Mystery Science Theater 3000 11.14: To the Earth's Core

This 1976 British adventure movie has an interesting concept that fails utterly in the execution. Peter Cushing, a man capable of a great deal more, phones it in. Doug McClure is silly. To be honest, Caroline Munro was never leading lady material. With cheesy dialogue and effects galore, it's a classic MST3K movie.

A lot of fun is had by all the SOL crew, with a new addition to the team, Growler, who appears to be staying for a while. The riffs come thick and fast, especially in the climax, with a lot of laugh out loud lines as the stuff they throw sticks.

Speaking of climaxes, Season 11's narrative arc comes to an end with Jonah and Kinga's wedding. While not the greatest event of all time, it does end in a suitably MST3K way, with a cliffhanger ending to boot...

Not perhaps the best episode, but a decent enough ending.

8/10

****
I have to say that the revival has been very good. There's a nice selection of films that have been made with plenty of great riffs and callbacks. I've had a good time and that's what matters to me.

One thing that's not quite worked is the timing of some of the riffs. They arrive slightly too early, ahead of where a natural response might be, so they

Looking forward to Season 12.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 11.13: "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't"

This saccharine-filled Italian Christmas movie tries to be charming but just ends up being dull, when it isn't being illogical, namely involving a very unconvincing lawyer among other things. It's not bad enough to be a truly great MST3K film and most of the material is forgettable.

What saves it is a very funny final twenty minutes with Joel Hodgson playing Santa Claus and an excellent final skit mimicking the movie's own photomontage.

Just one more episode of this run to go.

8/10