Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV Series) Gamera vs. Barugon (1988) User Reviews

Boy, this was weird to watch

[ericstevenson · 7/10 · 15 July 2016]

This was the longest episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" that I have ever seen. It was 100 minutes long and the movie itself made up a whopping 91 minutes of that running time! I remember first hearing about the KTMA season and being so eager to learn more as these were the rarest episodes the show ever made. Looking back...I can understand why the other episodes just ignore this season. The quality of everything is pretty low here. It was so weird to see such short segments out of the theater and having nothing to do with the movie itself. We got into the movie only three minutes in! It was weird not to see Dr. Forrester at all in this.

It is still something nice to look at, because you just have to know where this show started out. The funniest part was probably when Joel said, "Wasn't there supposed to be a giant turtle in this film somewhere?". They still got some good lines. It just pales in comparison to later episodes. It really is pretty dated, with them referencing Dan Quayle. Well, this was way back in 1988, before I was even born! I wouldn't recommend it for a non fan, but it's still interesting to see how they improved. I can't believe they waited a whole minute to stop showing the movie after the crew left the theater! I still technically liked it because it's hard for me to not like anything on this show. ***

"Gamera vs. Barugon" is perhaps the earliest available episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000"

[tavm · 4/10 · 20 February 2010]

The following review was previously submitted on Dec. 4, 2007 in the movie title entry on IMDb since the "MST3K" episode guide there didn't have the entry I wrote about at the time: "After the theme song, Joel just fields a recorded call that complements his show and describes the movie before hitting "movie sign" as we go to the picture. It's basically about a giant turtle with flames on his feet defeating this monster with a straight long tongue who can fire snow mist off his mouth. There's also a Japanese guy with a brother and another friend who's searching for treasure and a native woman who knows about Barugon by legend. The in-between segments has Joel fielding more recorded calls, one of which complains about the constant talking by Joel and his 'bots, Tom Servo and Crow. Crow derservedly calls the guy on it. This being an early episode, there's not too much talking at the screen for the first hour so anyone watching this may be a little disappointed as I initially was. What talking there is has some good zingers about Bob Hope, M*A*S*H, Don Ho, Chuck Norris, and others I can't remember. The movie itself threatens to be sleep inducing with confusing cuts throughout. Gamera vs. Barugon was later re-shown on the Comedy Central version of "MST3K" in the fourth season. I hope to review that from YouTube soon. Until next time...P.S. The show's production company was originally called Hair Brain before settling on Best Brains. And Tom Servo (as originally voiced by Josh Weinstein) initially sounded here like a mix between Kermit the Frog and Marvin Martian!"