Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

Director: Jim Mallon
Stars: Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Jim Mallon

Fans of the cult classic TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 know the truth: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie is, for all intents and purposes, a glorified episode, with little reason to be called a “movie.” But who cares when the final product is this riotous?

Per usual, imprisoned earthling Mike Nelson and his alien robot pals Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu), as their spacebound punishment entails, are forced to watch a particularly awful B-movie and diss the hell out of it the entire time; here, the movie under fire is This Island Earth, a 1955 turkey that’s riddled with scientific inaccuracies but is actually much better than the usual MST3K fare.

Bigger movie budget means a better movie-within-the-movie? Considering that it also begets countless snaps from Nelson and his cohorts, we won’t complain.