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Along with the Book of the week, the Movie of the Week has also become quite unmanageable. I will be creating a search tool for you to go through the different movies, but for the short term, I will present the Movie of the week as well as a link to the Movie archive.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - 1988 - 1997
Video for 02.06.18
When I grew up, a local, non-affiliated TV station used to show movies as part of their "Sci-Fi Sunday" line up. Being an independent station in a relatively small market, they could not afford to present very good movies. Actually, they didn't seem to have enough money to present "B" movies, all they could afford was some real turkeys that were paid for by the absolute bottom feeders of advertising (Ronco, K-Tel and a store that sold used beds, as disgusting as this sounds).
For the most part, the movies just awful. A "good" movie was something like "Godzilla vrs Rodan" while the main fare was something that was so bad that there was a weekly get-together to watch criticize and joke about these films. The plots, if present, were very thin and occasionally you would see an actor that would become famous (and would never admit that they were in this film in the first place). I wouldn't be surprised to find out that every teenaged boy within 100 miles of Toronto/Buffalo was watching this and coming up with their own "Riffs" to what was happening and what was being said.
This is why I have such deep affection for the "Mystery Science Theatre 300". TV show. In case you've never seen it or heard of it, the concept is simple: each week a human test subject and two robot companions are stranded in space and are forced to watch the worst movies ever made in order to find out which one is guaranteed to drive people insane. In order to stay sane, the three viewers belt out insults, responses and jokes ("Riffs") to what is happening on the screen. The show went on for nine years, filming well over 100 episodes.
Rhino Records has been releasing various episodes for a few years now and most recently, they have been coming to DVD. They are great and perfectly suited to the DVD format. Along with the movie, some episodes also include shorts that are just as unbelievably painful as the full movies. Along with this, there is the "Experiment Exchange" and basic weirdness. Take a quick Google search to find sites devoted to Mystery Theatre 3000 (affectionaly known as "MST3K").
The currently released DVDs include:
The brain that wouldn't die - Decapitated woman is unlucky enough to have a finacee that can keep her head alive in a pan.
The beginning of the end - Peter Graves battles huge grasshoppers that crawl around postcards.
The wild world of Batwoman - Beautiful young woman help an old skank with a batshaped mole on her chest fight crime.
Eegah - Richard Keil ("Jaws" in the 1970's James Bond movies) is a 10,000 year old throwback.
Mitchell - Joe Don Baker is a 10,000 year old throwback. Actually he's a 10,000 year old throwback cop.
Red Zone Cuba - John Carradine Sings.
I accuse my parents - Let's blame who really is responsible.
The Hellcats - Bikers, babes and beer.
Manos, the hands of fate - Some guy running around entrancing women while wearing a cloak with two big hands on it.
The crawling hand - An astronaut goes nuts, blows every part of himself up except for his hand...
As more episodes become available, I'll update this entry.