Review of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) by Joseph H — 21 Oct 2010

Many movies adapted from TV shows, as in it stars the same cast of the show, are often considered to be long episodes stretched out to pass it off as a movies. That is not the case for "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie," it's 73 minutes long, making it 20 minutes shorter than episode from the show(In fact, it's the only movie based on a show to be shorter than an episode).

The movie features a similar premise to the show: Mike Nelson(Michael J. Nelson) and his two robots, Tom Servo(Kevin Murphy) and Crow T. Robot(Trace Beaulieu), are stuck in a satellite on top of Earth and are forced to watch terrible B-Movies by the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester(Trace Beaulieu). To avoid from being tortured by all the bad stuff in the movies(Bad acting, effects, cinematography, etc.) they riff(Make comments) on the movie from beginning to end: They're funny and point out the flaws of the movie. But since the movie has a higher budget than the show, it's in wide-screen, has better cinematography, and it riffs on a movie that is actually good by its own, "This Island Earth," as opposed to bad ones usually featured in the show.

Although it doesn't surpasses the show, there are episodes that are far better and funnier, it is a hilarious movie that pokes fun at the movie's faults, like a line said early on during the 1950s Universal logo opening of "This Island Earth" where it states "Universal International Present" only for Tom to say, "If something is already universal, doesn't it make it international?".

I recommend this movie, and its show, to all movie lovers.