MST3K (617)

617 - The Sword and the Dragon - Here's another one where I liked the movie better than the actual episode. This is the third and final "Russo-Finnish" film that MST's tackled. I was a fan of the previous two and I'm a fan of this one. In fact, The Sword and the Dragon is my favorite of the trilogy. From the amusing and well-done wind demon to the classic legend story to the colorful production design, this is a fun flick.

I find that when I'm interested in the movie for the movie's sake, I tend not to pay as much attention to the riffing as I normally do. I did catch a few here and there and there was some comedy to be gleaned. "You know, it would be easy to grab the wrong whiskery fat guy."

During the "Comic Book Bagging / Date" host segment, Frank specifically asks Dr. F about X-Men 354. Was that maybe a special issue for one of the writers? Power of the Internet, show me the way! Turns out: no. That series didn't even reach that particular issue until more than 3 years later.

I did appreciate the fact that they actually referenced the movie in a number of the host segments. The segment in which the entire SOL crew dresses as woodland animals and sings along with a Heidi-esque Gypsy was classic MST-style musical mockery. Nice bunny suit, Mike. Ilya Muromets himself makes an appearance in the hexfield and gets angry about ham. Even the overly-long, just barely funny "Ingmar Bergman Joke" sketch fits, given the Scandinavian locale of both the film and Bergman's birthplace.

"I have some things to explain about me and the wind demon." (7/10)

film d. Aleksandr Ptushko (1956)
mst d. Kevin Murphy (3 Dec 1994)