Thursday, January 12, 2012

Reviews: Rango


                Rango is a trippy, bizarre, uneven, but ultimately worthwhile tribute to the Western. Like the best parodies, it provides the thrill and excitement of the real thing while adding generous helpings of self-referential humor, and like the worst parodies it lacks depth and the desperate dive for one more joke occasionally sucks the life out of the story.
                The story deals with a pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) who falls out of the back of his owner’s car on the interstate outside Las Vegas and wanders into a dying old-western town called Dirt, where the citizens are struggling to survive a punishing drought. Once there, he assumes the identity of “Rango,” a wandering gunslinger from ‘the far west’ and, via a combination of coincidence and bravado, winds up being appointed sheriff by the mayor (Ned Beatty) and charged with discovering the source of the town’s water problem.
                It’s a fairly familiar set-up: the story is a little like The Shakiest Gun in the West or The Three Amigos with only one protagonist. The fun comes from watching Rango improvise and con his way through crisis after crisis, while slowly developing into a true hero. Depp gives an energetic performance, not only vocally but also by providing the movement of the character, and he hasn’t been this much fun to watch since the first Pirates movie; strutting, blustering, panicking, and deadpanning for all he’s worth. One particularly amusing scene has Rango, desperately thirsty, drink a whole day’s worth of the town’s reduced water supply to illustrate why the citizens have to remain calm and conserve their water.
                One of the most enjoyable aspects of the film, at least for nature buffs like me, is that the animals all pretty much look like animals: anthropomorphized, but not as much as in most films. Rango himself has the bulging eyes, flat face, and curly tail of a real chameleon, and the rest of the cast are basically just animals dressed up in old-west clothing: fur, scales, bug-eyes, beaks, feathers, and all. It’s fun to try and spot the various species (all of which actually live in the Mojave desert) among the background characters and match them to the typical western figures.
                Once past their design, however, the characters don’t offer much; most of them don’t even get names in the film. Still, though the characters mostly never rise above clichés, they’re fun clichés and since this is a parody I suppose we really shouldn’t expect much more. Basically, they hit the note we want from them, and that’s usually enough. There’s Beans (Isla Fisher), the rancher’s daughter/desert iguana love interest, who is your standard western tomboy and has an amusing running gag where she freezes when stressed (she also is notable for the very Australian Fisher’s perfect Western accent). Then there’s Priscilla, the desert mouse girl (Abigail Breslin), who doesn’t really have a lot to do, but is cute and amusingly blood-thirsty (“Can I have your boots when you’re dead?”), Bad Bill (Ray Winstone), the Gila Monster thug, Roadkill (Alfred Molina), the pilgrim armadillo, Wounded Bird (Gil Birmingham), the Native-American raven who gets some particularly great lines (“Ah, I see you’re communing with the spirits.” “No. I’m molting. It means I’m ready to mate.”), and Balthazar (Henry Dean Stanton), the mole patriarch of a large hillbilly clan of moles and prairie dogs. Again, most of these characters don’t really have a lot to add to the proceedings, but they’re all pretty fun to be around and most get at least one great moment.
                The best character in the film, by far, is Rattlesnake Jake, played with gusto by Bill Nighy (who, like Fisher, affects a pitch-perfect American accent). Jake is the evil gunslinger called in to deal with the new hero (rather like Jack Palance’s character in Shane), but he stands out as particularly memorable both for his great character design and the juicy dialogue Nighy gets to spout (“I’m gonna fill you so full o’ holes your guts’ll be linked in lead!”).  Nearly every time Jake opens his mouth is memorable, from his introductory monologue to his final threat, and made even more so by the spectacular choreography they get out of his serpentine body. Jake weaves around the other characters, swings his head from side-to-side, and coils and uncoils like the shifting tides, constantly in motion. He also manages the difficult task of being actually scary: murderous and unpredictable in addition to being clearly the most powerful character in the story (for one thing he’s about ten times bigger than anyone else), Jake crafts the alarming impression that he’s no ordinary gunslinger. More than one character considers him to be other than mortal (“Jake’s the Grim Reaper. He never leaves without taking a bloomin’ soul!”), and he himself claims the power to take souls to Hell. But he also has surprising depth to him, more so than pretty much any of the other characters; he’s merciless and evil, but has a strict code of honor and can recognize and respect a worthy opponent when he sees one. In the end he even becomes strangely likeable in spite of everything.
                Really, Rattlesnake Jake is such a great villain that he almost makes the film worth seeing just for his sake. He’s one of the most vivid and memorable animated bad-guys in recent memory (trying to think of other villains from the past decade I’d set alongside him, all I can come up with are Lotso Huggin Bear from Toy Story 3, the Other Mother from Coraline, and Syndrome from The Incredibles).
                But Jake unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of screen time (though perhaps he wouldn’t be as interesting if he did). The main villainous role of the film is taken by the mayor, played by Ned Beatty as a soft-spoken, but nastily corrupt politician with his own plans for the town. His evil plot, refreshingly, is actually fairly subdued and the crimes he commits are all reasonable extensions of his plan, rather than simply to show how evil he is (indeed, at one point he tries unsuccessfully to restrain Jake from a particularly vicious act). The Mayor is a much more generic figure than Jake, but he’s at least a credible bad-guy, particularly in how he both uses and underestimates Rango…and Jake.
                There is a lot of action in this movie, and for the most part is remarkably well done, with a creative energy sadly missing from most movies. Surprisingly enough, the film actually paces itself with these scenes, taking the time to carefully set up its big set pieces and allowing the tension to build before the action suddenly explodes (literally in one scene). A climactic duel is particularly good in this regard, with even the background music stopping so that all we hear are the footsteps and jingling spurs of the two opponents.
                This is a movie clearly made by and for people who love movies. It’s stuffed almost to bursting with references, nods, and allusions to classic cinema, sometimes having so many at once that it’s almost hard to list them all. One big action set-piece contains allusions to Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Stagecoach, Apocalypse Now, and Deliverance all at once (gloriously, it features ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ being played on banjo).
                Of course, it’s more a comedy than anything else, and the jokes work, for the most part. Rango’s slapstick and pratfalls are pretty funny at first, but they’re allowed to continue too far into the story, beyond when he should have grown beyond them. His inventive lies and cons to maintain his identity, however, remain funny pretty much throughout, as do the simply odd townsfolk (“I found a human spinal column in my fecal matter once”). The singly funniest bit in the film, though, is Rango’s meeting with Bad Bill, which features almost no dialogue, but some of the best glaring and panicked improvisation you’ll ever see.
                Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Greek Chorus owl mariachi band which provides both music and commentary on the proceedings. They could have stood to be in the film a bit more, since they’re one of the most entertaining aspects about the movie, lending it a real ‘legend’ feel while getting off some great jokes (mostly revolving around their eagerness for Rango to die).
                The animation is simply gorgeous, with the beauty of the American Southwest on full display; red sands, rock-formations, cacti and all. The characters themselves, as noted, all look like real animals, and every scale, hair, and feather is rendered in rich detail (sometimes to the point of slight grotesquery). The water animation is also particularly good; the scene where the mayor sensually sips down a glass of ‘vintage rainwater’ is almost guaranteed to make you thirsty.    
                So much for the good. Now the flaws. In the first place, the story never quite gels. The elements are all in place, and the plot really is pretty good, but somehow key details are skated over and remain obscure. The Mayor’s plan is clear and clever enough, but how he managed it and how Rango knew how to foil it remain unclear. Likewise the murder of one character remains unsolved: it’s clear that the mayor had him killed, but why and how are never established; the subplot just kind of drops out of the picture with no real resolution.
                What’s more, the relationships in the film don’t really work. The characters are fun enough, but, as noted, not many emerge as real characters. Rango’s key relationships – with Beans and Priscilla – seem to simply happen without adequate set-up. The romance with Beans, for instance, just kind of starts: one scene she’s seriously doubting his credentials as sheriff, then suddenly they’re sharing a heart-to-heart in front of the moon. They have some chemistry, but it feels like something’s been left out. Priscilla, meanwhile, feels like she should be the kid the hero cares about and lets down, but she doesn’t have a lot of lines and never really seems to care too much about Rango up until the end; most of her interactions with him revolve around dispassionately predicting his death. Again, it feels like scenes were cut out and the audience was trusted to fill in the gaps themselves. There’s some nice comradery among Rango’s posse, but it never makes the leap to actual relationships among characters who matter.
                With regard to themes, the film makes some gesture towards the meaning of heroism, identity, legend vs. fact, loneliness and so on, but most of them never really pan out. The movie doesn’t really have a lot to say about heroism, for instance, and the question of legend vs. fact is only briefly alluded to. The loneliness theme, likewise, is pretty much just brought up once or twice, but never has much payoff since, as noted, the relationships get the short shift. There’s an effective moment where Rango tries to reconnect with his lost life of solitude, but nothing really comes of it.
The question of Identity gets a bit more to it, with Rango realizing he “could be anyone” and crafting a false identity to get ahead, before changing to fit the identity he’s chosen. When Rango at one point protests that the townsfolk need a hero, he gets told “then be a hero.” I like the call to step up and do what needs to be done, and there is some meat on the idea, with Rango slowly growing into his role as sheriff to the point where he honestly seems competent in the job (as one character notes “[he’s] been playing the hero so long he’s begun to believe it”). I also like how, when it comes down to it, it’s Rango himself who makes the final decision that being a hero “is who I am,” with all that implies. The story of the impersonator who ends up truly becoming what he pretended to be is a venerable storyline, and it’s done decently enough here. In the end the film correctly implies that being a hero, or anything else really, ultimately comes down to choice: to how you decide you will behave.
 In the end, Rango must, in a sense, ‘die’ to himself, make a final end to his old, false way of life, in order to become something more. This all is good and fairly well done. The problem, though, is that it feels like he makes a little too much progress too fast. All of a sudden Rango has the guts to stand up to Rattlesnake Jake when he had been sent packing mere hours earlier (another problem is that earlier it was established that Dirt was a ‘day’s journey’ from the highway, and yet Rango makes the trip in one night, then manages a considerable distance further the next morning, a visit to the mole clan, and still makes it back in time for a duel at noon the next day).
                The film also makes the mistake of going for jokes beyond the point where they would be appropriate. For instance, after Rango’s rebirth as a real hero, we still get a couple instances of him acting the idiot coward. These either should have been cut or it should have been made clearer how much was put on: as it stands it just feels like his heroics might be just another act, which robs them of some of their grandeur (not all of it, though, since there are only a couple such moments). They’re not bad jokes; they’re just out of place at that point of the story.
                Basically, the film feels rushed at times, as though it’s trying frantically to squeeze another classic western trope into its retinue. The whole murder-mystery subplot, for instance, really adds little to the film and, as noted, just kind of peters out with not resolution. Likewise, the mole clan feels like a story detour: just something to give them an excuse to form a possum…er, posse and get out of town for a while. The whole climax, meanwhile, feels like it’s trying to cram too much into too short a time.
                There’s also a rather weird take on religion in the film, with the characters on one hand clutching Bibles and alluding to Noah, while on the other we get a quasi-revival ‘watering’ scene (which really feels too long and isn’t that funny) and a heartfelt prayer to the “Spirit of the West.” I don’t mind the characters having an odd little religion of their own, but mixing it in haphazardly with Christianity just feels sloppy and cheapens the world of the film.
                In the end, these flaws detract from the film, but don’t quite derail it. It still has enough humor, visual interest, and classic western charm to carry it past its mistakes. The energy of Depp’s performance, the innovativeness and precision of the parody, the frenetic and creative action, and the villainous grandeur of Rattlesnake Jake are enough to make the experience worthwhile, even if it’s not as engaging as it might have been.

Rating: 3/5
Recommended for western fans, Depp fans, and those who enjoy a really good villain

Some Favorite Quotes:

Beans: “What can I say? My daddy plum loved baked beans.”
Rango: “You’re lucky he didn’t plum love asparagus.”
Beans: “What are you saying?”
Rango: “Well, I enjoy a hearty good puttanesca myself, but I don’t think a child would appreciate the moniker.”

Rango: “The place I come from, we kill a man before breakfast just to work up an appetite. Then we salt him. Then we pepper him. Then we braise him in clarified butter and then…we eat him!”
Bar patron: “You eat him?”
Rango: “THAT’S WHAT I SAID!”

Rango: “You spend three days in a horse carcass living off your own juices. It’ll change a man.”

Bad Bill: “If I see your face in this town again, I will slice it off and use it to wipe my unmentionables.”

(about Rattlesnake Jake)
Rango: “He’s my brother.”
Buford: “But…he’s a snake and you’re a lizard.”
Rango: “Well, mama had an active social life.”

Balthazar: “So…is something supposed to be happening?”
Rango: “I am open to suggestions.”

Rattlesnake Jake: “See all these people believe your little stories. They think you’re just a stone killer, don’t they? Seems these folk trust you. They think you’re gonna save their little town. They think you’re gonna save their little souls…but we know better, don’t we?”

Beans: “Go to hell!”
Rattlesnake Jake: “Where do you think I come from?”

Rango: “Put her down, Jake.”
Rattlesnake Jake: “Or what, little man? You gonna kill me?”
Rango: “That’s about the size of it.”

Rattlesnake Jake: “You got killer in your eyes, son? I don’t see it.”

Rattlesnake Jake: “Now listen close, you pathetic fraud. This is my town now. If I ever see you again I will take your soul straight down to HELL!”

Rattlesnake Jake: “What was that you said? ‘Pretty soon no one will believe you even existed!’”

Mst3k – 306: Time of the Apes

This one took me a long time to get through. It’s not a bad episode, but just a combination of other commitments and laziness meant that this was a very disjointed reviewing experience.
                Of course, the movie is pretty disjointed too. Basically, here’s what happened: It was a Japanese TV show. Then it was edited down into two or three movies. Then it was further edited down into the monstrosity we are reviewing today. There is zero continuity, characters and plot points emerge without warning and vanish just as soon, leaving nothing but ripples of confusion in their wake. At any point in the film the characters could suddenly be anywhere, doing anything and their relationships and attitudes can change without warning.
                The plot we have left involves two children and their babysitter/teacher who go on a field trip to a science facility. There an earthquake hits, stranding them in freezing capsules which somehow transport them to a future ruled by apes…or an alternate dimension, or something! In any case, it’s “Planet of the Apes” as a Japanese TV show, edited down from perhaps thirty episodes to less than ninety minutes. The kids and lady meet up with Godo, a human resistance fighter or something, who has a feud with Gebar (really unfortunate name there), one of the ape officers who blames Godo for killing his wife and kids. Then the humans join up with ape child Pepe (whose gender is a mystery until the very end), there’s a semi-good ape commander, a flying saucer, a lot of escapes, and then it ends with the kids and lady back in the present and Godo trapped forever in an endless wasteland. Good times!
                After the discontinuity, the worst thing about this movie is the ape costumes. See, the masks don’t move. At all. The apes can’t even open their mouths. This isn’t just the Planet of the Apes; it’s the Planet of the Ventriloquist Apes! 
                The riffing is pretty strong here, with numerous ‘monkey’ jokes, observations on the bad dubbing, and comments on the lack of continuity. The guys always love ape jokes, and here they come thick and fast as a troop of monkeys flinging…well, they come often and are generally pretty funny.
                The host segments are pretty great too, with a darkly hilarious ‘Why doesn’t Johnny Care?’ a surreal ‘scopes monkey trial’ sketch, and an amusing turn by Crow delivering the ‘Ape Fashion Show.’ So, all in all, a solid episode, though the movie is a chore to get through.

Opening: Baseball season on the SOL! Joel puts one out the window and causes explosive decompression.

Invention: Gypsy patches up the hole. This might be the first time she chews them out in the motherly fashion she’ll later develop. Joel’s invention is the cellulite phone which reminds people to stay on their diets (it inflates when you order the wrong food). Frank has developed a miracle growth baby formula. It works…a little too well. Both are pretty amusing.

Another Sandy Frank film.

The credits play over still images of apes and monkeys.

And we open at breakfast in Japan where little Johnny is chowing down in preparation to going to visit a science lab.

(as Johnny)
Joel: “Off to meet my doom mom, see you after school.”

Johnny is joined by a little girl and a woman named Katherine who is their guide.

They talk about cold-sleep: cryogenic freezing.

Johnny’s shorts are very short indeed. Don’t the Japanese know how creepy that is?

Scientist expresses concern over an earthquake warning, but notes casually that “nothing will happen suddenly.” What, do earthquakes build up visibly before they strike?

And the scientist shows them the freezing process on one of the monkeys.

Crow (on the frozen monkey): “Kitty! It’s Snowball!”

Servo: “Rug-doctor: Steaming mad at monkeys!”

And they see a room with capsules for human freezing.

Johnny: “It’s just like they’re really dead. But they’re not!”
Joel: “But their souls are.”

Johnny goes into one of the capsules.
Katherine: “Now get out. Or I’ll get very angry.”
(earthquake strikes)
Crow: “See?”

Well, so much for the ‘won’t happen suddenly’ theory.

And the lab is destroyed while Katherine and the kids hide in the capsules, and are frozen when a rock hits the plot-contrivance switch.

Apparently the whole freezing process is controlled by a single lever.

Then they wake up on beds in the lab (now intact)

Joel (on the capsules): “It’s the Daleks!”
Servo: “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”
(they do indeed look a little like Daleks.”

They open a door (several times) to find a lecture hall full of apes!

Servo: “It’s a whole planet of Ron Perlmans!”

And the apes capture them and tie them to a tree

Katherine (to the girl, Caroline): “Don’t be afraid, we’re with you.”
Crow: “We’re doomed, but with you.”

And the apes start feeling their hair (yes, it’s kind of random).

Caroline: “What are they going to do to us?”
Servo: “I hope they lower your voice.”

Johnny: “I don’t want to be killed by a monkey!”
Crow: “I want to die by my own hand!”

Crow (on the advancing ape commander): “Come on, girls! We’re gonna give ‘em a makeover they won’t believe!”

And now they carry them off to a slag heap to, apparently, kill them (it’s kind of unclear).

They escape by…well, just running, since the apes are really bad shots.

The apes finally speak…to say “don’t let them get away.”
Joel: “Good plan.”

So they run through a forest…

Reach a bridge…

They cross hand-over-hand under the bridge.

Joel randomly comments that “It’s good to have thumbs,” much to the bots’ confusion.

By the way, do guards really check up on every small splash when patrolling a bridge?

Katherine: “Come on, this way.”
Crow: “Oh, like you know where you’re going!”

They come to a house and sneak inside since they don’t see anyone.

Crow: “Hey, let’s hide in the refrigerator and freeze ourselves back.

The owner comes in and runs off screaming, then a child ape shows up and welcomes them.

First Host Segment: ‘Why doesn’t Johnny Care’? Servo narrates, Crow provides the projector noises. It’s very amusing and kind of bizarre. Ends with the classic line “A mind like Johnny’s is a terrible thing to unleash.”

Ape kid helps them escape (we later learn her name is Pepe).

Ape mob (there’s an ape mob chasing them for some reason) stops at the boundary to some forest which the apes are scared to enter.

We meet two ape villains we have not seen before then cut back to the humans.

By the way, the ape masks are immobile: their lips don’t move at all when they speak. This lends a rather surreal quality to the movie.

The humans cross a barbed-wire fence and Johnny narrowly survives a trap.
Crow: “Betcha care now, don’t you?”

The girl (Caroline) panics and gets caught in a net.

Crow: “Hey, I got a great, kooky idea: let’s pretend she’s a piñata…”

Guy with a gun shows up.
Servo: “Stephen Segal in ‘Shoot the monkey.’”

They all are pretty happy to find another human and immediately assume he’s on their side.

Katherine: “We came here in a very strange way…”
Joel: “By refrigerator.”

After a brief cut to the apes, the guy (Godot) leads them to his cave.

Johnny: “Is this where you live?”
Crow: “No this is my summer home, what d’you think?”

Katherine: “Do you live here with your parents?”
Joel: “No they’re dead, DEAD, DEAD!”

Servo: “That Johnny is a walking faux-pas.”

Katherine deduces that, since Godot is here, there must be other humans.

Godot (to Katherine): “Those clothes are very torn.”
Servo: “They’re going to have to come off.”

The apes are passing the barbed wire, reluctantly.

And Pepe returns (randomly).

And Pepe arrives in the cave to warn Godot and friends.

The apes are burning the mountain.

Ape leader (waving a gun): “Kill him! Kill him!”
Crow: “Hey, you could kill him with that gun!”

Johnny: “Godot help!”
Crow: “Go to hell? Hey, he feeds you, he takes you into his home and this is your thanks!?”

On Pepe in the forest fire…
Crow: “He’s a crispy critter, kid.”

And the apes capture them again.

Ape: “Godot, are you ready to die?”
Servo: “Uh, frankly no.”

The execution is interrupted by the arrival of the ape leader, whom Crow immediately identifies as Colonel Sanders.

Leader orders humans released (no idea why). Godot immediately attacks him and gets beat down.

And a flying saucer shows up…

Now the leader orders the humans taken to headquarters…no, it makes no sense.

Gebar (ape police chief): “I request your permission to kill him!”
(Leader glares at him)
Joel: “On the other hand you’re right, of course, can I have a new desk?”

Leader: “I do not hurt innocent people.”
Servo: “I have assistants for that.”

Servo: “The king of the apes rides in style in the new Buick Skylark.”

Second host segment: Their version for the Scopes Monkey Trial. It’s surreally hilarious.

(On the electric fence in Godot’s cell)
Joel: “Ah, a bug zapper! I checked in but I can’t check out!”

And Pepe to the rescue! She breaks them out using the air-vents.

Pepe apparently always carries a screwdriver.
Servo: “Great, welcome to plot contrivance play-house.”

Crow: “Bye, keep in touch, scream if you get killed!”

And Gebar walks in to kill Godot.

Gebar: “At last I have lived to see the day when I will kill you.”
Crow: “Well, it’s nice to have goals.”

And he just stands there gloating for about a minute…

Then there is a series of VERY fast cuts between Godot and Gebar.
Crow: “Ah! Suddenly the editor goes for an Oscar!”

Leader: “If you had not disobeyed things would be different!”
Servo: “Not better, just different.”

And Godot, Johnny, and Pepe hide in an army truck.

Oh, come on, clear riot masks disguise them?

Ape: “Didn’t they run away and leave you here to die?”
Crow: “Hey, you’re right! Give me a banana, I’m joining you!”

Another inexplicable shot of the saucer.

Guard: “What are you doing here?”
Servo (as Pepe): “I’m a traitor to my species.”

Anyway, Pepe, Godot, and Johnny plan to rescue Caroline and Katherine. They use the old “Straw cart” trick. In a futuristic society.

Servo: “Huh, kid talking to hay, nothing wrong with that…”

And they find the girls, much tears.
Servo: “Hey, how about a little sugar for Godot.”

They argue about leaving or not. Katherine likes the commander…

They drag her out.

And cut to a shoot out on an old-west lot. Yes, just like that.

The saucer shows up again.

Wacky comic music starts as the ape’s weapons are disabled by the saucers.

Crow: “McKale’s Navy goes to the Planet of the Apes!”

And cut again to them sneaking by a road.

They steal a jeep…apes chase them…I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY DRAGGED THIS THING OUT TO A WHOLE SERIES!

And they park to discuss the saucer…

You know what? I’m not even going to try to describe the plot anymore: just role with it.

Commander shows up at a base amid protests…

Pepe: “Where are we going?”
Servo: “Do the words ‘shallow grave’ mean anything to you?”
Godot: “I’m taking you home.”
Joel: “Home? Where my thoughts escape me? Home? Where I comb my facey?”

Pepe arrives back home, blah blah blah…

Everyone seems really happy about leaving Pepe and Pepe seems really eager to dump her mom minutes after reuniting.

Really funny/dark bit where slow-motion Pepe running is accompanied by gun-shots.

(They’re driving, talking about Pepe)
Crow: “*Bumpbump* Oh, Pepe!”

Anyway, they now run into Gebar one last time.

Third Host Segment: Ape Fashion show. Crow is great here: it’s bizarrely hilarious.

Anyway, the flying saucer shows up and shows Gebar that Godot didn’t actually kill his family.

Saucer: “UCOM has ordered that there shall be a stop to all further killing.”
Servo: “Or you will be killed.”

Crow: “He’s an ape and he can’t hang on to a rope?!”

Gebar: “I killed my own son?!”
Joel (as the saucer flies off): “Hurts don’t it? Bye!”

And the commander shows up, offers for them to live together in peace, they turn him down because they’re different. Commander gives a half-hearted message.

Servo: “Message. This is the message, people!”

Godot: “The entrance must be somewhere behind the mountain.”
Servo: “Oh, that narrows it down.”

And they go into a big door in the mountainside, then…there’s some stuff (honestly, that’s the only way I can describe it).

Turns out they’re back in the human world.

The doctors are pretty cheerful about the fact that “they won’t get over it for some time.”

Godot turns out to be lost forever in a desert wasteland while the others have ice cream and talk about him. Happy ending!

Final host segment: the Sandy Frank song. Rather harsh in retrospect, considering how much Sandy Frank himself disliked it. Then they read a letter. The baby pushes the button.

Stinger: Johnny: “I don’t care.” Just right! A truly odd little moment (and probably the attitude of the filmmakers as well).

Movie Quality Rating:
1.       Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
2.       The Crawling Eye
3.       The Black Scorpion
4.       Gamera vs. Barugon
5.       Mad Monster
6.        Lost Continent
7.       Gamera
8.       First Spaceship to Venus
9.       Stranded in Space
10.   Rocketship XM
11.    Moon Zero Two
12.   Godzilla vs. Megalon
13.   The Crawling Hand
14.   Catalina Caper
15.   King Dinosaur
16.   Jungle Goddess
17.   Wild Rebels
18.   The Corpse Vanishes
19.   Ring of Terror
20.   Untamed Youth
21.   The Slime People
22.   Project Moonbase
23.   The Sidehackers
24.   Women of the Prehistoric Planet
25.   Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
26.   Cave Dwellers
27.   Tim of the Apes
28.   Pod People
29.   Hellcats
30.   Rocket Attack USA
31.   Robot Holocaust
32.   Robot Monster

Conclusion: Awful movie and good riffing and host-segments make for a solid entry.

Final Rating: 7/10.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Mst3k – 305: Stranded in Space


                Sorry for the obscenely long delay in the MST3K Project, but expect more regular updates from now on.
                Stranded in Space is a very middle-of-the-road episode: it’s amusing enough, but the movie is dull and seems to drag and the riffing rarely rises above being merely amusing. Forgettable is probably the best way to describe it: I couldn’t remember much about the episode even a couple days later, let alone several months. 
                The story is that an astronaut crash lands on a mirror Earth called Terra, which is run by a totalitarian government. He escapes, joins up with the resistance, and then some stuff happens and he ends up on the run. Like I said, it’s pretty forgettable.
                The best thing about the movie was easily Cameron Mitchell as the chief bag-guy. Mitchell actually managed to inject some life into the character so that he was something other than just one-note-evil. Actually, the best scenes in the film all involve the bad guys, who are generally decent characters professionally acted, while the heroes are all boring and generic.
                The riffing is only so-so, with only a few laugh out loud moments. Most of the best riffs come towards the end. The Host segments are generally decent, with one or two great bits. The best one is probably Joel and the Bots as villains with Tibby as Joel’s evil pet.
                So, all in all, a very average episode, and since it’s been so long since I’ve seen it, there’s not a lot to say. Sorry.

Opening: Joel has fashioned the bots into an at-home shooting gallery. He also gives the premise and explains that the Mads made the opening and are selling the results of the show to public cable. Incidentally, Joel’s being kind of mean here, even though the bots don’t seem to be aware.

Invention: The bots are still in the shooting gallery, but now in “Apple Dumpling Gang” mode. Wow, that takes me back…anyway, Joel has an update on the ‘bang gun.’ The Mads also have variants on the theme. Amusing.

Film ventures credits again: the credits done over scenes of a completely different movie (don’t know which one this time). Actually, the clips over the credits looked more interesting than the film.

After the credits we cut to three astronauts in a space ship.

Ground control: “You should be close-enough in about seven days for us to skin-paint you on our radar.”
Servo: “Skin paint? Well, I guess I’ll try anything once…”

Astronaut: “Aside from the fact we’re not a hundred percent sure we’re on the right trajectory, everything’s great.”
Crow: “And we ran out of Oxygen two days ago.”

(astronauts sign off)
Servo: “So, whose turn was it?”

One of the astronauts mentions a new wife, thus sealing his fate.

Astronaut: “I’d like a nice, thick, juicy…”
(ship starts rocking)
Crow: “Seizure!”

The ship tumbles over and over while they thrash around.

Crow: “We’re having Ray Bolger practice.”

And cut to a hospital, where the chief astronaut is laid up.

Nurse: “Meanwhile you have these beautiful flowers: they keep coming in by the truck-load.”
Servo: “They’re all poppies.”

Doctor comes in to talk to astronaut. Turns out he’s been there for two weeks with no outside knowledge.

Doctor: “Emotionally…”
Crow: “You’re a little girl.”

Astronaut (named Neil) notes that he doesn’t recognize anyone.

Neil: “What about our flight surgeon?”
Servo: “Uh, we had to shoot him. He had a broken leg.”

And we pan out to see that he’s being secretly monitored through his wall…by Cameron Mitchell!

Doctor reveals something’s up by not knowing who Paul Revere was.

Cameron: “I have some doubts too Doctor, mostly about how you’re handling this.”
Servo: “You think you’re the only one who hurts?”

Cameron: “I can’t devote my whole life to this man, this one man.”
Servo: “Oh, he wants to play the field, eh?”

Neil wakes up and clonks the guy trying to drug him, then makes his escape.

Servo: “Well, I think he’s getting better.”

Joel: “Oh, I’ve had dreams like this, I’m gunshot, I’m really late for class, and I don’t have a hall pass!”

Anyway, Neil gets a change of clothes and makes his escape.

Cameron has his men shoot what he thinks is Neil:
Joel: “Now we make him talk.”

Turns out it was a pile of laundry.
Joel: “Oh, they shot my other turtlenecks.”

Servo: “Oh, no, they killed Snuggles!”

First Host Segment: Servo and Crow have their TV trading cards. Servo has a complete “Love Boat” set he wants to trade for Crow’s “Columbo” villains collection. It’s amusing more than funny.

We rejoin our hero in a phone-booth.
Servo: “Hey, no coin-slot, this is a better world!”

Phone operator hasn’t heard of Cape Kennedy…or Orlando…or Florida.

Operator: “Would you like to speak to my supervisor?”
Servo: “Your supervisor, Mr. Stalin?”

Neil picks up a ride, then notices there are three moons.

Truck-driver: “So where’re you headed?”
Joel: “Well, I was headed for Florida, but I guess you ain’t got one of those!”

Neil finally discovers he’s not on Earth.

Cameron gives a public-service announcement about our hero to a board of directors, noting that he must be eradicated.

Servo: “Boy, you know how many TV series would be wiped out if this room were blown up?”

Doctor: “He’s one man, alone!”
Cameron: “One. Man. Alone.”
Crow: “Go shoot yourself.”

Cameron gives one of those ‘perfect order’ talks, about how everyone thinks alike, feels alike, etc.

Cameron: “Then someone comes along…”
Joel: “And doesn’t pay Union dues!”

Cameron: “Then we have no quarrel, have we doctor?”
Servo: “No, but I’m gonna whip your butt at racket-ball later.”

Joel pulls himself up to Doctor’s lips and kisses him.
Servo: “He needed that.”

Cameron puts his hand on a bookcase.
Servo: “You know, this bookcase used to slide.”

An actually nice detail that Cameron supports the oppressive government because he genuinely believes it prevents suffering like the kind he’s experienced.

Cameron sends the doctor to “Ward-E.”

Cut back to Neil.

Crow: “Funny how space looks a lot like Sacramento.”

Turns out everyone’s left-handed except Neil.

And bombastic martial music comes out of the radio, followed by propaganda. Neil suspiciously bails as the radio starts warning about him.

He wanders into a book shop.

Crow: “Well, at least they’ve got a Barnes and Nobel.”

He finds a history book, which starts about thirty-years ago: the beginning of “the Perfect Order.”

Old Man reminisces about the time before the perfect order, when people seemed to laugh more…
Servo: “Children pulled apart like fresh bread…”

Old Man notes Neil is injured, lets him rest in his room upstairs.

Crow: “His name isn’t Yoda, is it?”

Joel: “Oh, if this is ever great! I’ve got a place to live and a brand-new Dad!”

Old Guy goes down stairs suspiciously.
Crow: “Well, he’ll be perfect for my experiment.”

He calls the hospital on him.
Crow: “Oh, great, a planet full of tattletales!”

Old Man comes it to announce to Neil he’s called a doctor over.
Crow: “Oh, uh, do you got a straight-razor? I want to shave my wrists…”

Neil pawns some scissors.

Turns out the doctor is the woman who betrayed him back at the hospital.

Joel: “Well, if it isn’t little miss ‘I-wont-tell-a-soul!”

Girl: “If I needed to know more they would have told me.”
Crow (sarcastically): “Because they’re perfect.”

Girl: “When you’ve recovered you’ll be treated as an honored guest.”
Crow: “With savage beatings.”

Neil agrees to go back with her and to turn himself into Dr. Revere.

Crow: “Yes, it worked! I’m going to score on an interplanetary scale!”

They start fighting over the wheel (he lied, of course).

She flips on a radio secretly and transmits their conversation to the authorities.

He makes her stop.

Crow: “Now pucker-up, buttercup!”

She tries to signal an approaching car, he kisses her to cover.
Servo (as passing drivers): “Heh, heh, they’re gettin’ some action! Pull over, Earl.”

And she slaps him and runs off.
Servo: “So, does he get to keep the car?”

He keeps asking her where he can get help, despite the fact that he has absolutely no reason to trust her.

And she lets something slip about her brother, turns out he’s disappeared. This convinces her to help him.

Second Host Segment: Servo is cooking, Crow had a nightmare (it’s disturbing), and they discuss what ‘Ward-E’ might be. It’s all disturbing. Humorously disturbing (especially Crow’s nightmare).

We return, and now he’s driving (why? It’s her car, and he doesn’t know the way).

Neil: “I don’t even know your name.”
Servo: “I’m THX-1138”
Crow: “That’s pretty, that’s my mother’s name.”

Cut back to Cameron. He gets a call from some superior of his.

And back to our heroes, where we meet a pig-farmer feeding his pigs.
Crow: “’Cops’ is filmed on location in this guy’s yard.”

Joel (as girl): “Oscar! I brought another infidel to see you!”

Girl: “He says he’s an astronaut from a planet called Earth.”
Crow (as farmer): “Oh, that’s great! I’ll get the sedative.”

Farmer jokes about the pigs being spies.

And back to Cameron, where he enters a large, empty throne room (which I’m pretty sure is a reused ‘Twilight-Zone’ set) with a tribunal.

Crow: “You’re late, Number 2.”

Crow: “Do you have a two-minute song prepared?”

Tribunal guy compliments Cameron, then expresses concern about the escape of Neil.
(This is actually a rather well-done scene, with the pseudo-friendly attitude of the tribunal guy genuinely coming across as pretty threatening).

Farmer (actually a Professor) gives the scientific background (it’s typically ridiculous). Basically, the planet’s developed simultaneously and the exact same way in mirror image. Sure.

Cut to some video screens.

Servo: “Hey, it’s the Ms. Alternate Universe pageant!”

Back to Farmer etc.

They discuss the Perfect Order, opposition, etc.

We finally get some info on “Ward-E.”

Servo: “Lobotomy means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Cameron interrogates Doctor.

Doctor doesn’t respond.
Servo: “He’s been like this ever since he started watching MTV.”

Back to our heroes.

Farmer: “You can’t deny an old man the only pleasure he has left in his life. Outwitting the perfect order.”
Crow: “Oh, I’m glad you said that!”

Farmer has heart-flutter, injects himself with medicine.

Joel: “Oh, great. He drinks, he does drugs, and he’s gonna get me off this planet. Right.”

They start planning to get Neil off the planet…then we cut to Neil and girl saying good-bye. They kiss…

Then she drives off.

Crow: “Spooky chick, huh doc? Doc? Hey, doc!”

She arrives home to meet Cameron. He drives off with her.

Crow: “She’s history.”

Cut to farmer and Neil bluffing their way into the launch facility.

Farmer: “Here, his credentials.”
Servo: “Let’s see…uh, this is a pamphlet on colon cancer, sir.”

Crow: “Oh, I, uh, put it through the wash…and…uh…”

Farmer (bluffing): “Isn’t anything of first quality anymore?”
Joel: “Yeah, our security is, pops.”

Servo: “This is really strict security for getting your film out of a photo-mat.”

Amazingly, it works.

Crow: “Lot of Chryslers on their planet.”

Farmer and hero are going over their plan, farmer has another attack, has to run home to get medicine.

Crow: “Note to myself: pack more life-saving liquid.”

Joel: “Always someone at the door when I’m about to shoot-up.”

Girl shows up at farmer’s door. She’s beaten up, but she says she didn’t talk.

She wants to see Neil, but when she can’t she drives off.

Back to launch facility.

Neil runs into a guy who apparently recognizes him (no idea who), pulls a letter-opener on him.
Crow: “No! I’m not a letter!”

Neil knocks him out and tosses him in a dumpster.

Third Host Segment: They’re all dressed up as Cameron Mitchell and are playing villains. Joel has Tibby as his villainous pet and is ordering the bots to kill various TV heroes. Crow and Servo don’t quite get the euphemisms. It’s great!

Girl is actually leading Farmer into a trap. She’s been turned, you see.

Meanwhile, Neil’s still sneaking around the place.

He knocks out a guard and steals his gun. He then uses it to take the astronaut’s uniform.

Girl again tries to get Farmer to tell her where Neil is.

Rather nice scene where Cameron and his underling discuss the possibility of underling getting Cameron’s job if Neil escapes, underling reaffirms his loyalty to Cameron.

Crow: “Uh, get your hand off my leg, sir.”

Neil is about to suit up when Farmer and Girl show up.

And Cameron and goons are right behind them.

Girl slips up and reveals her new allegiance. Farmer gets gunned down by goons.
(by the way, shouldn’t the resistance have some sort of code-phrase to weed out spies?)

Neil makes a break for it down the tunnel to the launch pad.

Neil shoots a guy
Joel: “That one’s for Florida!”

He’s a preternaturally good shot, by the way.

And he seems to have an infinite number of bullets.

Crow: “The most dramatic confrontation since Rommel met J.C.”

Neil shoots Cameron in the arm.
Joel: “That’s for Paul Revere! The real one!”

Underling: “Are you alright.”
Crow: “Oh, sure. OF COURSE I’M NOT ALRGIHT! I got a slug in the arm!”

And he emerges somehow between two groups of goons.

Crow: “Lot of sexual tension, though.”

He jumps into the ocean and blows up an oxygen tank as he goes (actually kind of cool).

Cameron: “Thanks to the Perfect Order we have one great family on Terra.”
Servo: “A dysfunctional family, sure, but…”

(on Neil’s dog-tags)
Servo: “Oh, he dropped the thing that’s gonna drive the whole series!”

Oh, and I don’t mean to shock you, but it turns out Neil survived.

Servo: “He’s his own From Here to Eternity.”

He meets a beach-guy
Beach-Guy: “What happened?”
Servo: “*cough* from other planet…thing crashed…have girlfriend….blew stuff up…”

Servo makes a reference to Mike Nelson!

Joel: “Does that guy realize that he’s gonna get a lobotomy for fraternizing with that guy?”

And with a final voice-over, we get the credits with the footage from the other movie.

Final Segment: Servo’s a TV exec. He doesn’t see much potential in “Stranded in Space” for a series. It’s great. Servo does a tour-de-force and even makes a letter funny! The Mads do the ‘you might replace me’ scene from the film.

Stinger: Girl slaps hero after a pregnant pause. Not bad. I might have gone with “people seemed to laugh more then.” But this is perfectly acceptable.



Movie Quality Rating:

1.       Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
2.       The Crawling Eye
3.       The Black Scorpion
4.       Gamera vs. Barugon
5.       Mad Monster
6.        Lost Continent
7.       Gamera
8.       First Spaceship to Venus
9.       Stranded in Space
10.   Rocketship XM
11.    Moon Zero Two
12.   Godzilla vs. Megalon
13.   The Crawling Hand
14.   Catalina Caper
15.   King Dinosaur
16.   Jungle Goddess
17.   Wild Rebels
18.   The Corpse Vanishes
19.   Ring of Terror
20.   Untamed Youth
21.   The Slime People
22.   Project Moonbase
23.   The Sidehackers
24.   Women of the Prehistoric Planet
25.   Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
26.   Cave Dwellers
27.   Pod People
28.   Hellcats
29.   Rocket Attack USA
30.   Robot Holocaust
31.   Robot Monster

Conclusion: A lame, though not-awful made-for-TV flick coupled with so-so riffing makes for a very average episode. 

Final Rating: 6/10.