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Welcome to the third issue of the Antipodean MSTie Newsletter ....
A relatively short one for Christmas this time.
As always, anyone who wants to stop getting this drivel, let me know.
If you know someone else who might want to see this, please get them to
e-mail me to add them to the list. I won't add anyone who doesn't
request it directly. Feel free to print this, show it to your friends,
blow your nose on it - whatever works for you.
Remember, I think this will work best (if it's going to work at all) if
this is a co-operative effort. If you've got something you want to
share with us all, even if it's only a paragraph long, send it to me and
I'll include it! I'm not fussy! As long as it's got something vaguely
to do with MST3K and is somehow relevant to us, I'm happy to see it! As
an editor I plan to have a pretty relaxed style <g>.
JOIN US!
New to this issue's mailing list is Tom Marwede, from Melbourne. Wave
hello to him, everyone!
MULTIVERSE PLANS
Tom Marwede says:
"Greetings all,
Just a word to everyone about Multiverse 3, Melbourne's Premier Science
Fiction Convention. Every couple of years The Official Red Dwarf Fan
Club, Enterprise: The Star Trek Appreciation Society Of Victoria, The Dr
Who Club of Victoria, The Australian Babylon 5 Fan Club and the
Melbourne Science Fiction Club band together and bring a Multi-Universal
con to all those interested. February 13th - 15th, 1998 is Multiverse
3. Special Guests include Robert Llewellyn from "Red Dwarf" and Claudia
Christian from "Babylon 5", appearing in person. For more info check
out our website
http://yarra.vicnet.net.au/~multivrs/
To prepare others for the onslaught, MST3K is playing a big part in our
programming, at the moment I have included approximately 10 episodes for
consideration to the videos, possibly more to come. We are trying to
get them screened in the theaterette at the convention, to give it the
true MST flavour.
Hope to see you there."
Red Dwarf, Babylon 5 *and* MST3K - who could resist? (If anyone from
interstate is interested in coming, but you're worried about costs of
accomodation, I have a limited amount of floorspace and blankets etc.
that I'm happy to provide for the weekend. All you would need to bring
are pillows, air mattress or whatever, etc.)
NEW ARRIVALS
The three new Rhino tapes arrived at my house recently - "I Accuse My
Parents", "The Atomic Brain" and "Red Zone Cuba". At the time of
writing I've only had a chance to watch the first two. "IAMP" is a film
from the '40s, but "Casablanca" it isn't. It deals with the dangers of
being a teenager with drunken, no-good layabout parents! It's an
important moral lesson for all of us! It's a reasonable episode, not
especially outstanding but it has its moments. "Brain" is a sad, sad
movie that shows us, yet again, that it does not pay to Meddle In God's
Domain. In this case the specific meddling is transplanting living
brains into dead bodies. Add a little bit of Magic Atomic Power and
voila, you have ... an astonishingly bad film. It's awful, it's
*really* awful. Maybe not "Manos" awful, but close. Hint: it's not a
good sign when 95% of the film's plot is delivered by an annoying
omniscient narrator. (It's very reminiscent of "Monster-A-Go-Go" in
that respect, although different people seem to be involved.) As an
episode I found that the awfulness of the movie was drowning out the
humour of the riffing ... Mike & the Bots don't seem to have been
especially inspired, and the whole affair is just a little limp. Not
one of my favorites, I'm sad to say. In addition, the Rhino tape itself
has problems - the sound levels are way too low and seem slightly
distorted, and the Stinger is missing! I hope that "Cuba" is a lot
better.
In addition my new stuff from BBI turned up - a Crow t-shirt ("Bite
Me!"), the "Poopie II" tape and the "Clowns In The Sky" CD. I didn't
find "Poopie II" to be as funny as the first, maybe because the mistakes
are from Seasons 7 and 8, very few episodes of which I've seen. I dunno
... it's about the same length as the first tape, but it *seems*
shorter. Perhaps it will improve on a re-watching. The CD, on the
other hand, is great! It has a number of classics including the
"Godzilla Genealogy Bop", "Hired! - The Broadway Musical", "Let Me Be
Frank About Frank" and the amazing "Tubular Boobular" (although there
are a few odd exceptions - where's "Burning Rubber Tyres" from "Pod
People"?). The only problem is, now I seem to have the lyrics for
"Nummy Muffin Coocolbutter" stuck in my brain.
EPISODE REVIEWS
"Manos" The Hands Of Fate
Ah, "Manos". As Joel says, it really "bites". Everything you've heard
about this movie is true, only worse. If you haven't seen it, you can't
imagine it. After you have seen it, the next time someone says to you
"I've seen 'Plan 9' - it's the worst movie ever!" you can laugh in their
face and say "Bah, humbug, I have seen 'Manos' - 'Plan 9' is a GOOD
movie in comparison!" Send spittle flying as you say it and watch them
cringe in fear. It's the only compensation you will have.
Even the title is stupid. As noted in "The Amazing Colossal Episode
Guide", "manos" is Spanish for "hands". So the name of the movie is
"Hands: the Hands of Fate". What were they *thinking*? Just when you
think the movie can't get any worse, it does. And this happens *every
ten minutes*!
Fortunately for MSTies, the episode as a whole is much better. The
riffs come thick and fast and are almost always spot-on. The host
segments are not quite up to scratch - in fact I find the "scary body
parts" segment fairly dull - but the rest of the episode makes up for
minor low points like that. Add the Mads actually *apologising* for the
movie, and the inspired little short of "Hired! - Part 2" (which itself
has some of the best riffing I've heard in *any* episode), and you've
got a corker of an episode, a classic in all senses of the word. My
score: 5 out of 5.
"Ah, the haunting 'Torgo theme'."
That's it for this time around. Please let me know about anything you
liked (or didn't like)! Keep those cards and letters coming!
Time to push the button ....
Bruce
MSTie #72759
Any of these e-mail addresses will get to me, all are checked regularly:
bprobst@vitgbsd3.telstra.com.au <-- work
bprobst@ibm.net <-- home generic internet
100372.1643@compuserve.com <-- Compuserve (duh)
