The Film Crew: Wild Women of Wongo (2007)

Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, three of the brilliantly insane minds behind the cult classic TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) finally reunite to unleash their warped sense of humor on the cinema of yesteryear as The Film Crew. Charged with the task of giving all movies their own commentary tracks, the Film Crew valiantly steps forward to tackle the best of the worst, continuing with Wild Women of Wongo.The beautiful women of the lush, tropical island of Wongo think that the only men who exist are the ape like creatures that live on the other side of the island. Then they set eyes on a handsome prince from a neighboring island, where all of the men are equally gorgeous! Meanwhile, the beastly men of Wongo, on their way to select their mates, are unhappy about their new competition. Product Description

The comment track is the only thing that makes it watchable

Man, this is one ripe turkey, complete with a voiceover by Mother Nature. A freaky temple, vague geography, incredibly bad acting and a plot that is given away by the artwork of the opening credits all contribute to this train wreck. The Film Crew does a good job with this one but I still like Hollywood After Dark better.

Once again, if you loved MST3K you'll get a kick out of this show as well. August 25, 2008

MST3K forever...

Sadly they're not making anymore and I will only have the four out of them. The skits where lacking to bots, but the ribs in the movies where spot on! August 10, 2008

Aussies Beware!

This is one of those occasions where the U.S. "sense of humour" just doesn't translate. This movie, even with the Film Crew audio track, just sucks - plain and simple. It's dreadful!

Run away! Run away! May 18, 2008

The Wild Wild Women of Wongo

The Film Crew consists of three alumni of the great movie-mocking TV show, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. The premise for this project is not that Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are trapped in an orbiting satellite; instead, they're three lowly employees at a DVD distributor, charged by their boss to create a commentary track for every movie they release, no matter how obscure or painful.

WILD WOMEN OF WONGO is the third film to be subjected to the mocking of The Film Crew. And once again, the producers have found a movie that is more than silly enough for their purposes.

The movie is set in prehistoric times. Wongo is a tribe populated by ugly men and beautiful women (although their beauty is obvious, their wildness of the title is not). They are contacted by a prince from the neighboring tribe of Goona who warns that their shared geographical region is shortly to be threatened by a strange race of violent ape-men. Although the two tribes are within spitting distance, the populations know virtually nothing about each other, and it turns out that Goona is home to very handsome men and extremely unattractive women. If you can't already figure out where that particular subplot is headed, then you may be the only person to be surprised at the film's conclusion.

Judging by the various plot summaries available on the web, one might expect a lot of cheesy battles between regular film extras and film extras in monkey suits. Unfortunately, the ape-men plot point is more of a MacGuffin than anything else. We're only ever treated to one ape-men attack. And we only ever see two ape-men. And it turns out that they aren't really ape-men at all; they look exactly the same as everyone else in the cast.

WONGO is the type of film where it isn't clear what age group the producers are aiming for. If you were a teenager watching this film you would think the storyline so simplistic as to be aimed at someone half your age. But if your parents walked into the room, they'd tell you that you're too young to watch a film with such scantily clad models.

Of course, the real reason one is purchasing this DVD is not for the lameness of the feature presentation, but for the mocking commentary track provided by the comedians. And here I felt a little let down in comparison to the previous two films in the series. There are many very funny jokes; I fell about the place in laughter whenever they noted the similarity one actor had to a specific cartoon character. But overall, the riffing never fully engaged me, and many times I was simply overwhelmed by the boredom of the film. There are quality gags sprinkled in the mix, but there isn't the driving force of jokes -- jokes that build and build on each other, keeping the laughter going -- that one finds with the best of MST3k.

Although this was my least favorite of the first three Film Crew releases, I'm not going to say that it isn't worth a look. Even sub-par material from Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett is better than most of what's out there. I wouldn't start my Film Crew journey here, but if you've already seen the other DVDs and are looking for more, then you should be happy with this. April 29, 2008

DANCE!

The MST3K crew hasn't lost one bit of their talent at insulting the worst films ever. And "Wild Women of Wongo" is one of the worst. The acting is high school quality and the sets appear to just be someone's backyard in Florida. And the priestess's "dancing" scene is the most spastic thing since Mr. B Natural.
The Film Crew's comments are some of the best I've heard since MST3K went off the air. If you loved that show, then get this. If you've never heard of Mike/Joel and the Bots, still get this. The Film Crew is insanely funny. April 26, 2008

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