MST3K Review

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822 - OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK

Genre: Ultra-ultra-low budget Virtual Reality Sci-Fi (1983, Color)

Don’s Synopsis: In this videotaped PBS movie (bad movie mistake #1: “Never use videotape instead of film because it instantly makes your movie look extremely cheap”), Raul Julia stars as Fingal, a computer programmer bored with his job, so he likes to watch “cinemas” at his computer, in particular Casablanca (bad movie mistake #2: “Never remind the audience of a great movie that they should be watching instead of your lame-ass flick”). But Fingal is caught watching Casablanca and is send away for “Doppling Rehab.” What is that? Well, it’s one goofy-assed idea, that’s what it is: the rehab center takes Fingal’s personality out of his body and put it into a cube and then transfer it from there into a baboon. Why into a baboon? I don’t know, but it really is as stupid as it sounds. While Fingal is rehabbing in the baboon, a bunch of bratty kids are allowed to run around the surgery rooms where the rehabs are taking place. One of these little brats starts switching body tags and, when Fingal’s personality is returned from the baboon, the rehab technicians can’t find his body. So they have to try a convoluted plot-device where Fingal’s personality is temporarily transferred in the main computer and the technician in charge, named Appollonia, is required – for some stupid reason – to hook herself into the computer to monitor him. Inside the computer, Fingal begins to make it into his own dream world, which means – yep – he is transported into the movie Casablanca. And, so, we now get to see Raul Julia play Humphrey Bogart’s role Rick – badly – as well as see some acting school reject do a pretty pathetic Peter Lorre impression. Meanwhile, the really fat president of the company is getting all upset over what Fingal is doing in the computer, so he is dropped into the computer as – you guessed it – the Fat-Man from Casablanca. The rest of the movie is rather confusing as Fingal switches from one fantasy to another, but always ends up right back in Casablanca; the Fat Man constantly threatens him but then does nothing; and the girl enters and leaves Fingal’s fantasies to somehow help the plot along. Eventually, Fingal gets out of the computer (with the help of some incredibly cheesy computer graphics), but by then I was begging for this movie to please come to a merciful end.

Don’s Review: This was one awful movie that – inexplicably – was produced by a PBS station. (I think if I was watching this on PBS, I would cancel my donation check ASAP!) This awful movie barely makes any sense whatsoever in its completely out-there attempt to be mind-bogglingly intelligent science fiction. But how this cheapo production was able to get Raul Julia is what’s really mind-boggling – I figure that he either owed someone a favor or they must have had some embarrassing photos to blackmail him with. The riffing on this was pretty good overall and the host segments feature an amusing Public TV spoof by Pearl & the Guys. This is yet another decent episode from Season Eight.
Trivia Notes:
   (1) The animal footage in the movie was lifted from a pretty funny documentary called Animals Are Beautiful People.
    (2) And the theme music for Pearl’s Public TV station is the very same theme music from the Mystery Science Theater Hour!

Don’s Rating:

Forrest’s Synopsis: Just when you thought that nothing could be as bad as Invasion of the Neptune Men, Season Eight ends with, quite possibly, the worst movie ever made. Now I don’t know why anyone would make a movie like this. Let’s see. A guy named Fingal (Raul Julia) is a computer programmer in the future (how do we know it’s the future? Because a big fat guy twirls around as a holographic image of course!). Fingal gets bored so he decides to watch Casablanca. Apparently, watching movies in the future is forbidden, so Fingal is sent to rehab. In this rehab, people are “doppled” and made to think they’re animals (?). God forbid you become an anteater! Anyway, after being doppled, Fingal lives his fantasies, which includes cocaine falling from the ceiling, having sex with the girl that works across from him, Casablanca, and of course, his nuts. But apparently there’s this fat guy who is after him (for some reason) and then Fingal somehow defeats him, and the worst movie ever made finally comes to an end.

Forrest’s Review: George Lucas once said: “Never have anyone in a movie say: ‘This is boring,’ because then the audience will think the movie is boring.” The makers of Overdrawn at the Memory Bank should have listened to that bit of advice from Mr. Lucas. Raul Julia’s character says “This is boring” at least twenty times in the feature, and, yes, George Lucas is 100% on the mark – it actually made the movie even more boring. Secondly, Casablanca is a a great movie, and considered to be one of the best ever made, so why remind people of that great movie constantly in your crappy movie? This movie is truly an awful mess. Raul Julia was a good actor, so why the hell did he do this to himself? Damn, this movie is bad. Not bad, it’s terrible. It’s visually uninteresting, hopelessly confusing, poorly acted, and it just is bad, bad, bad. I couldn’t make a movie this bad even if I tried.
The host segments are reasonably good. I enjoyed all of them – except the humorless song sung by Observer and Pearl. The riffing is the highlight. I laughed all the way through, and the “Mom....my nuts” line by Fingal (which is really “Mom... am I nuts?”) is a classic. Yes, this movie does deserve the title of worst movie ever. Manos had the saving grace of Torgo; Red Zone Cuba is unintentionally funny on its own; and at least Hobgoblins has something that resembles continuity. This episode is the best example of the Brains totally destroying a movie. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank is the kind of movie that even makes me thankful for even the worst Hollywood big budget crap. This movie REALLY deserves MST and MST is what it got. Tom, Crow and Mike are excellent throughout, and the host segments, while not great, are actually rather good. It’s nice to see Ortega again! (sorta)
DVD Features: This disk is available on the fourth Rhino boxed set. The DVD quality, though very good, is actually a bit too dark. The title menu is very bland, and the only extra is an intro by Mike Nelson, which is too short to even be considered an extra. Overall though, this is about the best copy you can get of “Bank” (as its legions of fans call it).

Forrest’s Rating: