The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Volume 11

One of the greatest cult TV shows ever keeps on (space) trucking, even posthumously, with volume 11 of MST3K now available on DVD. Although it ran for over a decade and its influence has continually popped up throughout pop culture, the underappreciated series seems destined to remain an underground commodity. The premise is simple but hilarious: smart-ass pop culture savants ridicule crappy movies. And, yeah, it never gets old. While the series has a plot (a man is sent into space and is tormented via a big bad with terrible movies to drive him insane, but retains his sanity by mocking them, along with the robot friends he constructs), it’s all pretty loose, designed to get to the mocking and not waste too much time talking. (As the theme song states, "If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, just repeat to yourself, ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax.’”) While they may have reached their max level of funny with MST3K The Movie (which is painfully hilarious to watch), this set collects such "awesome” films as Ring of Terror, Indestructible Man, Tormented and Horrors of Spider Island for the MST3K treatment. And, yeah, they’re bad, really bad (actually, "bad” doesn’t quite do the level of suck justice), featuring major deficiencies, (or a complete lack of) in plot, acting, special effects, etc., but it’s in that badness where the humour shines. The level of rapid-fire one-liners, pop culture references and jokes is always impressive, and even if something clangs, they’re on to the next one in seconds. True, to get to the funny, you’re still sitting through dreadful films, shorts and bad TV, and occasionally the datedness of the films becomes a chore. Just imagine if MST3K was still around and what they could do with some of the bombs dropped in recent years.