Friday, February 22, 2008

MST3K Escape 2000 - Review

Episode 705, Escape 2000. Not to be confused with the Brian Trenchard-Smith film Turkey Shoot, which is also known as Escape 2000. This is the 1983 Italian film Fuga dal Bronx, which is Enzo G. Castellari's followup to the previous year's 1990:The Bronx Warriors.

Escape 2000 follows the misadventures of Trash (Mark Gregory reprising his Bronx Warriors 1 role), as he attempts to stop Henry Silva and his army of men wearing ineffective fireproof suits from disinfestating the Bronx in order to build a better, kind of futuristic looking Bronx. "Disinfestate" apparently just means "to set people on fire", so clearly native Bronxians like Trash want no part of it. Joining Trash on this epic anti-Silva crusade is the partially insane badass Flank (or Stroke, or something) and his androgynous, prepubescent offspring Junior. (There's also some weird Jerry Lewis/Nosferatu lady with them for a while as well, I didn't catch her name though. She mostly just yells.)

As a big fan of bad post-apocalyptic films of the 1980s, this is one of my favorite episodes. Partly because these types of movies are a blast on their own, but the hilarious onslaught of riffage just adds to it. The guys are just scatting and bebopping allover this one. It does start off a tiny bit slow, but by the end the jokes are just relentless. Escape 2000 also features one of the all-time great characters ever in a movie on the show in Toblerone. Played by Antonio Sabato of all people, Toblerone is so incredibly over the top that Mike, Tom and Crow cheer whenever he makes an appearance. I haven't them this happy about a character since Kline in The Sinister Urge. I recommend this one to any fans of Italian schlock and the music of Francesco De Masi.

Now seriously guys, leave the Bronx.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome!! Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This episode was a hoot. Thanks!

damian

BillyWitchDoctor said...

Thanks! I was just about to nab this when Demonoid got kilt, and never set myself up to pick it up off of DAP. (I really should, there are so many goodies there..."I...am the Great Vorelli!!" snark snark!)

Anonymous said...

One of my favorites! But is this the full DVD version or an AVI file? I've never had any luck converting AVIs up to DVDs that can be watched on my TV.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, and anon there supposedly is some program and cable that can run to your TV to watch it there.

Makes no difference to me on my 20" screen

phelpster said...

Third anonymous - I just post the avi versions on the site since the DVD versions would have to be in like 40 parts. What programs have you tried to convert with? I personally use TMPGEnc XPress anytime I need to convert an avi and that usually does the trick with pretty good results.

Anonymous said...

phelster,

Thank you for the mstiee post.

Of course with my 56k modem it will take me 12 days to download it, but that is the price I pay for shunning technology. (How much does a TRS 80 hold anyway?)

Love the comix, love the MST3K, love the site. Keep it up, you have my requests (LOL).

Unknown said...

Wow, brilliant! I love these episodes - thanks very much!

John said...

Thanks so much for another great MST3K! You're the best!

Nigel M said...

Not really watched much of Mystery Science Theatre apart from the Pumaman one. But Bronx warriors1 and 2 are great fun on their own (as is Castelari's wonderful New Barbarians with that annoying kid from House By The Cemetary),

Thanks for this lot I am going to now settle down and watch Escape 2000.

Nigel M said...

Not really watched much of Mystery Science Theatre apart from the Pumaman one. But Bronx warriors1 and 2 are great fun on their own (as is Castelari's wonderful New Barbarians with that annoying kid from House By The Cemetary),

Thanks for this lot I am going to now settle down and watch Escape 2000.

Nigel M said...

Not really watched much of Mystery Science Theatre apart from the Pumaman one. But Bronx warriors1 and 2 are great fun on their own (as is Castelari's wonderful New Barbarians with that annoying kid from House By The Cemetary),

Thanks for this lot I am going to now settle down and watch Escape 2000.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Mst3k.
I dont know anything about torrents so it is good that you have a simple old fashioned d/l for these, thanks again.

Donovans Brain said...

Just got around to watching this one. The whole thing is a blast! Thanks.

Hilarious ending with Servo singing "Leave Bronx!" while Crow jams on guitar and keeps whacking Mike in the head.

For easy conversion to DVD I recommend ConvertXtoDVD. It does a solid job even on low setting.

Anonymous said...

I love this site. Combining metal, horror and mst3k! I only wish you would post more mst3k material. But I appreciate verything you've already posted. If you have the time, give us some more Mystery science theater!

Anonymous said...

God bless you.

Anonymous said...

Thank you sir love the "leave the bronx" song!

Anonymous said...

looks like part5 is down.

thnxs

Anonymous said...

on badongo, not teh others ^_^

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