And now, #318, as Ken the Starwolf fights more aliens, and keeps ripping off George Lucas.
Our "movie" is another compilation of TV episodes, following immediately after the events of the first film. Ken's girlfriend is still dead, and the (brainwashed, blue-faced) Colonel that just got rescued is still on board the Bacchus 3.
This movie is more-or-less the same in tone and quality as the previous entry (as evidenced by those high-quality instrument readouts there), except for one thing. The editing here is even sloppier -- the final episode story just slams into the rest of the movie, without even a note from the usually redundant narrator to answer Crow's plaintive "What the heck is going on??" Ken and Cap'n Joe's crew still bravely war in the stars, attempting to destroy two planet-killing weapons that are definitely NOT the Death Star. Also, the finale is definitely NOT the trench dogfight from Episode Four. (Reminds me of the marketplace from the first movie, which was definitely NOT a wretched hive of scum and villainy.) At the end, like an interstellar Shane, Ken decides he must return to his home planet, to bring justice and freedom to all the other Starwolves. Without, you know, the audience feeling anything about it either way.
And if the movie is wall-to-wall Skywalking, the riffs and host segments are wall-to-wall singing. The final host spot is my second favorite so far in this binge, as our friends sing an extended medley of all the songs they made up for the film. I also really enjoyed the introductory scene, where Tom and Crow discuss the nature of puppets.
And speaking of this binge specifically, it's my first time hearing "Diarrhea is like a storm raging inside you." (Apparently, nobody's put that ad up on YouTube! Anybody got a copy?) The riffs also include my second Tom Waits joke, a nifty Barton Fink joke, and 2 SCTV jokes. This is the second episode in a row to reference "You want to go faster?," "Hi-keeba!," "Billy Don't Be A Hero," Vidal Sassoon, Gymkata, Keith Richards, Paul Harvey, and Jerry Lewis. It's the THIRD to reference 1960's TV Batman (and that doesn't even count the jokes about Cesar Romero.)
Bonus feature alert: A career-spanning interview with Sandy Frank, where he namedrops ceaselessly, and almost pretends to be gracious about the reason for the interview. He doesn't seem to harbor much love for the MST3K gang, which is understandable given all the name-calling they did toward him personally. I did like knowing more about his history, though he talks very little about the movies (and "movies") featured on MST.
A joke I had to look up: "Another painting by Judy Chicago."
A joke that didn't age well: Tom's reference to Roseanne Barr's rendition of the National Anthem.
My favorite joke from this one: I feel dirty, but it's absolutely Crow's endless use of "Again?" (If only they'd come up with a proper ending, it would be one of my favorite running jokes of all time.)
Overall, I rate this one 7/10. It feels more boring, and more confusing, than the previous installment. The movie's worse, but I think the host spots are slightly better.
Up next, I'm watching another TV-sourced twofer, starting with #322, Master Ninja.
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