Cinematic Titanic: The Complete Collection

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

In any MST-related show, there is a certain percentage of laugh-out-loud jokes, a certain percentage of nose snorters, and a certain percentage of failures. It’s a given. Alas, “Cinematic Titanic” is too high on the failures, and not high enough on the killers. The mix is equivalent to the early MST years (first or second ComCent seasons). But that’s much less funny than the typical Rifftrax offering.

On these disks, the sound mix is poor. The riff commentary is much louder than the movie itself. Adjust so the jokes are appropriately loud, and you can’t hear the set up lines in the movie. Adjust so you can hear the movie, and the riffs are painful. This is more pronounced in the earlier shows, slightly less in the later ones.

The first half or so of the shows have a confusing setting, similar I guess to the MST premise of the riffers held against their will. This is not explained, and it took me a second time through each one just to figure out what the hell Joel was doing in silhouette over the closing credits. The J. Elvis interview on disk one reveals they deliberately left the whole setting unexplained, but that was a poor choice. At least MST explained the premise in the theme song. Film Crew explained it in a few seconds at the beginning of each episode, and Rifftrax finally figured out that the riffs are the important part, and dispensed with the premise entirely. At least the last half or so of the “Cinematic Titanic” episodes are “live,” so the premise was likewise unnecessary.

On the “premise” episodes, the gang stop the movies three or four times for a “host segment” digression. These are painfully unfunny, and whoever thought this was a good idea (I accuse Frank) ought to have known better. Again, for the “live” episodes, these annoying breaks are mercifully dropped.

Then there is the choice of movies. Most of these are from a single studio, and simply don’t offer the riffing opportunities better chosen flicks would have. Yes, Mike Nelson snagged some of the cream with Rifftrax (Plan 9, Little Shop, Carnival of Souls, NOTLD), but there still ought to be better choices than some of these. And come on — a second run at Santa Claus/Martians? True, the riffs are all new (or at least mostly all new). But wouldn’t time have been better spent on a new flick? I do have to doff my hat at their choice of “East Meets Watts,” (a/k/a Dynamite Brothers), which I didn’t expect to like but found hilarious.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some good jokes. But the overall blend is just not as good as this group is obviously capable of. Or, at least as they were capable of when Mike Nelson was Head Writer. When we compare the superior quality of the Nelson/Corbitt/Murphy offerings from late MST and Rifftrax to these from the rest of the crew, it becomes evident why Nelson was Head Writer.

– Kirinjin

Being an old MST3K fan from the days we were circulating the old VHS tapes, this is good stuff for me. While Mike Nelson and his pals were doing Rifftrax (also some good stuff), Joel Hodgson and his pals were doing Cinematic Titanic. Both shows gave us some of the riffing that originated on MST3K by the people who practically invented it, but Cinematic Titanic gives us some good stuff including “The Doomsday Machine” a sort of a 20th century Noah’s ark gone very wrong, and their version of “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” and even a bad Frankenstein movie for good measure. For 12 movies, it is well worth the price.

– Timothy

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, J. Elvis Weinstein
Directors: Tim Ford
Format: Box set, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 6
Rated: NR – Not Rated
Studio: Shout! Factory
DVD Release Date: August 8, 2017
Run Time: 960 minutes
ASIN: B071HGJK3G