Good news for bad movie (and good humor) lovers: The MST3K crew are at it again

by John P. Meyer

This may be the most thrilling film news of 2008 so far (and the way this whole strike thing is going it could very well end up staying that way): the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew are back in their cheap shot seats, taking caustic verbal aim at the barrel-scraping bottom dwellers of bad cinema. Plus - judging by the trailer - they're as off-the-wall, irreverent and entertaining as ever.

Dubbing his new satirical-commentary-laced overtrack venture Cinematic Titanic, MST3K originator Joel Hodgson pulled together a team consisting of original cast members Trace Beaulieu (Crow) and J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo), along with writers/cast members Mary Jo Pehl and Frank Conniff.

Their inaugural riffs have been bestowed upon a 1972 Al Adamson opus called Brain of Blood (aka The Oozing Skull), which appears to be a Frankenstein meets Reanimator sort of thing, minus any semblance of filmmaking talent or a recognizable plot, of course.

A la MST3K, the jibers (in the form of animated silhouettes) are arrayed around the lower periphery of the film frame. As the action (such as it is) proceeds, the silhouetted participants insert their two-bits (four-bit, six-bits, a dollar) worth as opportunities for derision present themselves - which, this being bad cinema, they frequently do.

Sadly, there is currently no provision for streaming or downloading the video - you have to order a hard-copy DVD from an outfit called EZTakes (linked from the Cinematic Titanic site). The cost of this first CT output is $15.94. (No idea why they didn't just call it sixteen bucks and pocket the extra six cents/copy for gas money, but then I wasn't in on the pricing discussion.)

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