K16 City On Fire

K16 City On Fire: We're not quite there yet, but I'm starting to notice that MST3K is starting to take shape. The riffing isn't AS sparse as it was in earlier episodes, the fan club is around, the host segments have a bit more thought behind them, the boys are settling into their characters nicely, and letters are read at the end of each episode.

City On Fire is yet another mad for TV movie full of washed-up stars. It's no SST Death flight, but COF is certainly better than "Superdome". There was actual effort put into the acting (well, for the most part), but oh boy is this a tuff flick to sit through. This has got to be THE most soul-suckingly depressing movie of the KTMA season. It has an extremely downbeat tone, and when you throw in heaping helpings of innocent people burning to death you've got 90 minuets of pure unledded depression.
Verdict: 1/4-Awful! I say this just because I have a very hard time with how depressing I find this flick.

I'll say this much, at least the boys are trying (and pretty hard, to add) to make this one funny. There are some pretty funny lines here or there and there was a couple of giggles to be had, but this movie, oh man this movie is also trying very hard. Trying very hard at depressing the audience that is! Sadly, not even Joel and the bots can make it very funny. Sorry boys, I guess that you'll have to try harder next time.

Opener: The mads have to change their licenses to being "mildly peeved researchers".
Seg1: The bots pull the old "black eye telescope" gag on Joel. Bad puns fallow.
Seg2: Joel's hell in a hand basket.
Seg3: Joel and the bots have a marching song, with Joel as the drill instructor.
End: Joel shows off fan club stuff.
Overall: The opener was really good. Seg 3 had a lot of charm to it and I found it pretty funny as well. The rest of the segments felt more like filler to me.

Verdict: 2/6-Meh! Two good host segs and a few good lines in the theater save this episode from an Ack. The movie just sucks the life out of this ep.