Red Zone Cuba (Mystery Science Theater 3000): Amazon.ca: Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Coleman Francis, Anthony Cardoza, Harold Saunders, John Carradine, John Morrison, George Prince, Lanell Cado, Tom Hanson, Charles Harter, Frank Conniff, Mike Gandolfi, Paul Chaplin: DVD

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If Coleman Francis had never existed, he would have been invented by the writers of MST3K just for the perverse enjoyment of ridiculing him. Here the director of the jaw-droppingly inept The Beast of Yucca Flats tries his hand at a jailbreak film, which takes a surreal veer into an American invasion of Cuba apparently hampered by military budget cuts ("Once all seven of them are in place, the invasion really begins") before ending up in an American tungsten mine. Why? Who knows, but the bots have a ball skewering the film with some of their funniest comments ("I want to hurt this movie but I can never hurt it the way it hurt me") and Mike Nelson becomes so disturbed he turns into Carol Channing. Believe it or not, costar John Carradine rasps out the theme song "Night Train to Mundo Fine" (which was the film's original title). --Sean Axmaker

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Customer Reviews

58 Reviews

5 star:		(39)
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3 star:		(4)
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4.4 out of 5 stars (58 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is the film..., Oct 19 2009

By

Chris Brockbank "Passion Flakey" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Red Zone Cuba (Mystery Science Theater 3000) (DVD)

This should have been the movie that broke them. The whole purpose of MST3K was to subject the residents of the Satellite of Love to the worst movies ever made until they found the one that drove them over the edge. This should have been the one do that. The movie itself is an atrocity of epic proportions. Everyone involved in this movie were doing so against their will. I mean every movie the guys watch is bad in one way or another, but at least somebody involved with it was at least trying... but that is not the case in with this movie. They have a field day with this movie, but it should have been the one to break them.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Film-making with blunt instruments, July 6 2004

By

M. Chapman "superedit" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Red Zone Cuba (Mystery Science Theater 3000) (DVD)

Devotees of Coleman Francis (we know who you are -- we have the names) will know that not all of his films benefitted from "synched" sound. Watch "Beast from Yucca Flat" carefully, and you'll see that all the dialgue is "looped", or recorded after the fact.

Sync sound brings a new dimension of awfullness to this work. Coleman and the cast mumble and stumble through their lines; if you turn your TV up to the threshold of pain, you might pick up some extra nuances from the soundtrack, but I doubt it.

The skill of the sound department is more than matched by the cinematography. The film appears to have been run through an airport x-ray machine several dozen times (no doubt looking for WMD.) Black and white is pretty forgiving, but not of gross incompetence.

Anyhow, as with "Wild World of Batwoman", don't try to figure out -- just open the wine, and let the waves wash over you as you laugh out loud. Rest assured that Mike and the 'bots give it the full treatment, each insult richly deserved.

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best episodes, July 5 2004

By

csmith400 "csmith400" (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Zone Cuba (Mystery Science Theater 3000) (DVD)

Though the film is up there with Manos in sheer, unfettered badness, it only makes the send-up by Mike and the Bots that much more enjoyable. The writer of the original film apparently forgot to make his anti-hero protagonists have some kind of redeeming characteristics.

As a result, we don't care what happens to them. The original film is also a collection of what they told you not to do in film school: it's badly shot, the scenes drag on because the editing isn't fast enough and there's no dramatic action in them, the audio isn't recorded well, and just about the only thing cinematically interesting is the devastated landscape of New Mexico.

Though the film is designed to be a "war film", it doesn't feel like much of one due to the limited budget. When your raiding force consists of 6 extras, expect Mike and the Bots to laugh uproariously.

The comedy dialogue by Mike and the Bots is hilarious. From pointing out the director/main actor's more-than-passing resemblance to Curly to turning into Carol Channing due to the bad power of the film, you'll be chuckling at this. This is up there with MANOS and Mitchell.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the MST3K top ten best.
Some of the best MST3K episodes focus on films that have the Cold War as its subject (Invasion USA, e.g. Read more

Published on May 28 2004 by Rocco Dormarunno

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest, funniest episodes. A must have!
This DVD of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" offer up the movie "Red Zone Cuba" (which was originally released under the title "Night Train to Mundo Finé"). Read more

Published on Mar 5 2004 by Claude Avary