First off, Why an MST review page? Don: Some people ask the question "Why?"; I asked the question "Why not?" Besides, I had to put something on my free homepage, and simply listing my favorite colors and hat size didn't interest me. Mighty Jack: I had some free time and some free web space and I just felt like writing down my thoughts on the episodes I'd seen. I never planned on it becoming a public site, nor on how it's grown. What's the most difficult and rewarding part of writing reviews? Don: The most rewarding is coming up with a really humorous synopsis because if I can make myself chuckle when I go back and read it later on, then I've achieved my main goal. And the most difficult part is the ratings. I have a very tough time deciding a rating for an individual episode, which is why I frequently revise them on repeat viewings. M.J.: Yes, the ratings are tough. I even kept a log where I'd group all the eps by their ratings and then ask myself "Do really like/dislike this ep better than that one?". But the most difficult for me is keeping it fresh. With eps and specials, you basically have to find 200 different ways to say "The riffs are funny" As for Rewarding, finding inside info. Early on I found myself repeating "Daddy-O's" stuff (see "Brute Man"), but now I check his site before, and then do a search in areas he hasn't addressed. It was very satisfying to do research and find the info on "Angel" from the "Corpse Vanishes", or to discover that "Wild Rebels" Steve Alaimo wasn't so lame after all. Do you get any angry Email from fans of eps you gave a low grade to? Don: Nice? mostly. Crazed? sometimes. Angry? never. However, messages to tell me that they disagree with my rating on a particular episode? All the time ;-) Once your done with the reviews, what's left to do to keep the site fresh and bring fans back? Don: Now that's a good question. Because I've reviewed all of the Cable-TV episodes, my updates have shifted to mainly improving the existing reviews, particularly the early, more straight-forward ones that I wrote before I figured out that taking a slanted look at the movies made the reviews much funnier. And then there's those last few KTMA episodes I still have to review... (I'll get to them one day, I promise!) M.J: I still have about 50 to do. Then perhaps I'll add more Articles, rework reviews from time to time. But beyond that, I'm not sure. I was able to get the entire KTMA's for nothing so that speeded up the 2 year plan I had. What do you think of the other review pages, MST3UK? Eichelberger? Mighty Jack? Dons? Don: I loved MST3UK's site - they were doing a heck of great job - and am disappointed that they have suspended the site. And I really like Mighty Jack's reviews a lot, but I have to thank Greg Eichelberger for his MST reviews the most, because I disagreed with his opinion so much, that it was the main catalyst to starting my own MST review site. (...well, that and the 10MB of free homepage space I had to do *something* with.) M.J: Don has the great ability not to put down others he might disagree with. Take episode #513 for example. He and I disagree, but he never makes it sound like I'm an idiot for enjoying it, An "I'm right-your wrong" stand. He's giving reviews that are informative and fun, he's not combative like some critics you'll see in newspapers etc. Eichelberger has the swift no non-sense web-page. He's a little harsher than I am in his reviews and gives more weight to the host segments than I. Still, I respect his views and enjoy reading his work. MST3UK is in a hiatus right now. They had the nicest looking site, with lots of info. With so many sites disappearing these days, they were a wonderful source for quotes. I hope they come back and write more reviews. As for mine, it was some free webspace, so it looks great on a WEBTV unit, fair to horrible on other 'puters. I worked hard to use certain tricks to expand the limits Webtv puts on the space to try to make it as visually appealing as I could. My approached was to focus on the review side of it. Don, the UK and ACEG all cover the synopsis, quotes and host segments quite well. So I kept mine bare bones. What other TV shows (or books, movies, etc) make you laugh? Don: I think "South Park" is a hilarious satire of our society. And reruns of early "Simpsons" episodes as well as "Futurama" episodes are always funny to me. I also like "Seinfeld" reruns, but really aren't any current network sitcoms I like. As for books, "I think Mike Nelson's "Movie Megacheese" is hysterical. I bought it and Roger Ebert's "I Hated Hated Hated This Movie" on the same day. While Ebert's book is funny, Mike's book completely blows it away. His writing is so much better that it's best to read Ebert's book first, because it won't seem very funny if you first read Mike's reviews. I recently bought Mike's "Mind Over Matter" and it too is hilarious. Besides that, I like reading Woody Allen's collected writings -- he's arguably funnier on paper than on the screen. Funny movies... well, omitting the "unintentionally funny" ones like "Battlefield Earth"... I love the Marx Brothers. To me, they are the absolute tops in great film comedians. I also like Woody Allen's "earlier, funny" movies. And I've always loved the ZAZ's comedies "Airplane!" and "Top Secret!" as well as Billy Wilder's great comedies. As for more relatively recent films, I think "The Big Lebowski" and "Election" are both great, great comedies. And Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber" always makes me laugh. There are others that I can drone on about, but these should give an idea about what I think is funny. M.J: The Tick cartoon and original comic book. Simpsons in its glory days, and a show called "Mad Movies" used to bring me to tears, wish I could find tapes of that one. Books? Evelyn Waugh's early stuff was hysterical. And I agree with Don about Mike's books. Movies? I love the old Preston Sturges flicks, "Sullivans Travels" is brilliant! What's your favorite type of Msted Movie? (the very bad, cheesy, troubled teen, weird, monster movies, the Japanity etc) Don: "The cheesier, the better" I always say. Although being really "dated" helps a lot too. M.J: I LOVE the weird imaginative ones, like "Magic Sword", "Santa Claus" and the Russo/Finnish productions. Tho the concept of the show resides around "Bad Movies" the truly bad (Red Zone Cuba) are my least favorite. What makes MST a success? Don: Because it does what all of us have done for years -- heckle bad movies. Even before MST existed, I remember having a great time sitting around with friends and making fun of cheesy movies. And this is something I still do with friends. So MST, which is doing the same thing but with much better lines, is simply capturing this build-in "mocking" response to these types of bad movies that we already loved doing ourselves. It's like bottling a genie. M.J: What Don says is right on the mark. Plus I think they have a great ability to find humor across the board. There's something for everyone. You'll get bathroom humor side by side with an intellectual quip and then get a pop culture reference added to that. Your personal preferences: Joel or Mike? Crow or Servo? Clayton or Pearl? Don: I like Mike a lot, but think Joel is the best. His whole demeanor and laid back attitude just suits me better. Crow, as voiced by Trace Beaulieu, is far and away my favorite 'Bot. However, in the SciFi Channel episodes, I prefer Servo to Bill Corbett's Crow. Clayton vs. Pearl... do you really have to ask? It's like the difference between Chris Rock and David Alan Grier: one's very funny and the other is not very funny. M.J: ...or the difference between Bill Murray and Sid Melton? Clayton 110%!!! Crow. I even grew to love Corbett's "cranky" take on the bot. As to the hosts, both. Love Joel's sleepy eyed style, but I like Mikes cynical pop culture edge What in MST history has made you laugh the hardest. We're talking wet pants, spit take, gut busting funny! Don: The smoking scene in the CC version of "Mighty Jack" -- I laughed, I cried, I coughed uncontrollably. (Too bad the rest of that episode isn't on the same level as that one "flashback to my college days" scene.) M.J: The beginning of Racket Girls, with the unwanted guests and the rubber bands inspired by the short. The first 20 minutes of that show I was in tears. Santa Claus, first time I saw the woman explaining Jesus and the meaning of X-Mas to the little girl. Damn did I lose it, I don't think M&TB even said much. Over-rated/Under-rated: What episode did you love that others haven't generally cared for? What episode wasn't as funny as you'd heard? (from sites, MB or friends) Don: I love "Space Travelers" and was very surprised that, in general, most MSTies don't like that episode. Maybe it's the Gregory Peck imitations (I always found Traces "Peck" to be the shows highlight - Mighty Jack) or the fact that they are taking on a movie that's generally considered "good" - I don't know - but that episode gets me every time. As for the most popular episode that I don't like very much... Well, that would have to be "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" because, although the movie is ineptly made, I find it so depressingly morose that I don't laugh at it very much. This view I have is one reason I personally think that the only "difficult-to-riff" movies are the bleak and somber ones. For instance, "Godzilla vs. Megalon" is one of the best episodes ever because the movie is so cheesy, that the riffing just adds to the laughs already there. However, if they had riffed the original "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" movie, which is quite bleak and somber, I don't think the riffing would've been nearly as successful, even with the riffing possibilities provided by Raymond Burr "starring" in the American version, because the riffing has to fight upstream against the somber nature of the original film. M.J: I've been to some MBs and found defenders for Crawling Hand and Gunslinger, but I seem to be alone on Mighty Jack (season 3 version). When I got it, I heard so many bad things about it, that I was working on other stuff while it was on. But I started laughing so much I had to lay that aside and really watch. No, it's not in league with "Santa Claus", but it's no "Hamlet" either. As for one I find over-rated? How about the "Wild, Wild, World of Batwoman". If it wasn't for the short I'd have knocked it down a grade. But, reading through all the review sites, I saw that I was very much in the minority. You guys loved it! (had to be the girls wasn't it? They mesmerised you into liking this). I've tried watching it again, but man I don't laugh much. Ahh well, to each his own. Last question. Who'd win in a "Combat Rod" fight: Dropo or Torgo? Don: Torgo may be slow, but he's still an Earthling and can drop kick a Martian's butt any day. M.J: Well Torgo's a little off balance, but he does have those powerful thighs. Dropo's basically just a lazy tub O' lard so he'd be hard to move... but I give the edge to Torgo, in a limp. There's something different over at Dons MST3K site. A new guy named Forrest is offering up a few opinions, so here is the scoop on who he is and what he's about! So Forrest, how did you hook up with Don? I just asked him one day if I could write some reviews for his site because he's a bit more of a Joel fan, and I'm more of a Mike fan, and it would give two views of each episode, so in that case it would help his site, and let me put my two cents in. What is it about Mike that you enjoy? Hmmm. That's a hard one, I like Mike's sense of humor, I like how he delivers the jokes a bit more than Joel. He is also the main brain behind all the riffs in MST3K. I also sorta grew up with Mike, because I had only seen a few Joel episodes in season 3, which didn't grab my interest that much, it wasn't until season 5 "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" when I finally became a fan, and it wasn't until the Sci-Fi era when I became an obsessive fan. What made you want to write MST reviews? I used to have a site that reviewed monster movies and horror movies, and I just like to give my opinion on things. And MST3K is something that needs opinions. What's you favorite kind of MST episode? My favorite MST3K episodes are also the weird ones, the weirder the better I say. My all time favorites are The Final Sacrifice and Pod People, nothing has ever made me laugh harder. I think Girls Town and Mitchell are way too overrated and Invasion of the Neptune Men and The Unearthly are way too underrated. And Wild World of Batwoman, no comment. Can we look forward to more reviews from you soon? If so, what ones do you plan to write about? I plan to write a review for every episode, so the reader can get two different views on each episode. Finally, who'd win in a "Combat Rod" fight. "Prince of Space" or "Space Chief"? Combat rods, the best sport this side of Phantom Planet. Hmmm, Space Chief is much faster, he can pop in and out of stock footage very fast, but lasers do not affect Prince of Space (has he mentioned that before?!). I would say Space Chief, because he took out the invaders from Neptune, and Prince of Space only took down Krankor, which isn't saying much. LINKS: Don's MST3K Site MIGHTY JACK'S MST3K REVIEW |