This Island, The Satellite Of Love
Quite a few people are fans of the cult classic comedy show Mystery Science Theatre 3000, set in the not too distant future. I myself enjoy the show as well, and will do my best to simplify the plot for those who have never seen it. The evil Dr. Clayton Forrester (Named after the hero of Planet of the Apes) dislikes one of his employees, so he sends him into space to watch bad movies. To stop from going insane, the worker builds the robots Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot to watch the films with him. The three mock the film the entire run-time (called "riffing"), making the films more than just watchable.
The film the three watch this time around is This Island Earth, a ridiculous science-fiction film that is honestly much better than some of the vile movies the crew has riffed. Needless to say, the three make priceless jokes about the film, but not as good as some I've heard from actual episodes. Admittedly, I see this as weaker than several episodes I've seen, but still very entertaining. You could easily watch this film before any of the episodes and easily get the plot.
Also different is the style the film is shot. The skits with Forrester planning to conquer the world, and the three just goofing around or trying to escape are much brighter and better lite than any episode, and they clearly used a movie budget. Everything is crisp, and I honestly really love that about the film.
As stated above, the actual episodes did usually prove better, but if you want to see the film first, it would be basically the same experience. The movie gets 3 out of 5 stars from me. While not as good as several episodes of the show, it's a riot from start to first, even if they movie they riff is not.
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