JED!!!
Leech Woman was only the
second episode of MST3K’s un-cancelled 8th season, and it found Best
Brains returning to riffing movies without missing a stride. Leech Woman is a stepping stone towards
the greatness that is season 8, and the second of five sequential Universal
International films. Though not an all-time classic, there’s a lot to love
about this one, from a movie filled with detestable characters, stock footage
and bogus science, to host segments mocking Planet
of the Apes. What more could you want? Okay, dinosaurs and boobs, but let’s
be realistic, here.
The
movie follows a woman who, while on a trip to Africa with her abusive endocrinologist
husband, discovers the secret to eternal youth by mixing extract from a rare
flower with hormone extracted from the back of men’s heads in the pineal gland.
So, she returns to America and goes on a pineal piercing spree in an attempt to
stay young.
It’s
curious to see the show growing into its new SciFi Channel era with Pearl as
the baddie, the Planet of the Apes
stage of the “Great Chase” plotline still going strong, and Corbett filling in
as Crow. Corbett feels like he’s still working on his Crow voice, sounding a
little too high pitched and nasally. But he feels natural in the theater,
zinging off lines like, “I guess they came to Africa during animal convention
time,” during the depth of the stock footage of animals, and in skits like
plotting with Servo to kill Mike and take his pineal juice, the rascal.
Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is having a blast on the Apes set, with Pearl growing
from Dr. Forrester’s flighty mom to the true Fearful Forrester and Murphy,
Nelson, and the others are having great time as the apes. I love Pearl’s line, when
dictating arbitrary laws for the Apes, referring to herself as, “the great, and
mighty and foxy Lawgiver,” and it’s
interesting seeing a more erudite Bobo as opposed to the clown he becomes when
Brain Guy takes the role as the smart one.
But
the star, as usual, is the movie, and it’s got plenty to offer: despicable people,
rampant alcoholism, rapid-fire riffing, and, as Crow says, “It’s not stock
footage, it’s stock mileage at this
point.” This poor main character, June: she has an awful, dismissive, verbally
abusive husband, is almost comically alcoholic, turns young then old again, and
murders people. What’s next, she gets audited? Oh and then there’s her new
would-be beau Neil, a POS who starts hitting on Young June the second he meets
her while his fiancé is STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO HIM Mike and the Bots make each other chuckle a
lot through this and most of season 8, which keeps a jovial, irreverent
attitude flowing through the episode, like ripping on annoying coworkers with a
good friend, and not to mention a ton of drunk and old people jokes! The jokes
come so fast, funny and clever that there’s one I just got after seeing this
episode for the umpteenth time almost 20 years after its airing: a leopard runs
across the screen, and Servo says, “What? I can’t hear you, I’m deaf!” All in
all this is a really fun episode from one of the best runs the show ever saw.
Random
asides
-Who’s a worse actor, June's husband, Phillip Terry, or Lance Fuller in She Creature?
-Wouldn’t
Dr. Paul Talbot, endocrinologist extraordinaire, make more money out of something that prolongs life than something that makes
you young for like a day?
-Interesting
how it’s not native hocus pocus that makes her young, but native bogus science
that does the trick! Ah, the 50s.Er, 60s.
-The
first host segment is okay, but man, are monkeys gross. I’m with the Nostalgia Critic: monkeys aren’t funny!
-My
fave stretch of the episode is the last 3rd with Neil and is wife,
where the scheme to turn young, and the romantic dancing around with Neil and
his fiance and June’s older self are, as Mike says, “Like a murderous episode
of Lucy.”
-Lol
dumb robots. They forgot they don’t have the essence of the nipe plant and can’t make themselves
immortal! Also, they’re robots and have lived like hundreds of years. Also,
it’s a TV show.
-I
love Mike and Tom dancing in the theater.
-Man,
Tom goes nuts for the Beverly Hillbillies
skit at the end. I love Mike strangling him.
-Tom’s
gun fires, but there’s no effect. Sad that YouTubers like Angry Joe can do that
affect now but MST couldn’t back then.
I
love the way Murphy as Bobo pronounces "de-evolution"
-“Finger
sandwich lawgiver?” “Why thanks, and here’s one for you!” *poke*
Holy
hell, did Murphy do that credits “JED” in one, long take, or did they blend a
few?
-Man,
how can something that funny as the long “Jed!”, mixed with the somewhat
melancholy MST theme, produce such a bittersweet mixture? That something
hilarious was enjoyed but is now over? Sigh, each episode makes me miss the show and more excited for its return!
-Funny,
seeing the difference between a Joel and Mike episode. I love the feelings of
friendship of the Joel episodes, the but Mike ones, which often feel like them
united against the movie, also give a feeling of camaraderie, of fellow
soldiers in arms, deep in the trenches of war against a bad movie, laughing to keep each
other sane, in the hope that one day, the crock climbing scenes will be over,
there’ll be no more singing of “I sing whenever I sing”, but also a sadness
that when the war is over, so is the friendship.
Repeat
to myself, it’s just a show….
Episode in a riff
Episode in a riff
Good night, everyone! Old women are evil.
My Top 6 Favorite Riffs from the episode:
Additional links:
No comments:
Post a Comment