MST3K (305)

305 - Stranded in Space - The invention exchange is back with a vengeance! More than aptly making up for last episode's repeat, we get seven -- count 'em -- seven inventions this time. I can't remember the last time I laughed at the I.E., but the bang-gun expansions got me to chuckle. For the record, there was a bang-uzi (KABOOM), harpoon gun (SLUNK), knife (SLINCK), nunchucks (KLUNK! & WHSSHH), stick of dynamite (KACHOW), and some explosives (BOINGEE BANGA KA BONGA). You have to love when Frank pushes the TNT plunger down and immediately snaps off the left part of the handle. That's the MST3K charm right there.

I'm with Frank. I like TV movies, especially ones from the '70s. While this was no SST- Death Flight, it was interesting enough. It's a bit difficult to swallow the premise of the show, though. There's a planet on the opposite side of the sun. Sure, that's an old theory astronomers used to play with. Among many other things, just the fact that we have one moon's gravity yanking on us and they have three would ensure they'd develop completely differently. The three moons looked cool, I'll give them that. Everything was pretty much a Big-Brother-ized 1970s Earth except for subtle reminders like the moons and the left-handed shaking. Neat.

The guys made a record of references to TV shows I've never seen before in this episode. T.J. Hooker, The Rockford Files, Mrs. Columbo, etc., etc. That made the riffing a little hard to follow. Call it McCloud Syndrome. Other than those riffs, the guys did an adequate job spicing up the slow parts of the film.

I'm beginning to love those non sequitur Film Ventures credit sequences. Every movie should do this. Warm the audience up with some random, digitally-processed crap from another movie. I can see it as a modern replacement for serials, too. Watch the serial-style random scene and get the credits out of the way simultaneously. Efficient movie going for the 21st century.

"He drinks, he takes drugs and he's gonna get me off this planet." (7/10)

film d. Lee H . Katzin (1973)
mst d. Jim Mallon (29 Jun 1991)