Review: ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000 : The Movie’

Originally released on DVD in 1998 as the barest-of-barebones releases, the feature version of the cult show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" has long been an out-of-print collector's item. Now, Rogue Pictures has re-released the film, which will save some die-hard fans some money but doesn't offer any new entertainment value.

Originally released on DVD in 1998 as the barest-of-barebones releases, the feature version of the cult show “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ has long been an out-of-print collector’s item. Now, Rogue Pictures has re-released the film, which will save some die-hard fans some money but doesn’t offer any new entertainment value. This re-release, like the original, has absolutely no bonus material.

For a film in which Mike Nelson and his two robot buddies (Crow and Tom Servo) talk all throughout a feature film (in this case it’s the really-not-that-bad ’50s sci-fier “This Island Earth”), a commentary track isn’t necessary, but how about a retrospective look at the show or the film itself? The only extra thrill is mining humor from the closed-captioning, which transcribes all of the trio’s witty lines as well as things like “SERVO: Imitating a helicopter starting.” As it is, fans now simply have a way to add the film to their collection without having to cough up some serious cash on eBay. For something new, they’ll have to check out Nelson’s post-MST3K work at Rifftrax.com.