{"id":2875,"date":"2008-01-19T23:17:56","date_gmt":"2008-01-20T04:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2008-01-19T23:17:56","modified_gmt":"2008-01-20T04:17:56","slug":"then-again-i-always-sort-of-preferred-mike-to-joel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2875","title":{"rendered":"Then again, I always sort of preferred Mike to Joel…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just finished watching The Oozing Skull<\/i>, the first DVD from Cinematic Titanic<\/a>, and by and large I really liked it. <\/p>\n

I think it would be tough for this first outing not<\/i> to feel a little uneven — or to have built up expectations so high that it doesn’t disappoint on some level. Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/i> has come to occupy such an exalted position in the memories of its fans, that almost any of the similar projects to come after it — and there have been a lot of those lately, haven’t there? — can’t help but pale in comparison. But, more often than not, I thought that the CT crew succeeded in what has to be job number one: making with the funny.<\/p>\n

Over at Anvil & Sprocket<\/a>, John bemoans the lack of spontaneity in the presentation and, even more so, the lack of host segments to tie the film together:<\/p>\n

The host segments also gave the players the opportunity to connect with the audience, often speaking directly to the camera. That gave us a sense of character which is very much lacking in Cinematic Titanic<\/i> unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re already very familiar with the players. But in the context of CT we have no reason to like these people-shapes or care about their commentary. Cinematic Titanic uses the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shadowrama\u00e2\u20ac\u009d technique in an entertaining fashion, but the show is desperately lacking in personality. Sparse. Cold. Impersonal. And I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how that gets fixed without bringing the lights up now and again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I see where he’s coming from with that, but I worry that maybe he’s unfairly punishing CT because it’s trying to do something different. It isn’t MST3K<\/i> — for both creative and budget reasons, I’m sure — and I’d prefer to judge it on its own merits than on what I miss about the old show.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, the original show could be pretty hit or miss sometimes, too. By and large, I thought this was a solid and funny first endeavor, and I look forward to more.<\/p>\n

I think the riff-less MST3K.com<\/a> is the only new venture from the old crew that truly fails on any major level.<\/p>\n

I completely agree with John’s complaint (echoed elsewhere<\/a>) about EZ Take\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no-frills packaging, however. That end of it leaves a lot to be desired. Word is that CT is looking to make this and future movies available via download (either instead of, or addition to, the DVDs), and it’s only an issue over copyright that prevented them from doing so this time. Given that there are no bonus features on the disc whatsover — and that it’s a minor miracle it arrived in the mail unscratched — download may be the preferable option. Especially if it helps bring the price down a few dollars. Seriously, for sixteen bucks plus shipping, I don’t expect a lot<\/i>, but a paper sleeve at least would have been nice.<\/p>\n

As for the movie itself…well, it was pretty uniformly dreadful. Although I was amused to see Angelo Rossitto<\/a>, who had a long if not exactly distinguished career, and who some people might remember better as the Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished watching The Oozing Skull, the first DVD from Cinematic Titanic, and by and large I really liked it. I think it would be tough for this first outing not to feel a little uneven — or to have built up expectations so high that it doesn’t disappoint on some level. Mystery Science … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}