Post discussions of season 12 episode 1 here. Title and first post to be edited to allow people to discover the episodes for themselves.
Too bad they were forced into this gauntlet nonsense. Never saw Mac and Me before but it seems to be chopped heavily to fit the mandated format/time frame.
Whatever happened to "the right people will get it" attitude they had?
I don't know that they were forced. This is actually one of the only Netflix shows that tries to adhere to standard episode lengths.
I think that trying to make MST3K mainstream just will never work. People either get it or they don't. I don't think that shortening the episodes will make much of a difference to a new viewer.
From Kickstarter:
QuoteSo, this time around, the entire "concept" of the season will be a little different, and warped in a really fun way, which I think will make the whole series of movies "hang together" as a season. I'm not going to tell you the concept yet, but...
I like the "concept" of the season. Every movie is a knock off version. I can't wait for Killer Fish.
I really like the premise/format, and have never had a problem with them editing movies.
Really good episode! Some great riffs.
Anyone catch Jennifer Aniston's cameo? Blink and you'll miss it.
Yes, an excellent episode - I forgot to say that. Looking forward to ep 2 tonight!
What I meant to say was: Preeetty niiice!
As I was watching this I thought to myself that the music in this is WAY too good for such a stupid movie.
Not 5 minutes later Crow says "I want to see the movie this composer thought he was writing the score for"
Quote from: MrTorso on November 22, 2018, 06:05:43 AM
Too bad they were forced into this gauntlet nonsense. Never saw Mac and Me before but it seems to be chopped heavily to fit the mandated format/time frame.
Whatever happened to "the right people will get it" attitude they had?
The run time of this movie in only 95 minutes, and I'm almost certain that dance party at McDonalds was WAY longer in the unedited version. Granted it's been 30 years since I saw this movie, but even back then I remember thinking "how is this not over yet?" So you're not missing much. Still, I can't help but agree.
One thing notably missing compared to season 11 are the "commercial break" eye catches. Which is a shame, I liked them.
I like the gauntlet premise. Jonah and the boys very rarely acting frustrated with the experiments was one of my major pet peeves with Season 11 and Season 12 rectifies that.
I'll add the premise is similar to the premise that was used for the first Turkey Day in 1991. Except that was 30 hours instead of around 9 (but TD '1 would have come in at around 23 hours without commercials).
"He knew that would work because he saw the first scene!"
Yeah a good kick off episode, I wish they didn't cut so much out, but I don't think it'd because of the gauntlet gimmick directly.
Oh was there really no Angela Lansbury references? The alien mother totally looked like her.
I'll say this. I did NOT expect the movie to end the way it did.
Great stuff! I put this on at thanksgiving in the background but re watched the stuff I missed today. It wasn't until after the episode ended that I remembered season 11 had some problems with joke pacing, which is to say I didn't think about that at all during this first episode. It all flowed smoothly and was hilarious.
The whole scene at McDonalds is amazing. It's just a terrible McDonalds commercial that has no resemblance to an actual movie scene. And the out-of-place unnatural dancers outside are outdone by the dancing football players inside.
It's like they put a sign outside that said, "Street Performers Eat Free!"
Quote from: BathTub on November 22, 2018, 11:59:51 PM
Yeah a good kick off episode, I wish they didn't cut so much out, but I don't think it'd because of the gauntlet gimmick directly.
Not so much the gauntlet but getting the run times down to 80 minutes...
Part of the McDonalds scene was indeed cut (full scene can be found on youtube). What was cut was riff-able, but unnecessary for any plot advancement and mostly more of the same of what was included.
Now that I saw one episode of Season 12, I can provide my thoughts on the riffing itself:
- KTMA-Season 1: Riffing is too infrequent and sluggish.
- Seasons 2-10: Riffing is perfect! Perfect pace, perfect riffer interaction, perfect tone and speed of voice.
- Season 11: Riffing goes into overdrive. Pace is too fast, unnatural riffer interaction and tone, speed is too fast.
- 2017/2018 Live tours: See Seasons 2-10. Riffing pace, interaction, tone, and speed return to natural perfection!
- Season 12 (Ep. 1): Riffing is better spaced and paced compared to Season 11, but still too fast. Interaction between riffers is just as nonexistent as it was in Season 11. Same with tone.
The riffing of Season 12 seemed to have listened to the criticism, but it wasn't enough to get back to the awesomeness that was in the live tours. And that's a shame, because two out of three of the riffers riffed on one of the live tours, and one of them on both.
Quote from: Iron Curtain on November 23, 2018, 05:21:44 PM
Interaction between riffers is just as nonexistent as it was in Season 11. Same with tone.
Strongly agree with this. I had trouble distinguishing between Jonah and Servo's riffs a lot this go round and I think it had more to do with the riffs as opposed to their voices being similar. In other words, they need to go to the next level and give the riffers more distinct personalities that play off one another (which we had in all of the original run) and not just have them all throw out funny lines.
I was planning on binge watching the whole season. But I couldn't even make it through this episode in one sitting. The riffing was good but this for some reason is one of the most disturbing movies MST3k has featured.
Could have been worse: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/08/watch-the-alternate-gruesome-climax-of-the-cult-classic-alien-film-mac-and-me/
Quote from: wihogfan on November 23, 2018, 09:48:16 AM
The whole scene at McDonalds is amazing. It's just a terrible McDonalds commercial that has no resemblance to an actual movie scene. And the out-of-place unnatural dancers outside are outdone by the dancing football players inside.
I worked at McDonalds once and that party was more unrealistic than the aliens.
Quote from: eegah on November 22, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Really good episode! Some great riffs.
Anyone catch Jennifer Aniston's cameo? Blink and you'll miss it.
I had to look this up to see if this was true. In doing so I also found that the composer of this movie (Alan Sylvestri) was the same guy who did the Back to the Future movies, to which the riffers made a reference.
Quote from: Edward J Grug III on November 24, 2018, 06:14:11 PM
Could have been worse: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/08/watch-the-alternate-gruesome-climax-of-the-cult-classic-alien-film-mac-and-me/
This is actually interesting because I noticed in watching the episode that Me in the wheelchair's silhouette was badly superimposed on the scene with the gas station explosion and I thought it was really weird.
Also, because no one posted this yet...
Quote from: Edward J Grug III on November 24, 2018, 06:14:11 PM
Could have been worse: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/08/watch-the-alternate-gruesome-climax-of-the-cult-classic-alien-film-mac-and-me/
I saw a video about that recently. I didn't even realize Andrew Divoff was in this film before.
The movie hits you over the head with how blatant it wants to be E.T., but I have to admit it's better than NUKIE (1987).
I kept expecting a Paul Rudd joke during that scene. Oh well.
When I watched this a couple days ago, I thought "Did the explosion kill him? It doesn't look like it should have." I guess now I have my answer.
I have never watched Mac & Me and I have to say that the McDonalds dance party scene is one of the greatest thing in cinematic history.
Also that ending. I thought to myself "No! The writers really thought this would be a great ending for the film?".
The ending makes me wonder, did the US grant them citizenship despite their ability to blow stuff up and survive immolation, or because of their ability to blow stuff up and survive immolation?
Quote from: CJones on November 29, 2018, 08:21:02 AM
The ending makes me wonder, did the US grant them citizenship despite their ability to blow stuff up and survive immolation, or because of their ability to blow stuff up and survive immolation?
No, it's because of their ability to bring back the dead. The sequel would have turned out a lot like Overlord.
So watched Mac and Me and enjoyed a lot. What an improvement over season 11. Very similar to the leap in quality between Season 1 and 2.
I liked pretty much everything about the Gauntlet format. For me it's always been about the rffing and the movies and the host segs in every ep in ever season are hit and miss. 5 skits is a lot for a show and it was definitely needed when the show stretched to two hours but I think one of the smartest things they did was knocking it back to just two.
The opening pacing was bit off, especially the interaction between the Mads. Patton Oswalt seems almost on equal footing with Kinga. Not sure about their relationship. Will be interesting to see how it plays out in the other eps. The first host seg was not too funny. The second was vintage "throw away" silliness and I liked it.
The riffing was a little off at the beginning of the film, but once they get to the McDondald's party it's really solid and I was laughing a lot.
Some people have complained about the lack of interaction between J and the bots in theater and I would agree. Crow is a serviceable imitation of Trace's Crow but I really liked Servo this time around. Some really nice voices from him, especially for the aliens.
So where did the "Prettttyy nice" line come from? Was it in the movie and I missed it? Or is it a reference to something else?
Quote from: losingmydignity on December 05, 2018, 06:38:01 AM
So where did the "Prettttyy nice" line come from? Was it in the movie and I missed it? Or is it a reference to something else?
When the mother and kids are driving in their new neighborhood, before they get to the house. I think it's the Mom that says it.
Quote from: Darth Geek on December 05, 2018, 06:57:11 AM
Quote from: losingmydignity on December 05, 2018, 06:38:01 AM
So where did the "Prettttyy nice" line come from? Was it in the movie and I missed it? Or is it a reference to something else?
When the mother and kids are driving in their new neighborhood, before they get to the house. I think it's the Mom that says it.
Yeah, the kid looks out at the window and says, "Wow! Look at all the cars!" To which the mom responds, "Pretty nice!" It may be the most baffling exchange between two humans this side of The Room.
Wow, how did I miss that? I remember the line "Look at all the cars" but not the mother's follow up.
Needless to say, "Pretty nice" was funny even when you didn't know where it was coming from.
It makes sense when you realize they were actually Amish prior to the events of the movie.
Finally saw this one. I was left thinking, 'If only Mac had been voiced by Eric Roberts in his living room, then he would have been likable."
And this makes me hate E.T.... a lot.