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Mystery Science Theater 3000 is, to me, the greatest TV show of all time, bar none. The Wire ? Breaking Bad ? I spit derogatorily at them!...

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

1104 - Avalanche

Thing’s aren’t normal. There’s a heaviness and it’s growing. I can feel it...

The movie's most likeable character.

Disaster movies were to the 70s what action movies were to the 80s and 90s and superhero movies are to the 2000s to today. Okay, maybe not quite that. But thanks to the likes of Irwin Allen producing hits like The Poseidon Adventure, there were plenty of movies with famous actors getting trapped in burning buildings, surviving earthquakes, and dealing with all types of airport disasters. Airplane! took plenty of air out of the lungs of the genre, but MST3K only got a few hits in early when it was still on a UHF station. That is, until Avalanche. So, how does MST3K handle a largely unriffed genre, especially with the new cast and crew of Season 11?

Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, and Robert Forster are the star studded cast threatened by a disaster this go around. Rock plays a real estate mogul who invites his ex-wife, Farrow, to his newly opened ski lodge in an attempt to woo her back. But Forster’s nature photographer thinks Hudson has cut down too many trees for his buildings, and increases the threat of avalanche. But this movie isn’t called “Incident-Free Ski Lodge”, so when a plane accidentally crashes into the mountain, well, you know. Characters reconcile, subplots upon subplots get tossed around in the snow, and modest special effects showcase a modest sense of awe and destruction. 

Starring Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, and all the ugly browns of the 1970s.
  
On my first time watching this, I wasn’t big on the episode. The movie has some things to offer, but not a lot. It’s got cheesy melodrama and action, but nothing out of the ordinary for the time. Despite all the snow bunnies and skiing stuff, there’s nothing especially dumb, offensive, or goofy about it. Largely, its them stretching for jokes, especially with all the jokes about the avalance itself, like Crow asking, during a romantic scene between Farrow and Forster, “So then the avalanche sneaks up and kills them, is that what happens?” There are some good jokes in there, don’t get me wrong. In fact, I found more on my second viewing I enjoyed. And there’s a few jokes at Farrow and Hudson, but not a lot and thankfully nothing mean spirited (“I brought enough cheekbones for every one of us,” jokes Tom when Mia Farrow walks onto a scene.)  But Jonah and the Bots aren’t really clicking with the movie.

What it does have going for it is that it comes from maybe MST’s favorite decade, the 70s. Even as the cast and crew have switched from kids of the 60s and 70s to the 80s and 90s, there’s still plenty of room on the SOL for riffs on wood paneling on cars, disco, and all the brown.  As a crappy band plays and people dance about it horrible yellow and brown 70s fashion, Jonah says, “1978, you have so many crimes to answer for.” Later during the party, Servo opines somberly, “Disco Fever affected everyone back then.” And during a ski race, Jonah says, “Smokers, drug users, and coffee drinkers?” To which Crow replies, “Oh, I get it! It’s a race to see who’s gonna live in the 80s.” Oh, and yes, they sneak in a reference to “Stupid Sexy Flanders”.

But even though the episode has more than its share of fun, to me,  the star is the “Hybrid Disaster Movie” segment. Ever since SyFy Channel movies hit it big, intentionally cheesy movies have been a thorn in the side of honest B-movie lovers, and Jonah and the Bots confront it head on. The Hybrid B-Movie sketch, where they make up tons of fake intentionally bad B-movie titles, became an immediate all-time classic and personal favorite. With fake B-movie titles like, “ BruchtapusMastodennui”, “Pugslide”, and “Volcanosaurus!”, how can you love cheesy scifi movies and MST and not love this sketch? The other skits are fine, including special guest  Neil Patrick Harris reuniting with fellow Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog member Felicia Day for a new song. There are also some small improvements to the show in general, such as the camera being better positioned on the SOL bridge. 

Jonah and the Bots doing God's work.

I swear, Felicia Day actually lands this punch.
 
So while Jonah and the Bots do fumble a little with a genre untested by the show before, I did enjoy this much more the second go around, and there’s enough to make MSTies happy on a rewatch. That said, let’s hope they learn a little so that they’re more prepared for the next disaster movie they cover.


Episode in a Riff:
During a figure skating montage: “Patience, sweet avalanche, your time will come.” -Crow


Random Asides:

-Kinga: “How are movies born?”
Max: “Oh! When  When a team of skilled hard working technical professionals really love each other...”
Excellent explanation, Max.

-There are a few Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski jokes early on. Topical!
...that comments works as both being serious and sarcastic.

-I love young Robert Forster in this. Glad he’s still getting decent work.

-This movie does something a lot of disaster movies do, which is introduce minor characters to have something happen to during the disaster who aren’t the main characters. And they’re as boring here as they are in every other 70s disaster movie.

-I can’t tell if Farrow is really good at playing nervous and shy around her ex, or that’s just how she i.

-Green screened avalanche footage is not impressive

-The joke “ava-lunch” is subtitled, and this makes me happy

-I like how Jonah tries to start a sketch based around the movie’s lighting, and Crow and Servo just bulldozer over him.

-What’s uglier: 70s fashion or 70s food?

-And now, my top 10 favorite fake B-movie titles;
10. Blizcanoswordapocalastronaut
9. T-Rexsplosion
8. Fraggle Rockslide
7. Rikki Tikki Tarantula
6. El-Nino Bear
5. Raptor Identity Theft 2016
4. Adobe Flashflood
3. Spider-Man: But a Monster, Not the Superhero
2. Cari-BOO! (cuz it’s a ghost)
1. Will Feral Cats

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