Fans of the original movie will likely have gotten their hopes up about this title. However this is no feature length documentary. Its barely over 20 mins and is really just a talking heads affair with a few of the main cast telling some stories about the production.
What is eye opening is that most of the main cast and quite a section of the production team had never worked on a movie before. With some people basically doing more than one role on the film. Filming count last up to 20 hours a day over 6 day weeks. You cant fault them for enthusiasm.
Another shocker was that the film makers actually tried to sell this to the majors and also entered it at Cannes. They obviously didn't want anything to do with it.
Now its one thing to make an indie low budget film if you actually know what you are doing and expect some success, however the team here had none of this film making knowledge, as staff basically bought books on how to make movies...during the production. You simply cannot expect any level of success with this approach. Its as if the mindset was being determined counts for more than skill or experience. Its a bit like a movie director deciding he is a blackbelt because he has read a couple of books then decided to compete against the pros in a professional contest. We all know the outcome, so its odd that the man behind this didn't see the inevitable outcome.
What is strangely missing from this short doc is any mention of MST3K, who are pretty much solely responsible for any type of popularity around the movie. I would bet that more people have seen the MST3K edition than the actual movie. While some of the cast are open about the film being mainly enjoyed for the wrong kind of laughs, its obvious the main film makers do not. There is financial reward in knowing you have made a stinker of a movie and you sell it on this basis e.g The Room. Its a different issue if you still think its a great movie and want to sell it as such. While it can be a noble thing to prove the doubters wrong that you can make a film through blood sweat and tears. And no doubt a significant amount of cash. The question remains was the effort worth it when it didn't light up the box office in the way you expected it to. Until the movie makers take on board the reality of what it is they created and where it sits in the film making world, I doubt they will reap any rewards from the re-issue.
