a review of

#96 (April 6/30) (This review is for the MST3K version, currently on Netflix) This one is a bit of a puzzler at first. Formally speaking, it straddles the line between your garden-variety 1970s disaster thriller and the sorts of heavily-padded, stock-footage-heavy schlock that MST3K specializes in. The added star power of Mia Farrow (in the prime of her career) and Rock Hudson (who was not in the prime of his) make this the most star-studded MST3K film since "The Space Travelers", but it's the budget-conscious hand of Roger Corman's New World Pictures that is the biggest player here. And with it taking nearly an hour before the titular disaster to strike, there's a lot of wheel-spinning going on among at least three or four subplots and sets of characters that never really add up to anything. But once the snow starts falling, there's plenty of ineptly-staged destruction for Jonah and the bots to mock. This episode also contains a couple of host segment musical numbers (one being a cast reunion for another scrappy online fan-driven property) that thematically tie in to the film, but both felt a bit indulgent and overlong to me. Perhaps I'll warm up to them a bit on subsequent viewings. Conversely, the segment about titles for hypothetical monster/disaster mashup movies was excellent but felt a bit short. I look forward to the inevitable t-shirt, a la Blast Hardcheese, etc.