Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Manos the Hands of Fate

Too much typing for that title! Anyway this is going to be a tricky review to write. Anyone who is familiar with the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 should know why. For those who aren't aware of the show, basically the concept is that a human character and two robots watch old terrible movies and make fun of them. There are some skits and other things in between, but that is the core concept. I had heard of the show but had never actually seen a single episode. I heard this was a great one to start with, so I figured I would give it a shot. I have to say that it's not as drop-dead hilarious as I was hoping, but there are definitely a lot of laughs to be had here.

This show seems like it would live or die by the movie that is being watched in the episode. Thankfully the movie they are watching here, Manos The Hands of Fate, is just fucking terrible. I've heard about this movie before but never had the balls to watch the real thing. Seriously just go on IMDB and look this movie up. Some of the Trivia facts for it are just amazing, and yet sad at the same time.  I'm really glad I chose this show as the venue to watch this movie because it's not only terrible, but really boring too.

Manos itself is really slow, despite some pretty awesome unintentionally hilarious moments. Plus the fact that it sounds like maybe 3 people did all of the voiceovers for all the characters. The little girl sounds like a fucking 40 year old, and it's damn funny. The movie really does just drag on though, so hearing some funny comments makes the whole thing much more tolerable.

The comments made throughout the movie range from hilarious, to a little cringe worthy at times. I can't really give any examples of some of the better ones since taken out of the context of the movie, they really wouldn't make any sense at all. I do this is something that would stand up to at least one more viewing, maybe not many more after that though.

I really don't have much more to say about this, which could be interesting since I plan on watching many more of these after this first introduction. It's a solid show that although not always hilarious, just has a likable quality to it. It just makes you smile when you watch it, and sometimes that's all you need.

7.5/10