paulmst3k

Before I begin with the summary, let me just say that this movie should only be watched with the help of Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo. (or collectively: MST3K)

Anyway, I'm what you call an obsessed fan of MST3K and I own this episode and have seen it many times. On one of these viewings, I decided to push out the hilarious comments of the Bots and focus on the actual movie, just to see if I could actually understand the whole thing. And I'll be honest, I did kind of understand where Francis was going with this whole thing. The movie is unforgettable, because it is so bad. The characters, the plot, the editing, the music, the crudely drawn map used to invade Cuba (looks like it was drawn by a 7 year old trying to draw like a 4 year old), and the really long drawn out scenes. Everything about the movie is bad, and maybe that's Coleman Francis point. He's not going to entertain us with a happy ending and interesting characters, he's making us face brutal reality. People are mean, evil, like sucks for some people. Francis is portraying all the dreariness of life, and he succeeds because he is able to make the audience suffer through what the characters suffer. Think about the part when the car is at the side of the road, and the camera pans over to the crosses with words on them that spell out something like, "You will be here forever." Think about it as long as you like, maybe Francis is trying to say with his dreary sets, dreary plots, and dreary characters that life is dreary. Take the movie for what it's worth...dreary.

I don't know, maybe I'm just nuts. Maybe Coleman was trying to do a edge-of-your-seat thiller. But he didn't. Still, I'd rather watch this movie than "Waterworld" "Speed 2: Cruise Control" "Police Academy 7" or "She's All That." I have a good idea for a sequel focusing on the uprising with Manuel Noriega, you could call it "Red Zone Nicaragua."