Another from the original season of mystery science theatre 3000, which is now viewed as a pilot run.
The film is an early eighties vehicle for Lee Majors, where he is a former racecar driver in a world where oil has run out. Forced to work for the authority, he's been tied down for twenty years. But then a chance to get to free country in New California inspires him to make a break for it in his old race car. Pursued by Burgess Meredith as a veteran fighter pilot in his old jet.
This is one of those films which has far more ambition than budget. Thus there's no crowd scenes. The cinematography is grainy and very poor at times. And frankly the action underwhelms. Credit to Burgess Meredith for getting fully into his role and not just turning up for the pay check though. Not a terrible film, but not a great one at all.
But by this point in this season, it follows the format you will be familiar with from later years, just with the exception of having the mads and not Joel and the bots in the opening scenes.
These host segments are quite funny throughout, and the end one is really quite nice. The one flaw with the episode is still with the riffing, which again appears to be improvised not scripted. This results in long dry spells and a lot that really is more reaction than joke. There are some good ones though.
At the time of writing this is the fourth of this season I have watched, and the first I would say I enjoyed. But you can see the seeds of greatness almost bearing fruit here.
The film is an early eighties vehicle for Lee Majors, where he is a former racecar driver in a world where oil has run out. Forced to work for the authority, he's been tied down for twenty years. But then a chance to get to free country in New California inspires him to make a break for it in his old race car. Pursued by Burgess Meredith as a veteran fighter pilot in his old jet.
This is one of those films which has far more ambition than budget. Thus there's no crowd scenes. The cinematography is grainy and very poor at times. And frankly the action underwhelms. Credit to Burgess Meredith for getting fully into his role and not just turning up for the pay check though. Not a terrible film, but not a great one at all.
But by this point in this season, it follows the format you will be familiar with from later years, just with the exception of having the mads and not Joel and the bots in the opening scenes.
These host segments are quite funny throughout, and the end one is really quite nice. The one flaw with the episode is still with the riffing, which again appears to be improvised not scripted. This results in long dry spells and a lot that really is more reaction than joke. There are some good ones though.
At the time of writing this is the fourth of this season I have watched, and the first I would say I enjoyed. But you can see the seeds of greatness almost bearing fruit here.
