Sharpless

Hey, guess what came out today? Mystery Science Theater came out today. Specifically, the sixteenth volume of four-DVD box sets, released by Shout Factory. The set includes episodes Night of the Blood Beast, The Corpse Vanishes, Santa Claus, and Warrior of the Lost World. There are also a few substantial movie-related extras included and, if [...]

Gaming Today recently highlighted a video series from the excellent video gaming site The Escapist called Unskippable. In it, two guys watch video game trailers and cut-scenes and attempt to provide witty commentary over it. It’s essentially Rifftrax Presents for the gamer crowd. And judging from the few episodes I watched, it has the same [...]

If you’ve been keeping up with Brain-related news — and hopefully you have, despite my prolonged, shameful absence — then you know that Michael J. Nelson has been eating nothing but bacon, for the entire month of February. Why? Because the internet kids love the dead-pig product, and Mike Nelson loves the internet kids.
Evidently, the stunt caught the attention of the local news, and San Diego’s NBC affiliate did a story on Mike’s pork-fest. It now seems that what, to the naked eye, would appear to be suicidal madness, is actually turning out to be kind of beneficial: Mike’s lost some weight, and his blood pressure’s even gone down.
So, assuming that Mike survives the month, what should the Rifftrax crew tackle next? Should March be Bill’s month of chicken? Or maybe Kevin should spend April supping on Slim Jims? Will Cinematic Titanic counter with a month of veggies?
Posted in Brains, Media Mentions, News, Rifftrax, Video

A new Cinematic Titanic episode has been confirmed for January. The tastefully titled Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks will be released on DVD and digital download-to-burn on the 8th of the month. You can see the just-released trailer above.
A quick note and apology: I’ve been having some health concerns over the holidays, so posting will probably continue to be lackluster for a while. When things pick up again, I’ll have a couple of Cinematic Titanic reviews going up, and hopefully some Rifftrax, too. My apologies to anyone who cares about this.
Posted in Cinematic Titanic, DVD, News, Video

Satellite News recently caught wind of the list of extras, from Shout Factory’s forthcoming Mystery Science Theater set. There appear to be three extras and, while none of them are as exciting as volume thirteen’s, they’re pretty substantial and sound quite fun. Here’s the list:


A new interview With “Soultaker” star and MST3K favorite Joe Estevez.
Mike, Tom and Crow’s appearance on ESPN Classic’s “Cheap Seats Without Ron Parker.”
A new interview with “Final Justice” writer/director Greydon Clark.


Joe Estevez? That alone is worth the price of admission. But the infamous Greydon Clark, as well? Sold. I’m also, admittedly, not that familiar with the Cheap Seats appearance, but it’s a fairly well-known appearance among MSTies, so that’s likely a good thing, too. Should be an entertaining set. Now, if Shout Factory can score an interview with Joe Don Baker, then they will have truly bested Rhino.
Satellite News also mentions that there is apparently a false list of extras being circulated around the interwebs. The above list comes straight from the mouth of Shout Factory, so trust no one else.
Posted in DVD, Movies, MST3K, News, Shout Factory

Well, gang, if you’re anything like me, you’ve had a love-hate relationship with politics, this year. I’m really sick of all this nonsense, and after tonight it will effectively be over, but I’ve never been more interested and personally invested in an election. So, I’ll resist the urge to be partisan, and I’ll simply say that — as Joel would say — I abhor you to vote. This is your country, so go have your say.
Up above, you can find one of my favorite skits from MST3K. Right here, you can f

Josh just sent out this hilarious trailer for the November 20th release of Cinematic Titanic’s take on the old MST3K classic, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Judging from the riffs included in the trailer, this episode is looking like a good one. (Especially the last line. Ell-oh-ell, indeed.) I can’t wait to see their take on it.
Posted in Cinematic Titanic, DVD, Movies, News, Video

[In case it isn't clear, "Monkeyshines" posts are simply short, lighthearted posts with no other purpose than to amuse, distract, and allow me to post stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else... like this awesomely disturbing video I stumbled upon.]

You might have heard that the Cinematic Titanic cast was on-hand for the recent 32nd Archon convention in St. Louis. And you know, that’s just wonderful. Always good to see ‘em. But the real news to come out of the convention? The original, never-before-seen KTMA pilot for Mystery Science Theater was shown in its entirety at the panel, with an introduction and some commentary by the Cinematics.
Someone was smart enough to video-tape the event, and the Digital Archive Project was kind enough to get a dig

In an email oddly dated October 16th, 2008 (from THE FUTURE!), Josh Weinstein announced that the fourth episode of Cinematic Titanic, and the last from the May recording session, would be titled Legacy of Blood. The 1971 horror flick is about a creepy family who must spend the night in a mansion, in order to recieve their inheritence. Murder and fake blood ensues.
According to its lone IMDB review, it’s “not even worth viewing.” Well, okay then. Should be fun. It comes out on DVD and download-to-burn

Also, the sky is still blue.
A while back, the MSTiverse was abuzz about the MST-inspired series concocted by Martha Stewart, in which her daughter and one of her underlings’ daughter poked fun at old footage of her TV series. Sounds like comedy gold, right? Right? No? Okay.
Anyway, I just read Satellite News’ uncharacteristically biting review of the series, so I decided to look for footage of the recently-debuted show. I came across the above video, which doesn’t so much as inspire a smile, until pe

A couple of weeks ago, Bill announced that he, Mike, and Kevin would be participating in Quick Stop Entertainment’s annual “Masters of Song Fu” challenge. In the game, a bunch of challengers and a handful of “masters” are given a very specific songwriting challenge each round, and they must write and record a song within the parameters of that challenge.
Calling themselves “The Rifftones,” a name which undoubtedly has a ska band somewhere flipping through the Yellow Pages for a lawyer, their

A proper trailer has shown up for the independent film Triptosane, which features Trace Beaulieu as the voice of a nutty computer. The trailer isn’t too Trace-heavy, but it’s got enough to satisfy your “Trace Beaulieu doing the voice of a snarky machine” needs. I honestly have no idea what the premise of the film is, but it looks Overdrawn At The Memory Bank goofy. And in my book, that’s a good thing.
Language is a little NSFW, so don’t turn the volume up if you’re in a place of worship.

If there’s one thing that Joel, and apparently also his brother Jim, Hodgson are good at, it’s coming up with some weirdass, out-there concepts. A video that Joel uploaded to Cinematic Titanic’s YouTube account today is pretty solid evidence of that.
Entitled “Jollyfilter Test Video,” it’s a  short, five-minute proof-of-concept video for something titled, well, “Jollyfilter.” Apparently, it was part of an old development deal Joel and Jim had with USA Networks, which sadly appears t

Cinematic Titanic fans recently got a bundle of good news from Joel, in their inboxes. First and foremost is the news that the next episode of Cinematic Titanic will be Roger Corman’s The Wasp Woman, a film which they’ve already performed live a couple of times. The episode will be available on DVD and for download on August 7th.
Beyond that, Joel says that they’re trying to set up a production schedule of releasing a new episode every six weeks, which suggests that we could see the series’ fourth i