The Giant of Marathon
Steve Reeves sans beard stars in this sword and sandal actioner. Had the Film Crew recorded this DVD today, it probably would have been filled with the sound of the guys shouting �SPARTA!� Anyhoo - The final release of the long anticipated project has improved with age, after watching it again last night I found the effort on par with �Killers From Space.
The riffing provided me a steady amount of laughter - early on we hear Bill obsessing on the male, uh, junk, there�s a quip about Phillipides dating the Joker that gave me a wide grin and the Napoleon Dynamite "Ligger" reference was cute and clever. The skits got a chuckle or two. Mike�s reveal in the first bit was funny and I got a laugh upon seeing Bill�s ketchup stained face after his demonstration. All in all the work on GOM was moving along at a nice clip�. And then, inspiration struck
-SPOILER ALERT- Watch the DVD before reading this because I don�t want to spoil it by over selling it. I don�t even know if I�ll have the same reaction in future viewings, but�
While almost always funny, there are moments in MST3K that leave me breathless. The first time I saw the �Craig� scene in Santa Claus, the first 20 minutes of skits and short for the Racket Girls episode to name two. And now, the Film Crew joins in that short list: There�s a scene with Herc, Uh Phillipides crossing a river on horseback. I don�t know if it was just my mood but the whole thing struck my funny bone hard. Lending the horse a voice was cute and Bill bringing the imagery of the animal on a jet ski to my mind tickled me to death. Then Mike gets in one final jab, imitating Mr. Ed, he chides muscle head from a bridge!
If these releases offer nothing else, it would have been worth every penny just for this sequence. After this inspired moment the riffing settles back into its solid, regular groove. But for one side splitting instant it was blissful comedy Nirvana and that boosts this to an A- grade