A Fugitive Alien double-feature, a great Russian sword-and-sorcery film and a Mexican wrestling super hero.
Wow, Shout! Factory completes the MST3K Sandy Frank episode releases with BOTH Fugitive Alien episodes and tops that off with one of the Russo-Finnish films and a Mexican wrestling horror movie that says farewell to TV's Frank. This is a pretty eclectic mix of episodes that should please most fans.
310- FUGITIVE ALIEN
This 1987 TV "movie" is actually a 1978 Japanese TV series called Star Wolf imported and modified for the US by Sandy Frank, which tells you it's got to be good in that special way that Mighty Jack and Time Of The Apes are "good". Seriously, they don't get much funnier than this. A brutal alien "Wolf Raider" named Ken stops another "Star Wolf" from killing a human child also named Ken and becomes a fugitive from his own villainous comrades and their planet Valnastar. Ken is reluctantly taken in by the crew of the Earth ship Bacchus III commanded by the puffy-jowled Captain Joe and together they defend the Earth from further Wolf Raider attacks. There is...
An excellent set!
Wow, I'm the 12th reviewer on this thing and I'm so far the first to actually post a review AFTER the products come out.
After the last volume's somewhat less than stellar set of episodes, I was really hoping this box would have some winners, and I'm happy to report that it is EXCELLENT! It even includes some interesting bonus features. Here's the show by show breakdown:
FUGITIVE ALIEN: Another Japanese TV show stapled together by Sandy Frank to make a "movie," this one involves a renegade "wolf raider" named Ken who is a fugitive from his evil planet after not killing a kid during a raid, then accidentally shooting his partner when THAT guy tries to kill the kid. He is begrudgingly accepted onto spaceship of humans, led by drunk, puffy-faced Captain Joe. That sets up the rest of the "movie" which is mostly short unrelated adventures, since this was a TV show first. The movie is goofy fun, with some of the most hilarious Cheap-Star-Wars-Rip-Off style...
Sandy Frank And Songs About Forklifts...What More Could You Want?
Although many of the prime episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (MST3K) have been done in previous releases, Shout Factory really comes through with Volume XXIV. This is a great set, and the two "Fugitive Alien" releases are by themselves worth the price of admission and are the clear highlights of the set. "Fugitive Alien" and "Star Force: Fugitive Alien II" are works of Sandy Frank genius in which a 1970's Japanese TV show is sliced and diced in the most confusing imaginable way to yield films so hilariously bewildering that I consider them among the best "worst" movies ever made. The plots are essentially incomprehensible (so much so that at one point Tom Servo's head explodes,) but combine numerous characters named Ken and the least likely starship commander in the history of cinema, Captain Joe, with total lack of continuity (just try to keep track of which actor is playing Ken, I dare you!) Think of them as "Mighty Jack" only without the lucidity. These are two of the best...
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