MST3K Vs. Gamera: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Vol. XXI
DVD
Starring Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Frank Conniff, Jim Mallon, Patrick Brantseg
Release Date: August 2, 2011

One of the many reasons why Shout! Factory has become my new favorite DVD distributor, in addition to their awesome reissue of vintage drive-in cult classics from producer Roger Corman, is because of the great love and respect they have shown Mystery Science Theater 3000 since taking over the license to reissue classic episodes of the show from Rhino several years ago.

In terms of overall presentation Shout!’s MST3K box sets have trumped Rhino in every way possible. I’ve spoken before at great length about how Mystery Science Theater 3000 was not only one of my favorite television shows of all time, but also a major influence on me as a person, and if you doubt that assertion you may feel free to read my review of Volume XX, the previous set obviously, here.

For their latest collection of adventures in bad movie watching (and mocking) with our valiant human and robot heroes on the Satellite of Love, Shout! has gone deep into the vaults and given us all five of the infamous Gamera episodes along with a ton of newly-created bonus features examining the show’s odd relationship with the popular Japanese film franchise revolving around a giant turtle monster with a jet pack growing out of its back and the Gamera series in general.

All five episodes feature series creator Joel Hodgson as host, making this the second set in a row to feature him as the host of every episode included. This breaks with Shout!’s tradition of including only four movies and dividing them evenly between the ones hosted by Hodgson and the ones hosted by his successor, head writer Mike Nelson. But this is a minor because all of the episodes included here came from the show’s fourth season (which was also its third year on cable) when MST3K had started its run on Comedy Channel, newly birthed from the merger of two less successful cable comedy networks, and by then the show had settled into its familiar groove with Kevin Murphy having replaced J. Elvis Weinstein as the voice of Tom Servo and Frank Conniff having replaced Weinstein as TV’s Frank, assistant to Trace Beaulieu‘s mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (during which time Joel and the Bots started referring to the two affectionately as “the Mads”). The show’s writing was sharper than ever, the performances were consistently hilarious, and the movies were joyously awful and ripe for a prime ripping by the crew of the S.O.L. Without any earlier and substantially less amusing episodes to drag it down Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXI: MST3K Vs. Gamera emerges as the best collection of the show Shout! has issued to date, and while it may not match their terrific 20th Anniversary set from 2008 in terms of extras this set has plenty to enhance your enjoyment of these classic shows.

(Note: The number in parentheses next to each episode title is the episode number. Fans of MST3K might appreciate that.)

“You know, these films are weird.” – Joel Hodgson

Gamera (302)

The one that started it all, as the cliched saying goes. The original Gamera has the monster being woken from an arctic slumber after a plane carring atomic weapons is shot down near its resting place. The military, scoop hungry journalists, and the finest perplexed scientific minds Japan has to offer are baffled as to how to deal with the creature as it cuts a path of destruction through the country. On top of that they have this whiny fat kid that has apparently forged a bond with Gamera after being forced to part with his own pet turtle following them everywhere they go.

The feature provides Joel and the Bots with riffing opportunities galore, from the movie’s overemphasis on the annoying lead kid character Timmy (or is it Kenny?) and his tendency to be everywhere no one wants him to be while pleading with the army and scientists not to kill Gamera to the ever-present toy boats and jets used in the occasionally impressive model work. Pop culture references this episode include The Flintstones, the Andrea Doria, Blade Runner, Bound for Glory, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Roger Ramjet, A Hard Day’s Night, and the songs “Rock This Town” and “Mahna Mahna” (Fans of The Muppet Show might catch that last one). The “host segments” feature Joel’s doll of Jim Varney being used as a voodoo doll by the Bots, a tearful song for Servo’s pet turtle Timmy (or is it Tibby?), and a surprise interview with Gamera (played by Nelson) while doing his laundry on the S.O.L. Crow gets his arms ripped off by Joel for making way too many bad puns during the movie. By the way, is it just me or does Timmy/Kenny look a lot like that fat little Boy Scout from the 2009 Pixar film Up?

Gamera Vs. Barugon (304)

This particular film has a special history with Mystery Science Theater 3000: during the show’s very first season, when it was being broadcast on KTMA-TV Channel 23 out of Minneapolis, Gamera Vs. Barugon was the fourth movie to get the MST3K treatment (fifth if you count The Green Slime, which was the focus of the original unaired pilot that was put together to convince the station to air the show) and was first shown on December 4, 1988. It’s one of a few films that have been featured on MST3K more than once.

It’s a good thing I was watching the MST3K version of the movie because it would be a Manos-level ordeal without the help of Joel and the Bots. If you go into Gamera Vs. Barugon expecting a non-stop clash of two monstrous titans then you’re going to be foaming at the mouth when you discover as I did that most of the film focuses on another beastie tearing shit up in Japan and a bunch of scientists and military brass standing around having endless conversations about how to destroy Barugon. The titular creature is a giant mutant mash-up of a lizard and a dog with a horn thrown into for good measure. Gamera shows up at the beginning and upon returning to Earth promptly crashes somewhere and stays there for most of the movie since he gets randomly frozen during Barugon’s initial rampage. He finally gets into action during the last reel when he and Barugon finally get into it but their epic battle amounts to little more than Gamera pulling Barugon into the sea while Barugon tries to bite Gamera. That’s it. Most of the plot is eaten up by a group of unscrupulous thugs traveling to a tropical island on a desperate hunt for a valuable opal that turns out to be the egg that Barugon hatches from. There are a few pointless and poorly choreographed fist fights among the crooks, but at least this time there’s no annoying fat kid whining, “Don’t kill Gamera!” However there are plenty of toy boats and jets, and even a few tanks this time.

The movie may be a dull slog but Joel, Crow, and Servo have a ball ripping the hell out of another shoddy Japanese monster flick. Their hilarious riffing yields references to Mao Tse-Tung, Chuck Mangione, It’s a Wonderful Life, Alka-Seltzer commercials, Rick James, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Skittles, and Apocalypse Now. The host segments include a debate on computer interfacing between Servo and Crow, Servo breathlessly announcing a brand new 5000 piece men and monsters play set called Monster Action Pack, a look at books written by movie monsters, Joel reminiscing about good times back on Earth, and something called the “disco cumber-bubble-bund”. Not a MST3K classic but I can say I laughed a whole lot, and that’s good enough for me.

Gamera Vs. Gaos (308)

Another Gamera flick, another annoying fat kid getting in the way of the world’s military and finest scientific minds trying to solve their persistent giant monster problem. This time around Gamera is the good guy fighting Gaos, a monstrous bat with a head shaped like a hood ornament and the ability to shoot lasers from its eyeballs, lasers that cut everything they target in half. The little porker getting mixed up in affairs that don’t pertain to his lard ass is named either Ichi or Itchy, a call I’ll leave up to you because I could quite honestly care less. Another colorful lump of shit from Daiei and Sandy Frank that Joel and the Bots take great glee in savaging. I caught references to the Playboy Channel, Andrew Sarris, The Last Emperor, Allen Funt, Tennessee Tuxedo, Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokhan album, Benito Mussolini, Quo Vadis, and the 1960’s Batman TV series. The host segments are the brighter spots in this episode, including an aborted production of Gameradamerung on the S.O.L. and Servo as Ed Sullivan introducing Joel playing “Gaos the Great” and spinning Gamera-shaped plates with Crow as his lovely assistant. Good stuff but barely enough to make this one of the lesser episodes in the set.

Gamera Vs. Guiron (312)

Finally, FINALLY, the Gamera series gets its sorry ass off Earth for a little while when two plucky youths, one Japanese and one token Yank, make the mistake of getting into a crashed spaceship that promptly takes off into space. Their destination is a strange alien world where giant monsters are wiped out by Guiron, a beast that walks like an overgrown lizard and has a butcher’s knife for a head, all the better to cut bloody chunks out of its sizable foes with. Gamera is back on hero duty (complete with his own jaunty theme music) when the two kids whine his name until the Big G comes out of his space slumber to throw down with the mighty Guiron. Meanwhile Guiron’s keepers, a pair of comely humanoid women who look Japanese but talk like hairdressers from South Carolina, pursue the children with the intention of eating their little, sugar-coated brains. Even Gaos, Gamera’s previous foe in the set, gets in on the action very briefly.

There are donut dreams, a doofy-looking security guard whose name sounds like Corn Job (and looks like Frank Grimes from that one episode of The Simpsons), a dazzling alien city that can’t help but look like a crappy miniature (shades of Logan’s Run), possible parallels to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and to top it all off Gamera doing gymnastics and the dorkiest dance ever attempted by a giant monster in a kaiju flick. There are references to Watergate, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sinead O’Connor, F Troop, Folger’s Coffee, and The Last Starfighter to name but a few. The host segments find Joel and the Bots performing their version of the Gamera theme and the Mads hanging out with pianist Michael Feinstein (actually it’s Mike Nelson). A nice recovery from the drab Gaos episode, all told.

Gamera Vs. Zigra (316)

Well it was inevitable, but for the final episode in the MST3K Gamera quintet brings the series back to Earth but in a very weird way. This time around the giant turtle takes on Zigra, which isn’t just the name of the monster (albeit one that looks like a robotic shark) but also the name of the planet it came from and the name of the spaceship that brought it to the big blue electron. Yes, there are more kids in the plot. What the hell am I saying, the kids are the fucking plot! Once again some Japanese and American brats get involved in the battle over which rubber-suited beastie gets to call our planet their permanent bachelor pad when they, along with their dumbass parents, find and stupidly board Zigra’s ship, which resembles an oversized bowl of candy. Before that there is an attack on a moon base where some very nice toys get blasted in the process. Zigra isn’t seen for a while after its ship first appears but it does have a comely female assistant to do its bidding, which includes chasing those annoying kids around a Japanese Sea World clone like a really bad episode of Scooby-Doo. Zigra unleashes an earthquake so devastating that the filmmakers couldn’t afford to film it in order to prove its might to the people of the world, so in swoops our hero Gamera (or in his case, in spins Gamera) accompanied by his jaunty theme song to save the day once more.

Yay Gamera.

Sorry I’m not more excited, but after watching five of these movies in the span of less than a week I can’t help but be a little weary. At least I got to see Zigra’s lady sidekick walking around in a bikini for a few minutes. Sadly there was no slow motion running. In any case MST3K‘s Gamera festival ends on a appropriately rousing and extremely goofy note, resulting in a better-than-average episode from the Best Brains dudes. In the host segments the Bots create shoebox dioramas of scenes from the Gamera movies, the kids Kenny and Helen (actually Mike Nelson and staff writer Bridget Jones) pay a visit to the Satellite of Love, and in between watching the movie Joel, Servo, and Crow celebrate having to watch their last Gamera flick forever. There are references to The Graduate, Soupy Sales, Wuthering Heights, CNN, Geraldo, Shriners, Patty Hearst, An American Werewolf in London, John Sayles, and The Godfather Part II. Gamera Vs. Zigra is a damn funny episode that ends the quintet in high style, and I’m not sad to see it end.

Bonus Features

The extras kick off on disc 1 with “So Happy Together: A Look Back at MST3K and Gamera”, a 23-minute documentary featuring interviews with Hodgson, Beaulieu, Conniff, Weinstein, and Jim Mallon about the show’s strange but memorable relationship with the Gamera franchise. The interviews are funny and enlightening and sprinkled throughout are clips from the various Gamera movies in the set, both in their original format and in their MST3K treatment. Five minutes of “MST Hour Wraps”, with Nelson once again playing Jack Perkins in wraparound segments filmed for the syndicated version of the first Gamera episode, are also included.

The disc opens with an upfront promo for Shout!’s release of Gamera on DVD.

The major extra on Disc 2 is “Gamera Vs. The Mighty Chiodo Brothers” (23 minutes), which features the Bronx-born special effects geniuses responsible for Killer Klowns from Outer Space discussing the vintage man-in-suit effects used in the Japanese monster movies and how those kaiju movies have influenced their careers in film. They share some good stories and give their interpretation on the cultural importance of these movies. It would have been interesting if Shout! had included the original KTMA Gamera Vs. Barugon episode, but since it’s not even discussed in the documentary on Disc 1 there must have been a good reason why the MST3K boys wanted a second shot at this movie, and I will leave it at that.

On Disc 3 we have “Gamera Obscura: A Brief History by August Ragone”, an absorbing 30-minute interview with the Japanese monster movie expert and historian (and my Facebook friend) as he discusses the history of the Gamera movies.

Disc 4 includes more of the “MST Hour Wraps” (5 minutes) with more of Mike Nelson as Jack Perkins running on and on like the wonderfully mad old man he pretends to be.

Original Japanese trailers for all five films round out the extras package. The box set comes with original mini posters designed for the individual DVD covers by artist Steve Vance.

As a longtime fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 it warms my heart that we get a new DVD box set of the show every so often from the good people at Shout! Factory, who have also done an exemplary job of remastering each episode and providing their sets with a generous selection of bonus features. Their latest volume, MST3K Vs. Gamera, may be one of the best Shout! has produced to date if not the best ever in terms of overall quality. Five hilarious episodes from one of the show’s best seasons, some killer DVD menus that open with Gamera stomping through the corridors of the Satellite of Love, and a heap of great extras make this box set worthy of my highest recommendation. Now if you’ll excuse me, but I am in need of a Gamera detoxification and I believe a viewing of Manos The Hands of Fate or Red Zone Cuba will do the trick.

And remember….KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES!