Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vol. XIV (Mad Monster / Manhunt in Space / Soultaker / Final Justice)

Shout Factory's second 4-disc DVD MST3K release features two episodes hosted by Joel Hodgson from the Comedy Central years and two hosted by Mike Nelson from the Sci-Fi Channel years of the show.

103- Mad Monster (with short: Commando Cody And Radar Men From The Moon - Part 2)
This season one gem features George Zucco and Glenn Strange in a 1942 film about a mad scientist that turns humans into monsters by injecting them with the blood of wolves. Even in 1942 this was silly, rehashed horror fodder from better movies. George Zucco's usual decent acting helps make this at least amusing. Glenn Strange often played monsters in films of the time. The short is perhaps the funniest part of this episode. Joel and the 'bots always struck comedy gold when making fun of Radar Men From The Moon in several season one episodes. This episode also features the hilarious sketch where Tom Servo (Josh Weinstein) makes a pass at a blender!

413- Manhunt in Space (with short: "General Hospital" - Segment 1)
This 1954 TV space adventure will have you in stitches. The effects are less than state-of-the-art even for the day, although they were so expensive they contributed to the show being canceled! Rocky Jones is a square-jawed fisticuffs wielding spaceship pilot with REALLY goofy sidekicks, including Winky, a young man who acts like a kid, and Bobby, a little kid that acts all grown-up. Then there's short-skirted Vena, his bright female crewmate that gets treated like, well, like women were mostly treated in the US in 1950's TV. Finally, there's elderly and brilliant Professor Newton, who in spite of being a genius, makes just enough miscalculations to get them into real trouble. Joel and the 'bots offer endless riffs about anything and everything during this one, it's terrific fun. Host segment highlights include the "space modifiers" sketch and the 'bots playing soap opera after the General Hospital short. Somehow, MST3K manages to make the dull-as-dishwater paced General Hospital short really funny as well. Personally, I love this episode. Rocky Jones and other similar rocketship space adventures always worked well on the show. They are lighthearted fun and the writers wrote hundreds of great jokes for all of them.

1001- Soultaker
This 1990 hokum about souls trying to get back to their bodies while evading the angel of death, who is also an angel of mediocre acting, is entertaining only because MST3K is making fun of it. Wait till you see the wooden acting of Joe Estevez and the huge-headed Robert Zdar. Calling their performances funny is an understatement; you have to see this to believe it. This episode of MST3K features guest appearances by creator and former host Joel Hodgson and former writer and performer Frank Conniff.

1008- Final Justice
This Joe Don Baker film from 1985 is a decent episode from MST3K's final season. Once again, Joe Don plays a cop who "doesn't play by the rules", another bad Dirty Harry rip-off anti-hero character. It's basically Mitchell with location shooting in Malta. There are some pretty girls, dumb action sequences, lots of violence, continuity errors, and a somewhat predictable ending. As usual, the MST3K writers have a fairly easy time making fun of the film's action "star". Note that the film's writer and director, Greydon Clark, was also responsible for the film Angel's Revenge shown in episode 622 of MST3K.

Extra features on the DVDs include:
* A new interview with "Soultaker" star Joe Estevez.
* Mike, Tom and Crow's appearance on ESPN Classic's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker."
* An interview with "Final Justice" writer and director Greydon Clark.

Every set is worth buying, especially while they are still releasing them because you never know when they might get recalled or discontinued by the manufacturer due to licensing rights. This set includes another 4 great Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes including 1 from the very first season "Mad Monster". MY personal favorites are Soultaker and Final Justice. Buy this set as soon as possible!!

Episodes Include:
103 - Mad Monster
413 - Manhunt in Space
1001 - Soultaker
1008 - Final Justice

Special Features:
Interview with "Soultaker" star Joe Estevez.
Mike, Tom and Crow's appearance on ESPN Classic's "Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker."
Interview with "Final Justice" writer and director Greydon Clark.

*Next Volume Mystery Science Theater 3000 - XV
(Released Date: July 7, 2009)
102 - The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
509 - The Girl in Lover's Lane
604 - Zombie Nightmare
616 - Racket Girls

The latest box sex from Shout Factory in my opinion this is worth owning. If you are a fan of the show you probably own most of these sets anyway,with die hard fans owning them all,whether or not you like the episodes,you do get them on superior quality DVD. The set contains 4 mini posters,basically the artwork of the DVD sleeves on a mini poster that fits inside the box. All the DVD have their own slim cases just like the 20th Anniversary set.
This set contains 2 Joel and 2 Mike episodes. They are as follows
MAD MONSTER - Episode # 103 This is a campy (of course) B movie with George Zucco making an ape like monster out of Glenn Strange (Frankenstein's monster in House of Frankenstein and Dracula) - This is a Season 1 show, you can see the earliest work by Joel,Trace,and Josh - this is show # 103 in the series - so it is very early - the earliest episode on DVD. It has different shades of silhouettes too. It shifts from gray to black depending on the movie. The quality of this DVD there is a little bit of minor blips here and there, and the transfer for Mad Monster isn't that good, but the movie is a public domain title that Alpha DVD has released, but the host segment scenes' quality is fine. This one has the segment where Tom is romancing a blender and Joel drinks from it. Tom says "youre drinking from my girl" A great Josh line as the first Tom Servo. This is a fun early episode, great from a historical standpoint, and a chance to see a Season 1. Best Brains said these werent their best shows, and maybe they weren't but these are still interesting and fun to watch at the very least. I feel the MST3K Crew have nothing to be embarrassed about. Season 1 is part of the evolution of MST & I urge Shout Factory to release more from the first Season. How else can we see Josh as Tom Servo or Dr Erhardt ??
MANHUNT IN SPACE Show # 413 - This is a Rocky Jones scifi cheese that kids used to watch on the weekends. Basically it is a low budget that hampers its efforts. The show also has a General Hospital Short.Not considered a mega popular episode,but certainly a good one/a solid episode, with a minor low budget science fiction episode. The first of 2 Rocky Jones movies. This one has some great dialog in the movie like the "gay nightlife" and Winky says "Ride the Rocket". The skits were ok-good, Joel looking stoned in this one. Mike Nelson, who went on to be Mike Nelson after Joel left, was Winky in the hexfield view screen in a segement.
SOULTAKER - Episode # 1001 Mike on SciFi - This one has Joel returning to the SOL and meets Mike - this is considered a very key episode. Joel returns to save the ship because Dr. F had planned for the SOL to be destroyed after 10 yrs. It was really cool having Joel and Mike 'meet'. Joel goes back to Earth leaving Mike on the SOL to be a man. You have to sit through a tedious movie about Joe Estivez trying to collect souls to get to the segments. TV's Frank also guest stars as a Soultaker and gets along with Bobo (they play ring toss with Bobos soul). This has the Joe Estivez interview about Soultaker and MST3K. It is pretty decent & insightful about the making of Soultaker (he felt it was a good movie and thought it was scary,hmm)
FINAL JUSTICE - Episode # 1008 is another Mike on the SciFi Channel- It's a Joe Don Baker movie, nuff said,here. Joe Don was a huge target for Best Brains. Popular episode because of this. Joe Don is a sheriff who has to chase down a man in Malta. Honestly, it is not all that bad of a movie. I personally found it more entertaining action wise than Mitchell. I loved the segment at the end where Mike thinks he is going back to Earth like Joel did after watching a Joe Don Baker film. This has a couple of bonus features including an interview with Greydon Clark.
Overall the set is a nice blend of titles, and basically reminds me of any of the last couple of Rhino sets with the features. it is nice to have these all in nice clear transfers (even though the movies themselves haven't been remastered, the segments look great)
Shout Factory is closing on on getting all the Season 10 titles on DVD that they can get it seems (I doubt they can get Squirm, Diabolik or It lives by Night anytime soon). I am thankful as are many MST3K fans that Shout Factory is releasing these, whether you like an episode or not, at least they are still coming out on DVD.

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