DVD reviews

‘Singles’ collects MST3K fan faves

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Singles Collection Shout Factory, $59.99

Shout! Factory seems to have completed the nearly twodecade process of putting out DVDs of all the DVD TALK legally cleared episodes from JUSTIN Mystery Science Theater 3000’s REMER original 1989- 1999 run. But, the company’s work is not totally done.

In addition to releasing the cult comedy show’s new episodes on disc, they’ve been doubling back to get the original Rhino-released DVD sets of the show back in print. (I reviewed the reissued volumes one and two, and DVD Talk has oodles of reviews of the show’s disc releases to date.)

Shout!’s newest effort in the reissue campaign is The Singles Collection, a sixdisc set of titles that were not originally released on DVD in the official numbered volume sets.

Since they were selected for standalone release, it’s no surprise that these episodes are mostly fan favorites. That makes this one of the most consistent MST3K collections that you’re going to find.

For those who are completely new to the series, allow me to cut-andpaste my show description from an earlier review here: A mad scientist, Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu), and his daffy sidekick, TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff), conduct experiments on a

poor unsuspecting employee (show creator Joel Hodgson as Joel in the first half of the series; the series’ longtime head writer Michael J. Nelson as Mike in the second half) by sending him out into space indefinitely, on a ship nicknamed the “Satellite of Love” while forcing him to watch terrible movies, supposedly to “monitor his mind.”

The original test subject, Joel, was a handy sort of a guy, so he managed to construct a bunch of robots to keep him company. Crow T. Robot (usually voiced by Trace Beaulieu), a gold spray-painted collection of odds and ends, and Tom Servo (usually voiced

Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson) and the ‘Bots aboard the Satellite of Love during what the author considers the very best episode, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. by Kevin Murphy), a sentient gumball an alien-possessed severed hand. It’s a machine, sit in on the B-movie madsolid episode overall, but one that feels ness and trade heckles and asides more laconic and lower-energy than that often incorporate pop culture fans would come to expect from the references, both familiar and WAY show’s later efforts. Some of the riffing obscure. seems to be a reaction to the energy

The giant puppyish cyclops Gypsy level, such as this exchange: (usually voiced by Jim Mallon) helps “Is there an abridged version of this keep the ship running while the unmovie?” heard, typically unseen Cambot... “If so, let’s burn it.” well... he records the show. “Never burn your abridges.”

Here’s how this set breaks down. The episode features more silly

The first episode included here is The wordplay like that, and less of the Crawling Hand (Episode 106), which show’s signature pop culture reforiginates from the show’s first season erences. Talking about the film’s on The Comedy Channel (before the titular mur-derous appendage: “You network was folded into Comedy gotta hand it to him.” Also, this bit of Central). Things feel a little different nonsense: “He’s not even sporting a here, partly because the cast is not dance belt. Or dancing a sport belt.” the classic cast. Joel is the host – as he The next episode in the set is basis on all the features included in this ed upon a film that doesn’t make set – but a young Josh Weinstein (who a lick of sense, but the episode is later changed his professional name priceless. We’re talking about the to J. Elvis Weinstein, to differentiate biker-sploitation flick, The Hellcats himself from the Simpsons writer with (Episode 209). Ross Hagen is a biker the same moniker) appears on camera looking into the murder of his brother, as Dr. Forrester’s first mad assistant, Dr. with the help of his brother’s fiancee. Laurence Erhardt, and he performs the They encounter some motorcycle voice of Tom Servo. gangs. There’s some fighting, some

Weinstein has good comic instincts, partying, some loving, and some but the show doesn’t seem to fire on all scenes of characters nearly being cylinders with this crew. ripped in half by bikes. Layer on some

The Crawling Hand features Gilligan’s nonsensical biker slang, and you’ve Island’s Alan Hale Jr., as a detective got a misbegotten whatsit ripe for the investigating murders perpetrated by takedown.

Mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu, right) and his original sidekick Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Josh Weinstein, aka J. Elvis Weinstein) in The Crawling Hand episode.

Most of the host segments in this episode are flashbacks to bits from earlier shows, including a sketch from The Crawling Hand episode (Tom Servo notes it was “before my voice changed”).

One presumes the show was still gaining a following at this point, so it’s a nice little survey of the kinds of silliness the Satellite of Love crew can cook up between movie clips.

The Christmas classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Episode 321) is next, and this is hands-down one of the best episodes the show ever produced. The film itself is as bizarre as its title, with Kris Kringle kidnapped from his workshop by well-meaning aliens who want to bring joy to their children (including an extremely young Pia Zadora). Two Earth kids get kidnapped too, by an overzealous crew member who doesn’t like the idea of going soft in the name of toys and happiness.

Zadora’s Golden Globe for Butterfly is oft-riffed-about, as is the whole cast’s tendency to laugh like maniacs, instead of being convincingly jolly. The host segments wrestle with sentimentality and cynicism in dealing with the holiday season, with a Road House-inspired carol, “Patrick Swayze Christmas,” being the absolute highlight.

Moonraker’s Richard Kiel, looking baby-faced even with a spirit-gummed beard, plays a caveman-out-of-time in another show perennial, Eegah! (Episode 506).

Shoestring auteur Arch Hall Sr. casts his son as a would-be teenage rock ‘n’ roll hero, whose girlfriend has the misfortune to suit the fancy of Kiel’s prehistoric abductor. Papa Arch also casts himself as the young damsel’s father. Joel and the ‘Bots often shriek in horror at Arch Jr’s goofy mug or his character’s mediocre musicianship. A low-energy instrumental is greeted with exhausted replies of “Tequila.”

A bad bit of post-dubbing led to one of the show’s signature memes: “Watch out for snakes!” I’m also quite fond of this subtle Citizen Kane joke, spoken over a shot that is almost all ceiling: “Looks like Gregg Toland photographed this.”

Troubled youth is the focus of the set’s final feature, I Accuse My Parents (Episode 507). While it’s not as cartoonish as that infamous badmovie staple, Reefer Madness, this flick subscribes to the same school of unsubtle sermonizing, by illustrating that – wait for it – lying is bad. Also, love your children and maybe they won’t throw in with gangsters and end up with a murder rap.

The lying and loving parts don’t logically converge, but why would you want them to?

The Ox-Bow Incident’s Mary Beth Hughes plays a chanteuse who lights a flame in the wayward kid’s heart, and has a nice set of pipes. During an inspired host segment, the SOL crew remake one of her nightclub numbers. Gypsy lip-syncs to the song, while the others constantly change wigs and costumes to play everyone else in the club.

This flick is a little more than an hour, so it comes with a short (I love the shorts!) on truck farming. My favorite throw-away from this segment, delivered over a shot of a young migrant western musical, The Terror of Tiny crop-picker: “A pre-teen is put to work. Town). By highlighting various styles of Her beauty will soon fade.” films that Newfield made, the piece also

And then, like the cherry on top of a does a nice job of tracing the shifting delicious sundae, the final disc in the zeitgeist of the B-picture business over set is Shorts, Vol. 3, collecting seven the course of two decades. educational and industrial shorts from Trailers: for the first four movies, but various episodes. (Mike fans will be not I Accuse My Parents. happy to know that he finally makes an For long-time fans and newcomers appearance in this set, in many of these alike, this MST3K set is a must-own. shorts.) Some of the show’s absolute best

Topics of the shorts range from episodes are included here, and the water-skiing to bread salesmanship newly produced bonuses, which offer but, as ever, the SOL crew mock the show creator Joel Hodgson’s reflections blatant subtext of ‘50s conformity and and provide history on some of the consumerism. Good stuff! guilty parties featured filmmakers, are

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The worthy additions. Singles Collection is packaged in a standard-sized keepcase, with 6 DVDs packaged on a few back-to-back hubs.

As ever, MST3K is not a show that looks or sounds particularly sharp. This is partly due to its early ‘90s vintage and partly due to the rarely-first-rate video masters supplied to the show for riffing. That said, the show’s standard 1.33:1 video and Dolby 2.0 audio are perfectly watchable and un-derstandable. No subtitles, but each episode has English closed captioning.

The original Rhino DVDs included uncut, unriffed versions of the features. Those versions have not been included in these reissues. • New intros on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Eegah and I Accuse My Parents by Joel Hodgson (25:11 total) - Joel offers fairly lengthy recollections of three episodes. He remembers the impact that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians had on him as a child, before recounting how Mike Nelson’s obsession with Road House infected the whole writing staff and became a runner throughout the Christmas episode. He talks about meeting some of the cast of Eegah years after the show aired, and how it gave him a more wholesome appreciation for the film. Finally, he talks about how the MST3K crew were at the top of their game during the time of the I Accuse My Parents episode. • MST Hour Wraps for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and I Accuse My Parents (10:35 total): The bookending segments that Mike Nelson hosted (in heavy make-up) for the hour-long, syndicated versions of these episodes

Don’t Knock the Strock (12:07): A mixture of history and appreciation, in honor of The Crawling Hand and its director, Herbert L. Strock, courtesy of a few different historians.

The Man on Poverty Row: The Films of Sam Newfield (23:29): Another talking heads piece, this time tracing the career of director Newfield, who made I Accuse My Parents, as well as 270+ other films (including the infamous all-little-people

Cheap melodrama thankfully absent in Hiroshima

Hiroshima The movie uses an effective flashback

Arrow Video Blu-ray $27.99 structure. In present-day (i.e., 1953) Hiroshima, high school teacher

One of the very best television Kitagawa (Eiji Okada) is playing a radio dramas of recent years is Chernobyl program about the atomic bombing (2019), an almost unbearably for his class, of whom about onedisturbing yet gripping and third experienced the blast firsthand. enlightening miniseries about the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster. Virtually suppressed for decades, Hideo DVD TALK One of them, a young schoolgirl, Michiko Oba (Isako Machida), suffers a nosebleed and is hospitalized, Sekigawa’s Hiroshima her condition quickly (1953) shares many of Chernobyl’s myriad STUART diagnosed as terminal leukemia, almost certainly qualities. Resolutely unsentimental and in no GALBRAITH IV caused by the bomb. So seamless one hardly way exploitative, the film notices it, the movie then is unnerving and powerful flashbacks to the evening nearly 70 years after it was made. before the dropping of the bomb.

Cheap melodrama and polemics Though essentially an ensemble film, are absent; mostly this very realistic a few characters are briefly introduced: film recreates what happened during Mine Oba (Isuzu Yamada), Michiko’s and following the dropping of the mother, along with her siblings; a atomic bomb on Hiroshima on the soldier, Endo (Yoshi Kato), with a morning of August 6, 1945. The wife and two elementary school-age movie straightforwardly presents children, Yukiyo (Masaya Tsukita) and what happened and that it more than Yoko (Seiko Watari); and Yonehara enough. (Yumeji Tsukioka), teacher at a girls’ school.

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When the bomb is dropped Hiroshima truly becomes Hell on Earth, and the film doesn’t hold anything back. In an instant, everything is forever changed.

Endo’s wife is buried under the rubble of her collapsed house, she pleading with her frantic husband to leave her to look for their children, even as she’s burned alive in the bomb’s fiery aftermath; dazed teacher Yonehara leads her surviving schoolgirls to a river where, overcome with radiation poisoning, all slowly disappear into the water, dead; Mine searches for her missing children at their various daycare and schools, but most are already dead, as she’ll be soon herself.

One would have thought a Japanese movie from 1953 would have held back in various ways but it never does. The makeup graphically recreates radiation burns on the victims, which grow worse over the days until some characters become almost unrecognizable.

It may not be on the horrifying level of Chernobyl but it sure comes within 90% of that miniseries. Women, children, and the elderly are not spared and, indeed, make up the majority of the victims.

Immediately after the blast and long after, children unable to move cry out “sensei” (“teacher”) and “okaasan” (“mother”) but no one answers them. Even those who seemingly survived with only minor injuries will soon be dead, dying agonizingly in bombedout and ill-equipped hospitals from radiation poisoning.

One also might have expected an angrier, overtly anti-American work, but in merely presenting Hiroshima as it historically and scientifically

unfolded, truthful realities are enough, with the militaristic government ludicrously extolling victims that this kind of thing happens all the time in war, and to hurry up and recover so that they might rejoin the war effort.

In one scene set far from the damage, a group of scientists inform their military superiors that all the evidence supports the dropping of an atomic device, but the officers angrily label them as defeatists. Disheartened but unable to contradict them, one scientist gazes at a cicada fluttering about the room, banging itself against a window, trying to get out.

Even as the narrative gradually moves forward in time, back finally to present-day Hiroshima in 1953, the movie continues to disturb, with American Occupation soldiers, usually with a Japanese woman under their arm, enjoying a fun day out, touring the devastation, buying grim souvenirs, including human skulls of victims.

The opening titles, mostly untranslated, reveal much. None of the professional actors get top billing: that is awarded to various community organizations in Hiroshima that appear in the film, including many real victims, including badly scarred “Hiroshima Maidens.” And though made entirely independently by a group of labor and teaching unions, the film is remarkably polished, as polished as a big studio Japanese production.

Partly the supportive Hiroshima community ensured this, while leftleaning and communist film talent lent their support also. Director Hideo Sekigawa’s direction never calls attention to itself. Of the cast Eiji Okada and Isuzu Yamada, among others, are instantly recognizable to those familiar with classic Japanese cinema, as is the music of composer Akira Ifukube. His main cue, endlessly repeated, turned up again in Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla (1954), tying this film’s real atomic bombing with the imagined radioactive wake left by Godzilla.

Undoubtedly the film’s truthfulness made many uncomfortable. Imperialist Japan is depicted as cruel and willfully stupid, while the present-day students wonder if the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were essentially unwilling guinea pigs of America’s military, to test the bomb’s effects. Essential viewing, Hiroshima is, beyond its subject matter, a long-unseen genuine classic of Japanese cinema, still riveting nearly 70 years after it was made.

At 40, Urban Cowboy is showing its age

Urban Cowboy: 40 th Anniversary Edition Paramount Blu-ray $22.99

This 1980 John Travolta drama about a mechanical bull is not among his best. Sure, that is oversimplifying the plot a bit, as Urban Cowboy is also about domestic violence and a honky tonk, but this movie does not hold up well forty years later. James Bridges directs DVD Travolta and a supporting TALK cast that includes Debra Winger, WILLIAM Scott Glenn, Barry Corbin HARRISON and Madolyn Smith, and he and Aaron Latham adapt the screenplay from Latham’s “Esquire” article of the same name.

The best thing I can say about the film is that it captures the atmosphere of a big country bar fairly well. The film has obvious parallels to Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever but is not as iconic. Fans of country music may enjoy Urban Cowboy as background entertainment, but as a compelling drama it cannot last the full eight seconds.

Bud Davis (Travolta) moves to Houston to work with his uncle at an oil refinery. There he is introduced to the local watering hole, Gilley’s honky tonk bar, which is owned by singer Mickey Gilley. Bud falls for Sissy (Winger) when she asks him one night at Gilley’s if he is a real cowboy.

The pair marry, holding their reception at the bar, and move into a new single-wide mobile home. Bud does not appreciate Sissy’s spunk and independence and expects dinner on the table when he gets home.

At the bar, Bud becomes entranced with riding the mechanical bull, but forbids Sissy to do the same. When paroled felon Wes Hightower (Glenn) starts working at Gilley’s, tensions rise, and Bud and Sissy’s relationship is strained by infidelity and resentment.

The narrative follows the path of many similar 1980s films: The new kid in town has to prove himself to the locals and get the girl.

Well, sort of. Bud gets the girl pretty quickly, then socks her in the mouth, cheats on her and finds redemption atop the mechanical bull.

I know Urban Cowboy has its fans,

but I am not one of them. The story is cheesy and off-putting, as is the constant bickering and physical violence between Bud and Sissy.

I do not find Bud a particularly likeable or compelling character, and Sissy puts up with far more of his moody antics than she should.

The ultimate bull-riding showdown between Bud and Hightower is laughable but almost amazing in a way that only an early 1980s drama can be. These sequences at least somewhat entertain.

As I mentioned, Urban Cowboy does a pretty good job capturing the spirit of an early 1980s country bar. Travolta did disco with Saturday Night Fever and rock and roll with Grease, and Urban Cowboy did manage to spotlight country and Southern rock music.

The film features cameos from Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Lee and Charlie Daniels, who performs “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Weak narrative aside, Winger’s performance is strong, and the supporting cast is enjoyable. Urban Cowboy just feels out of touch, with dated ideas about gender roles and personal fulfillment, and is not in danger of being atop Travolta’s filmography.

The film makes its Blu-ray debut with a 2.39:1/1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. The image is acceptable but not particularly noteworthy. Fine-object detail is generally good, and close-ups reveal intimate facial details and solid object texture. Much of the film is shot in the smoky, dimly lit Gilley’s, and black crush can be an issue here, as background details kind of fade away into oblivion. The film’s grain is generally stable, and I did not notice any major issues with noise reduction or edge halos. Colors are nicely saturated, skin tones appear accurate, and the print is clean.

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack does a nice job replicating the chaotic interior of Gilley’s, with frequent ambient effects like crowd noise, breaking bottles and whooping patrons to immerse the viewer in the beer-soaked revelry.

The country music soundtrack is nicely replicated, and these songs are given ample spacing in the mix and provided good LFE support.

Dialogue is generally solid, but I did notice a couple of spots with murkier dialogue when background noise and music was pumping. German and French 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono mixes are included, as are English SDH, French and German subtitles.

This single-disc release is packed in a Blu-ray eco-case that is wrapped in a slipcover. A digital copy is included. A sticker on the slipcover labels this the “40th Anniversary Edition.”

Extras include Good Times with Gilley: Looking Back at Urban Cowboy (15:10/HD), in which Gilley discusses his career, his bar and this film. You also get Deleted Scenes (8:02 total/ SD); Outtakes (4:08/SD); and Rehearsal Footage (4:05/SD).

This 1980 John Travolta vehicle may recreate the mood of a big country bar, but the narrative leaves a lot to be desired. This cheesy drama about a man’s quest to conquer a mechanical bull feels dated on its 40th Anniversary. Skip It unless you’re among the fans that have been waiting for this Blu-ray debut.