Simply Perfect

A Masterpiece!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I'm a big fan of B grade sci-fi schlock like "This Island Earth" but have never actually seen that film yet, though it's been on my watch list for a while now. So imagine my surprise when this flick offers a two-fer, so to speak, with the Mystery Science Theater folks offering their hilarious send up of that movie. The only trouble is, I had a hard time focusing on the 'real' movie because of all the zany commentary offered by Mike Nelson and his robot cohorts, Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Crow (Trace Beaulieu). I can see how this might not appeal to a lot of movie watchers, but one of the things I enjoyed most about the spoof was the multitude of cultural references made regarding other celebrity figures and situations of the era, like Prince's bedroom, Salvador Dali, Baywatch, Ted Kennedy and the alien's resemblance to Leona Helmsley. The best was the Buddy Ebsen reference, I almost hit the floor with that one. The thing is, the movie is kind of hard to rate using IMDb's system because it's difficult to separate "This Island Earth" from the general mayhem afforded by Mike and his crew. If I were grading the original sci-fi classic itself, I'd probably go a '3' or a '4', while the added commentary makes it all the funnier, bringing my evaluation up to a '6'. So in the interest of averaging things out, I'll call it a '5' and leave it at that. With the understanding that I'll seek out "This Island Earth" to stand on it's own merits at some point down the road. I'll be ready to come up with my own one-liners by then.

Mike Nelson and robots Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, and Gypsy are orbiting the Earth. Evil scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester forces them to watch the movie 'This Island Earth' to break their will before submitting to him. They ridicule the bad movie as they watch it.This is based on a low-budget TV show. I've never seen it but it certainly isn't necessary for one to see it before seeing this movie. The concept is pretty simple. The jokes from the characters sitting in front of the movie screen are sometimes good. There are a few good laughs but mostly, it's a series of mild wisecracks. 'This Island Earth' is not the most horrible movie. There are some silly 50's sci-fi designs to ridicule. It's a lot of little chuckles. Outside of sitting in front of the screen, the crew has some adventures. It's nothing that funny. It might be more appealing to fans of the TV show. This is a relatively short movie. It feels like a TV episode and fans of the TV show would probably love this.

This is my favorite movie. It's hard to explain to people that this was a movie since every episode that used to play on their show was a movie, but this one has a slightly better graphics for all the scenes on the Satellite of Love. No matter how many times I watch it, I laugh as hard as I did the first time. I can always count on this one to lighten my mood no matter how crappy a day I had. The movie itself is a classic that my father said he used to enjoy back in the day. As with most MST3K movies, it's never really the actual movie itself that you watch it for. If that was the case, you'd miss out on some of the gems that they've put out. If you enjoy these movies, I recommend checking out Rifftrax. It's the same guys doing pretty much the same thing (minus the puppets) and some are in theaters for fans to watch these brilliant minds on the big screen as they do what they do better than anyone else.

The movie version of the popular TV show finally came to the big screen, but it's not a perfect adaptation. The guys are subjected to "This Island Earth" by the familiar Dr. Forrester. In between the condensed movie, there are 5 "sketches". Dr. Forrester's mad-scientist soliloquy & Crow drilling a hole to the Earth can be considered the first part. When the film melts and breaks is part two. There are two "interocitor" sketches and the credits.Dr. Cal Meacham is a gifted and important atomic scientist. So important that Lockheed lets him commute to work in one of their vehicles. A commute to work is flying a jet from DC to somewhere across the country. As Cal arrives at work the plane malfunctions, but (thankfully) he is saved by a mysterious and pulsating green glow. At work, more strange things appear. This time an ordering mishap occurs, giving Cal a "capacitor" of incredible specifications. A delivery of a metal-page catalog arrives and continues the strangeness, which ultimately leads to an ordering spree and the creation of an "interocitor".Next, a strange white-haired "man", named Exeter, appears on the interocitor & reveals all. He admits that the catalog, the parts & their assembly were a test to verify his aptitude. Exeter is a recruiter for a scientific think-tank. Cal can't resist and ends up at a utopian-like mansion full of the world's best scientists. Some typical snooping later, the development of a love interest (Dr. Ruth, if only it were her) & the Professor's help, lead to the truth; Exeter is an alien and they are going to his home planet of Metaluna, with Cal & Ruth tagging along. BIG Surprise, right? No. Not at all actually. HELLO!. There are aliens on the movie posters even before you would have walked into the theater.I remember seeing this movie as a child on AMC on a Saturday afternoon. It was one of the first science fiction movies that had better than average production value and a plot line that was a bit more than an "alien-western" or "alien-horror" story. It's not perfect and it isn't Forbidden Planet (the overall best sci-fi movie of the 50's; story, special effects,etc.) either, but it is fast paced and enjoyable. Most sci-fi of the time is about an alien out to destroy us & our attempts to stop them. This Island Earth adds a small layer of actual science, some sympathetic extraterrestrials and colorful special effects to create something worth remembering. There are genuine attempts at science fiction here, restricted by the budget, studios and audience perception of the genre. Don't expect 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it's not Plan 9 from Outer Space either.This is by far the best production value of anything with Mystery Science Theater 3000 on it. The sets, models and robots look great. One of the funniest parodies of the series comes out of this: the "Normal View" scene. I enjoyed it so much that I made it my ringer. There is a strange "echo",however, that accompanies all the sketches, but that can be explained. This contributes to the the most pasteurized version of the show ever. It feels a little hollow. Frank and the opening credits, which were important to the series, are sadly missing here. The guys even do the credits for their own movie and in the end, it is still MST3k and it is still fun. You just have some regret of how much more amazing it could have been.-Celluloid Rehab