this year.
I can’t believe Dr. Mordrid was a Christmas movie the whole time!
A curious thing about Crow getting line assigned “What’s in the box?!?!?” At one of the stops on the Time Bubble Tour, during the meet and greet Kelsey professed to hating Se7en. She would go on to prosecute it on the podcast Reels of Justice, with Emily defending.
https://reelsofjustice.buzzsprout.com/1154249/10560044-roj-148-the-people-vs-se7en-with-kelsey-ann-brady-and-emily-marsh
Quite a few MST3K people have been guests on Reels of Justice, with a notable instance of Mary Jo giving an impassioned defense of Ishtar. The full list can be found here.
https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/Reels_of_Justice
Sitting Duck –
“If you examine the Shadowrama carefully, you can see that Tom’s head is blocking part of the R.”
Cheese and Crackers! And to think of all the electrons I wasted looking up “Mordpid”. Thanks, SD
One for the Cast & Crew Roundup:
Ritch Brinkley (Gunner) also played Ralph Carter in The Master episode “State Of The Union”, which was the first half of the movie in Master Ninja II.
When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered, I had to look up to see if Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel) was perhaps Yvette Nipar’s daughter. They are 100% unrelated, but I still have my doubts :)
This movie was one of those I’d get my parents to rent for me over and over again when I was a tiny kid. It has remained a movie I revisit every couple of years. It’s just silly enough that I think it works perfectly for riffing in a way that’s more fun than critical. And I think they found a great balance of that.
Crew wise, it continues to add to my opinion that the bots see Emily more as one of them. And I really like that dynamic.
I was going to say there are no bad Jeffrey Combs films, especially in Empire/Full Moon, but I was going to use Bride of Re-Animator as the exception. Thanks for reminding me of pre-LOTR Peter Jackson.
And Charles Band didn’t “lose” the rights to Dr. Strange, no one ever HAD them. Unless we count that cheesy 70’s TV-movie, from back when CBS wanted another network Marvel hero after Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVvnzdfyOWU
So, kiddies, the next time one of us old survivors try to tell you about the old days of the Marvel Curse–when anyone crazy enough to try and get the rights to a Marvel character couldn’t do it and had to somehow hash out the whole mess himself–you won’t be so quick to make all those George Lucas/Howard the Duck jokes.
Back in the days of Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, and Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four, Marvel movies had to be one man and his impossible dream…
If anyone’s interested, Doctor Mordrid appears along with many other Full Moon characters in the six-issue comic book miniseries “Dollman Kills The Full Moon Universe.” If no one’s interested, well, that doesn’t really change anything.
Charles Band has a ready-made Cinematic Universe yet he has so far inexplicably refrained from jumping on the band wagon, as has Lloyd Kaufman of “Toxic Avenger” fame (plenty of of other super-heroes in the Troma oeuvre). The low-budget blockbuster, it’s an idea whose time has come, I tell ya.
I never could figure out Charles Band’s business model. He’s selling his product SOMEWHERE such that he has money to spend on production, some serious casting, and has been doing it for years. The first time I encounted Full Moon was years ago, on VHS, “Oblivion.” Jaw-dropping. Every five years I have to watch it again to see those ceiling fans hung from cranes down the main street. And Meg Foster, of course.
Anyway, he’s no stranger to franchises, and why he doesn’t expand his reach is both inexplicable to me and nothing I’m gonna question, because whatever he’s doing he’s done 380 times in the last fifty years–yes, this is his Golden Anniversar year as a producer. And he’s got ten coming out this year. Lordy.
I don’t make Howard the Duck jokes. Back in ancient times Steve Gerber would chat online with aging fanboys, and we had a nice talk about lardheads who criticized Howard the Duck for being a cartoon in a “real” universe. THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF HOWARD THE DUCK. As my relatives in Bergen County would say, “Marrone a MI.”
In the early 80’s Empire Pictures, he was still going around to indie-producer markets trying to get actual theaters to show “Troll”. “From Beyond” and “Ghoulies”, after “Re-Animator” became a breakout cult hit.
But by the time it became Full Moon, Band was one of the first to embrace the new business model that B-movies didn’t play theaters anymore since there weren’t any 2nd-run/drive-ins anymore, so he took his Puppet Master movies directly to VHS, created his own crossover-universe, and claimed he was making disposable “VHS comic books”–
While the rest of the industry barely even realized there were millions of junior-high kids just waiting to rent the weirdest, most obscure horror movies with the coolest covers on the Blockbuster shelf.
Now, like Roger Corman, he’s got SyFy cable movies and his own streaming channel, turned producer, and lost his mojo. What’s airing now on TubiTV’s “Full Moon Channel” is too embarrassing to mention.
This was a good one, one of the S13 episodes that reminded me of the classic MST3K. It was cheesy enough to give them plenty of riff fodder, but good enough to be a great watch on its own. I agree that Yvette Nipar was fantastic, as was the actor who played Mordrid: two very likeable characters who actually had some chemistry together. Kabal was the PERFECT MST villain–he chomped the scenery hard every time he appeared on screen, almost as much as Thom Christopher in Deathstalker. I liked the host segments, especially Segment 3, in which the ‘bots squabble like siblings. (For the first time in the Reboot, as far as I can remember.) One of the things I like about S13 is that the movies they chose are this nice mix of watchability and badness (ummmm, well, we’ll discuss Demon Squad in due time . . .).
I’ve finally figured out who Emily is to the ‘bots! She is the cool cousin who’s a little bit older and wiser, but relates to you exactly on your level, the relative who you are always overjoyed to see.
Good episode. Cheesy but watchable film. I’m a huge Jeffry Combs fan. Good riffing fodder. Possibly the best episode of the season so far.
I thought this one turned out OK. The movie is good enough to watch, but off-kilter enough to riff on. (Again, Full Moon makes movies that try to be entertaining, while the Asylum makes movies that are cruddy and obvious in their cruddiness.) I thought the jokes and the host segments worked well, and it was nice to see Larry Ehrhardt back again.
By the way, if I remember the description from one of the live tour shows correctly, it was Joel as the father figure, Mike as the older brother, Jonah as the hip neighbor, and Emily as the cool babysitter. Or I may be mistaken.
I checked the episode again, and the Bechdel Test result is Fail. The conversation between Samantha and Mrs. Golden is about Dr. Mordrid (specifically in his role as the building manager).