The Film Crew

It looks like it's been a going to be a good year for Mystery Science Theater fans. First, last year Mike Nelson (and thankfully, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbitt) started Rifftrax. I have yet to actually purchase one of these, but I plan to once I figure out how to deal with the mp3 file.

Also coming out this year is Hobgoblins 2. I admit that I may be jumping the gun. There was suppose to be a sequel to Time Chasers but the studio is probably thinking of ways to exploit Anna Nicole's last movie. However, I've seen the screen shots on the internet so I'm willing to bet that this movie is near completion. Sure, it'll probably be as sleazy as the original, maybe even worse. It may even lack any charm that the original had. (I.E. I really hated the first one, but the sequel made nostalgic for it!) Still, it's neat that the MST3k fan base is big enough that b-movie makers can feel confident releasing a sequel to a movie that should have withered and died in a video store somewhere.

Now lately there's been news that The Film Crew (Mike, Kevin, Bill) and Shout! Factory are going to release some movies with the trademark MST3k-style commentaries. The best part, besides the fact that we won't have to deal with Disembaudio, is that it has a MST3k-like premise. In this case, a guy name Bob Honcho bosses the Film Crew around and gives them some movies to make commentaries for.

I'm most interested in seeing how this part is going to work out. Since they can't just directly call it MST3k, are they going to duplicate any of that show's famous silhouettes? (Probably not.) Is there going to be a doorway sequence or something similar? (Probaby not a doorway sequence, but maybe we'll see some kind of count down.) Are they going to have host segments? (Most likely, but I bet they're less frequent. Maybe two bookends and one in the middle.) Are we going to see Bob Honcho and where he works? He might just be some voice heard over a speaker. Are we going to get a catchy theme song? How about a stinger? (We'll see.) Is there going to be callbacks to MST3k movies that only MSTies will get? Hopefully, but I have to wonder how Shout! Factory wants to market these things. You'd think (and hope) that they have us MSTies in mind, but you never know. I do hope that these DVDs make it into dvd stores.

I also wonder if Bob Honcho's mom will make an appearance at some poin. Would naming her Pearl Honcho be too on the nose?

Anyway, let's be glad that The Film Crew are still providing us with hilarious commentaries long after the death of MST3k. The first dvd will be released on July 10th for about 20 bucks and is titled, "Hollywood After Dark." (1968) I'm not sure if Shout! Factory is planning to make any more of these if it's successful, but let's hope the nerds buy a lot of these DVDs.