theater

12 Apr

Link Tank: How Fans Can Help Save Mystery Science Theater 3000

New DVD releasemystery, science, theater

Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson and Shout! Factory have launched a kickstarter to revive the show after Netflix opted not to renew it. “From modest beginnings on a local Minneapolis television station in the late 1980s to cable to a live tour, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has proved to be an enduring cult classic. The show—which features a captive audience of one human and several robots riffing on bad movies—was last seen on Netflix for a two-season revival in 2017 and 2018.” Read more at Mental Floss. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier grapples with what being a…

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08 Feb

Link Tank: How a Movie Theater’s Mistake Changed Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner

New DVD releaseblade, changed, mistake, movie, ridley, scott, theater

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) would’ve gone down in history as a mediocre cult classic had one movie theater not made the best mistake in 1992. “Upon its initial theatrical release in 1982, director Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner met with only middling success. The movie—the story of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who is dispatched to eliminate androids dubbed replicants that have gone rogue in the year 2019—was reportedly caught between the wishes of Scott and executives at Warner Bros., who wanted less of the filmmaker’s ambiguous narrative and more clear exposition.” Read more at Mental Floss. Want to work while…

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25 Nov

MST3K Turkey Day: The Long History of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Thanksgiving

New DVD releasehistory, mst3k, mystery, science, thanksgiving, theater, turkey

Sometimes a long-running TV show finds itself linked to a certain holiday. Community had Christmas. The Simpsons has Halloween. Brooklyn 99 had Halloween, then changed it to Cinco de Mayo for scheduling reasons. Saturday Night Live has…Election Day, I guess? I probably should have thought this through a bit more. While Mystery Science Theater 3000 has done a handful of Christmas-themed episodes (one major one per host, at least), the series has a much deeper relationship with Thanksgiving. Turkey Day is essentially its legacy. It started on Thanksgiving and it always comes back to that one Thursday in late November,…

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21 Aug

Movie Theater Owners Unveil Safety Protocols

New DVD releasemovie, owners, protocols, safety, theater, unveil

The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) unveiled on Friday its own safety guidelines for movie theaters as the major exhibitor chains began reopening around the country. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the guidelines are voluntary but require that all customers and employees wear face coverings as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage mostly unchecked throughout the United States. NATO issued the guidelines as a vast majority of screens owned by major exhibitors like AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas start opening their doors this weekend after a five-month COVID-19 enforced shutdown that nearly drove the theater business to the brink…

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25 Jul

Movie Theater Owners: ‘We’re Not Going to Be There’ in a Year

New DVD releasegoing, movie, owners, theater, there

The delay of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet this week was dire news for movie theater owners around the world. While Warner Bros. and Nolan remain committed to getting that movie out to international movie theaters, potentially as soon as the end of August, its indefinite delay in the U.S. has triggered a new wave of similar pushbacks, including Mulan’s indefinite delay and Paramount Pictures’ A Quiet Place Part II and Top Gun: Maverick abandoning September and December, respectively. On the one hand, when looking at the grim new data emerging from a surging coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., this seems unavoidable,…

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17 Jul

Live Theater and Music Venues to Open in England in August

New DVD releaseaugust, england, Music, theater, venues

The play’s the thing—that will be available for some musical fans in London and throughout England come August. Indeed, the UK government announced Friday afternoon that indoor performing arts and concert venues can open their doors at a reduced capacity on Aug. 1. The news was made official on Twitter by Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. He also released on a statement that said the following: “The U.K.’s performing arts sector is renowned across the world and I am pleased that we are making real progress in getting its doors reopened to the public…

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22 Aug

Hamlet (Royal Exchange Theater; 2015)

New DVD releaseexchange, hamlet, royal, theater

Rent It The Film: For quite a while now, the classic plays of William Shakespeare have been tweaked to modernize the setting or reflect current social changes, and the consistency of those alternate versions naturally make it more difficult to do so in subtle ways that haven't been done before. Therefore, to strike those kinds of chords in the current climate, changes to Shakespeare's source material tend to be more dramatic and bolder in how they reshape the world and context in which they're taking place. Manchester's Royal Exchange Theater have been intrepid in their efforts to retain the essence…

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30 May

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Singles Collection

Max SchindlerNew DVD releasecollection, mystery, science, singles, theater

DVD Talk Collector Series The Collection: Shout! Factory seems to have completed the nearly two-decade process of putting out DVDs of all the legally cleared episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000's original 1989-1999 run, with last year's 39th volume. But, the company's work is not totally done. In addition to releasing the cult comedy show's new episodes on disc, they've been doubling back to get the original Rhino-released DVD sets of the show back in print. (I reviewed the reissued

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19 Nov

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXIX

Max SchindlerNew DVD releasemystery, science, theater, volume, xxxix

Recommended The Movies:It's a bitter sweet day for Mystery Science Theater fans...Shout! Factory has released the last (probably) collection ofepisodes from the original run of the show. While it's great thatthree new episodes (and a disc of bonus material... more on thatlater) are out on DVD, it's sad that there are eleven installmentsthat have never been released, and probably never will be, becauseof copyright issues. Still, these three shows from the Mike yearsare solid, and the set, rather aptly, includes the very lastepisode.The shows included in this set are:Experiment 601 - Girls Town:Mike (referring to Mel Torme): He's like a…

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