We Put Our Faith In Blast Hardcheese.

My favorite episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 has to be the South African abomination Space Mutiny. For the two or three of you unaware of the of MST3K, you can read up on it here. It's high-concept to the max: a guy and his two robot buddies sit around and ridicule bad science fiction/horror/etc. movies. Generally, I'm not a fan of ironic consumption and it is rare that I encounter a so-bad-its-good film worth watching. I'm this guy long before my time. Space Mutiny is an exemption by a galactic margin. I mean, even the poster is something else:

Image co. MST3K Temple

Every convention of a deep-space-voyage science fiction film is rendered so poorly that it actually works as a cohesive whole. Half of the film takes place in an honest-to-god warehouse. It's supposed to be on the generation ship Southern Sun but, no, it's just a warehouse. Combine that lazy staging with ham-fisted acting, external scenes literally rented from Battlestar Galactica and omnipresent 1980s computers (wall mounted keyboards!) and you've got the recipe for what is, apparently, one of my favorite films. I've never seen it sans Mike, Tom Servo and Crow's wisecracks, but considering it is impossible to watch the movie without joining in, I doubt it would lose much.

Speaking of wisecracks, there's a running gag in the MST3K version of the film. Protagonist David Ryder's on-screen appearances are consistently barraged with absurd action hero names – “Gristle McThornbody!” “Crunch Buttsteak!” “Smoke Manmuscle!” Considering the show's fanbase, I wasn't at all surprised when a compilation of these turned up on YouTube (unnecessary spoiler alert):

Well, that's all I have to say about Space Mutiny. Oh, hey, did you actually want to, I don't know, watch it? Well, you're in luck! The whole thing is on YouTube, in strikingly good quality (make sure to turn HD on.) I hope you enjoy it as much as I regularly do, friends.

Related posts:

1. Job 41
2. Howlin’