MST3K Takes a Bite Out Of Munchie

 It's been a while since Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a massively TERRIBLE movie to show to Jonah and the bots. We had close ones in the Gauntlet like The Day Time Ended or Mac and Me, but Munchie is.......AHOAAAAAAUGH!

Before the latest edition aired over Memorial Day weekend, Jonah Ray, Felicia Day, Emily Marsh and others commented on writing for this "movie" and how it broke them. Even the MST3K crew tried to refuse to see act two, but Kinga had the oxygen button. It also showed the robots didn't care about that for obvious reasons. After act two, it was just another day in Hell for them. 

Before we get to the movie, fans are noticing more changes. The full show has the official version of the episode (with ads by Pearl and Pearl II aka Synthia), followed by a trailer for the next episode and the post-game show (in this case, a meeting of Munchie Anonymous). Now, there's also a shortened version that people can watch before the live premiere. This is a first, with people getting a chance to get a jump on the deep hurting.

Also, MegaSynthia (Yvonne Freeze) finally got face time, along with Donna St. Phibes (Deanna Rooney, wife of Jonah). Pearl still seems to be determined to be a better grandma to Kinga, OR ELSE. No doubt Kahbal (that's his real name) may find himself in the middle, but he did improve the show with a second host.

So....the movie.
Actually, turnout for this was fine considering it faced competition from Obi-Wan, Stranger Things 4, and the new Top Gun movie
BUT, blame Roger Corman for this kiddie horror show. It's about a kid named Gage who's having problems at school. He's been bullied, has bad grades (only because he's been the new kid for two months), wishes he was dead (complete with a terrible funeral with worse mourning) and can't get the attention of a pretty girl played by Love Hewitt (a few years before she bought a slightly used Jennifer). 

Gage finds a box with something inside that sounds like Dom Deluise...and it's horrifying.

                                  

Anyway, this...thing...claims he'll solve Gage's problems. It does, kind of. At least Gage gets some revenge against his bullies and attention from his crush. Sadly, though, it causes more problems at school and even with his mom, played by Loni Anderson. Some guy is trying to marry her, but his approach is terrible. He's also a scientist, but this movie doesn't show that.
There's also a neighbor played by Arte Johnson, sounding like his German character on Laugh-In. 

The script is terrible. There are some ways you can salvage a decent story here, but it was clearly edited by a blender. Why not have the sleazy doc be suspicious about Munchie sooner and attempt experiments on it, or the German guy be an expert in Munchie's kind and try to keep him under control. 
How about proof Gage has a dad? Well, since this is a kid's movie, that was unimportant.
Corman thought Loni's cleavage, Dom's voice and badly used cliches were enough. He clearly lost a bit after Avalanche. 
Not only that, the puppet was terrible. It was more badly dubbed than an El Santo movie. 

The riffing was not bad, but the gang had problems fitting them in. 

Gage daydreams he gets an award for fractions
Cue the bucket filled with pig's blood

Loni comes home with her boyfriend
Loni Anderson has that Real Estate Agent from Dallas look

Munchie is laying in Gage's bedroom
What have to done with Teddy Ruxpin?

Sleazy boyfriend tells Loni "What he (Gage) needs in a man's influence
Know any?

The gang turns on the movie...as it should...because of a pointless chase scene
I wish this movie was gone in 60 seconds.

There's also riffs on The Beatles, Harry Potter, Judy Tenuda, Sparks (the band) and escape rooms.

Back to the show, it featured a pretty good invention exchange about an environmentally-safe rock band complete with a guitar that repairs itself (sound familiar, Joel?). Dr. St. Phibes also talked about how the Munchie may be a movie-monster mutant variant, but the one she has looks like a Mutant Alvin.
 

Trying to pummel bad family movies is not easy. There were two examples two seasons back. Taking on Munchie was a noble effort, and they did their best. It didn't have as much snap as the previous three movies. Still, a lot of fans liked the riffs and how the deep hurting flowed. The new season has proven MST3K is back in a big way, and maybe it'll get a lot of business from newbies and lapsed fans who have been in Rifftrax Land for a while. 

By the way, the show had a short bit with Emily thinking her Crow was dead. Let's say she wasn't happy with what was really going on. The post-game support group included comments on whether Munchie was the worst, or there's something...else. 

The show will have two movies in June, including a movie tries to be Marvel without the proper rights, and a horror movie whose budget is about 30 cents higher than Lycan Colony. YIKES!

Learn more at gizmoplex.com.

MST3K Live Is Making Contact With Bad Movies Again

 

The Mystery Science Theater Live tour is underway, and stopped off at the Pioneer Center in Reno recently. It presented a movie that was made out of leftover bits from every Spielberg movie, while the newest Mad tried to show she was supreme.

Someone was supreme:  the new "victim", Emily Marsh. She is more than a match for MegaSynthia's schemes and is probably more of a heir apparent to the experiment than Jonah. She clearly knows the show and how to riff even the cheesiest movies. As we told her in this post, she is the Kate Bishop of MST.
Was she pleased? VERY!

I will say one thing: fans should know not all stops in the live tour are the same. They're saving the "meet and greets" for the bigger cities, and not everyone who gets the premium seats get even a lanyard. This was the case in Reno, but I was glad to find out they had the face mask set. A bit pricey, but it's one of the models I will keep once the $@#!! Covid thing is over. 
Besides, I still got a great view of the whole thing. Thing is, I was the only guy with a jumpsuit.

So, what's the live tour theme?
Well, since MegaSynthia is still relatively new in the MST-verse, she thinks weird hair and scary behavior would be enough. She even showed pictures of the other Mads, and made sure they weren't flattering at all. After all, this is HER show.
Then Emily Connor (her name on the show) and the bots arrived, and let's say her version of the theme reveals she became the test case a bit too willingly.

Then the caper:  Meg "traps" everyone in a Time Bubble so we go 33 years in the past and be forced to see every episode starting with The Crawling Eye...which aired in 1989.
First off, true fans can do that themselves by any means necessary. Also, some of the past experiments have been shown elsewhere (but certainly not Monster-a-Go-Go).
She's new. She'll do better in her third live tour. Maybe better hair. She should be more well-known once she gets her turn in the Gizmoplex next Spring.

They took on an early Roland Emmerich movie, Making Contact. When you get mad at Moonfall next year, blame this movie. It's about a kid named Joey who just lost his dad. However, thanks to a toy phone, he can talk to dad...or does he? 
Then he acquires strange powers, like moving stuff with his mind and having toys do his bidding or something. Then, an evil dummy causes even more chaos.
Mix in some annoying kids, a cute girl with pigtails, and a bunch of scientists who have enough gizmos to set up an "avant-garde production of Jesus Christ Superstar", and you have a disaster. 
Well, at least it didn't stop him from making Godzilla look stupid by mixing him with Sleepless in Seattle. 

Emily and the bots approach the movie by looking at the surprising amount of licensed items, and commenting a lot on the evil dummy. There's also the fact the plot was Spielberg's Greatest Hits, only knockoffs of the best parts. At one point, she compares the dummy to Paul Williams.
Even GPC2 got into the fun, just like Jonah's version does sometimes. They also had two great musical spoofs in the riffing, including one that was perfect for the season.

The host segments were very good, as they talked about knockoffs of familiar toys (including one that might be a bit inappropriate) and compared the movie to a familiar brand of pasta mix. The best was Emily singing about how buying stuff makes one happy...like maybe at a nearby souvenir stand at the lobby.

One thing they especially noticed is that the movie had a lot of slats everywhere, from Joey's door to the decaying house where his "friends" were planning an attack on him. It seemed annoying, until one came in quite handy during the end of the show.

The fourth live tour holds up quite well compared to the previous three editions. The first one was just like the Netflix show, while the next two depended on the presence of Joel Hodgson to pull in the fans and pass the baton to the next generation. With Emily, the future is now, and Mega should fine-tune her evil eye to "intimidate" Emily. It's clear Emily Connor is more than prepared to riff away (and maybe because she's looking for an easy gig). 

Unlike my Rifftrax reviews, I'm not listing any riffs because the tour will be going until February, as it prepares to move back east after the New Year. They'll be heading soon to Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Atlanta and New York City. Check the schedule at mst3klive.com/events.