Thursday, April 12, 2012

MST3K: Episode 418 - Attack of the The Eye Creatures

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 418: Attack of the The Eye Creatures

First aired: Comedy Central on 5 December 1992
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

"The The?"
Remember Episode 417: Crash of Moons?

Sure you do. They called it Crash of the Moons, but there was no "the" in the actual movie's title card. Well, this one has the opposite problem.

The name of the movie is Attack of the Eye Creatures, but the title card says Attack of the the Eye Creatures. Note the extra "the."

You might ask "why?"

Go ahead and ask. I'll wait.

The original title card.
Okay, since you asked, it's because the movie was originally known as The Eye Creatures. Only, when it was re-released, they decided to call it Attack of the Eye Creatures. So, they added "Attack of the" to the top of the original title card. But the original title card already said "The Eye Creatures." So the new title card had "the" in it twice. Therefore, the movie is Attack of the The Eye Creatures. And so I'm going to call it that.

This one has never been released on home video, so my copy is a fan copy, recorded from a Comedy Central airing.

The comedy relief could use some comedy, and we could use some relief.
It's not a good movie. It is a made-for-TV remake of Invasion of the Saucer Men, which isn't a good thing. It tries to be a comedy at times, and is extremely unfunny during those moments. When it tries to be serious, it's funny. But not a good funny.

The government expects a flying saucer to land, and wants to keep it secret. It lands and a couple of kids leaving Lookout Point run over one of the The Eye Creatures which look like a bag of eyes. The police think the kids have run over a drifter and arrest them. The creepy photographer in a dress discovers the The Eye Creatures blow up under bright light and the The Eye Creatures are defeated. The end.

Yep, it's a bad movie. Bad production values. Bad acting. Bad writing. Bad creature effects. Bad film.
Dr. Forrester falls for Joel's Funny Fax Gag.It's the Rip Taylor Trio! "C'mon, laugh. It's funny!"
Bad, bad film. Wicked, bad, naughty film.

Creepy guy with a dress.
The riffing is funny though. This is one of those that I was okay with first time through, but liked it more the next time.

And Joel's Invention Exchange offering, the Funny Fax, is, well, funny. And the Rip Taylor Trio in one of the later Host Segments is funny. Of course, I've always thought Rip Taylor was funny, so there's that to consider.
Oh, by the way, did you know that MST3K invented Rickrolling?

Well, maybe not. But when the guy who looks sorta like Rick Astley appeared on the screen, J&tB broke into "Never Gonna Give You Up..."

The riffing is good, but not great. Maybe better than good. Very good. The overall episode is a winner.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Please choose a Profile in "Comment as" or sign your name to Anonymous comments. Comment policy