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(aka, whoever wrote this script)405 - BEING FROM ANOTHER PLANET

Genre:  Low Budget ’80s Horror (1982, Color)

Synopsis:  This movie opens as some explorers find a hidden room in King Tut’s tomb, where they find a lot of dusty skeletons and another mummy.  Then it switched to the California Institute of the Sciences, where Professor Ben Murphy and his college student assistants are busy opening the mummy’s sarcophagus that the school just acquired.  They first X-ray the mummy, but one of the students accidentally sets the machine at 10x the normal dose for a 3000 year old mummy.  This Greedy Student then is developing the X-rays when he notices that some diamond-like crystals (cubic zirconia?) are in a hidden compartment in the mummy’s case.  So he steals the zirconia crystals and re-does the X-ray to cover his tracks, hiding the original X-ray film behind the machine that goes “Bing!”  Meanwhile, the mummy’s heart begins glowing (just like E.T. – do all aliens have glowing hearts?).  Ben Murphy and some student are busy studying some sort of fungus from the mummy.  They see the hidden compartment on the redone X-ray and open it (too late for the cubic zirconia!).  Meanwhile, the Greedy Guy is trying to sell the zirconia crystals to a jeweler, but is told that they are worthless (much like this movie!).  Back at the college, an afro-wearing doctor says that the mummy fungus is no longer dormant, and a dumb student then touches the stuff and can’t get it off his hand.  The college institute’s head honcho holds a press conference to unveil the mummy, but when the sarcophagus is opened, the mummy is gone.  So while the college leaders are trying to find who “stole” the mummy, we get to see the boiler room the mummy is inexplicably hiding in through the mummy’s eyes, a.k.a. mummy-vision, a.k.a. nausea-cam.  The Greedy Guy is still trying to get rid of the worthless crystals, selling one to a dumb guy and giving the rest away.  Now the mummy is going around and retrieving the crystals from all of the people wearing the tacky jewelry, killing them in the process. (That’ll teach them for taking his jewelry!)  The Institute’s head honcho and some annoying guy cook up a story blaming Ben Murphy for stealing the mummy.  Professor Ben Murphy’s cute student girlfriend (I’m sure she gets A’s!) has one of the tacky crystals on a bracelet and he sees that it has the same electronic diagrams in it that are on the mummy’s sarcophagus.  Soon, the mummy is chasing the girlfriend through the library to get the crystal bracelet (uhmm, why does she still have crystal, now that Ben Murphy knows it’s from the mummy?).  The mummy gets the crystal back, but the girl falls from a ladder before he can kill her.  Now in the hospital, the girlfriend tells Ben Murphy that the Greedy Guy gave her the crystal.  So Ben Murphy gets the second-to-last crystal from the Greedy Guy, while the mummy is getting the last one from a girl in the shower. (Sorry, no nudity.)  Down in the boiler room, Ben puts the second-to-last crystal in the mummy’s large Star Trek Communicator like thing, when the mummy shows up and puts in the final crystal, lighting up his crotch area. (I bet E.T. can’t do that!)  The mummy is still lighting up and finally looking like an alien, when the college head honcho, the annoying guy, and a security guard inexplicably show up in the boiler room too.  The annoying guy orders the security guard to shoot the alien, but he instead shoots Ben Murphy (don’t blame him), who then crawls over to the alien and beams up with him. (So actor Ben Murphy really is an alien! I knew it!!)  The movie ends as the annoying guy touches one of the crystals and gets the fungus.

Host Segments:

  • Prologue:  Joel & the Bots are playing a game of 20 Questions (although the Bots’ questions are getting nowhere)
  • Segment One (Invention Exchange):  The Bots are still guessing with questions;  the Mads invent “Tragic Moment Figurines” depicting a number of decidedly non-precious moments of life;  J&tBs invent the “Jack Palance Impersonator Kit” to imitate the actor’s distinctive voice
  • Segment Two:  Joel is wrapping the Bots up mummy-style, when the Bots go off on a Billy Mumy rant, so Joel defends the actor because he is a fan
  • Segment Three:  Joel is blindfolded as the Bots try to put on a scare show, with sound effects and squishy things that are supposed to be eyeballs, guts, worms, and brains (which Joel loves)
  • Segment Four:  Crow and Servo are depressed by the movie, so Joel, Gypsy, and Cambot put on a rainy day sketch to cheer them up (but it leaves them all feeling kinda empty inside)
  • Segment Five (End):  J&tBs put on TV’s Frank Shopping Network, selling the V-shaped mummy crystal-holder thing from the movie; Frank calls in to buy it and is about to bring the SOL down to Earth when Dr. F walks in and stops him with the aid of a Thigh Master

Stinger:  Annoying Guy gets the fungus on his hand and screams (i.e. the final shot of the movie again)

  

Don’s Review:  This experiment features a film that’s more like the type of movie that would dominate the show during its later Sci-Fi Channel run.  And, like those movies, this more recent sci-fi movie really shows the show a bit differently than we’re usually used to during the Comedy Central years.  The style of the movie is more modern and it affects the riffing a lot.  So although there are a number of good riffs in this episode, it doesn’t totally gel as well as other episodes during this same season.  However, the host segments are a pretty good lot in all, featuring a great invention exchange (the Mads’ “Tragic Moments Figurines” is one of my all-time favorite inventions from the show), and a lot of good movie-related segments, ending with the funny TV’s Frank Shopping Network ploy to escape.  So although this is a bit below average episode, it still offers enough to be well worth a look.

Don’s Rating: 

  

Forrest’s Review:  I actually liked this episode, but I have to agree with Don about one thing, this movie is not much fun and it’s actually very hard to get through.  In the end credits Joel and the bots even say that this is the worst movie they had done up to that point...or at least, tied with The Castle of Fu-Manchu.  It’s one of those movies that seems to drag on and on for hours and hours, when in reality, there’s only about 75 to 85 minutes of movie to be seen in an MST3K episode.  The riffs are consistent throughout.  There were a few big laughs, but mostly just solid riffing. The host segments were a lot of goofy fun, and I really enjoyed them.  This makes it a solid episode in my opinion.  Not bad at all, but not good enough to recommend highly.  I still really liked the ancient astronaut riffs that Tom made throughout; but even with that, this still isn’t a particularly great episode.

Forrest’s Rating: 

  

Related Link:
   (1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)