Mystery Science Theater 3000: Red Zone Cuba

Sync sound brings a new dimension of awfullness to this work. Coleman and the cast mumble and stumble through their lines; if you turn your TV up to the threshold of pain, you might pick up some extra nuances from the soundtrack, but I doubt it.

The skill of the sound department is more than matched by the cinematography. The film appears to have been run through an airport x-ray machine several dozen times (no doubt looking for WMD.) Black and white is pretty forgiving, but not of gross incompetence.

Anyhow, as with "Wild World of Batwoman", don't try to figure out -- just open the wine, and let the waves wash over you as you laugh out loud. Rest assured that Mike and the 'bots give it the full treatment, each insult richly deserved.


One of the best episodes   July 6, 2004
csmith400 (Jacksonville, FL)
Though the film is up there with Manos in sheer, unfettered badness, it only makes the send-up by Mike and the Bots that much more enjoyable. The writer of the original film apparently forgot to make his anti-hero protagonists have some kind of redeeming characteristics.

As a result, we don't care what happens to them. The original film is also a collection of what they told you not to do in film school: it's badly shot, the scenes drag on because the editing isn't fast enough and there's no dramatic action in them, the audio isn't recorded well, and just about the only thing cinematically interesting is the devastated landscape of New Mexico.

Though the film is designed to be a "war film", it doesn't feel like much of one due to the limited budget. When your raiding force consists of 6 extras, expect Mike and the Bots to laugh uproariously.

The comedy dialogue by Mike and the Bots is hilarious. From pointing out the director/main actor's more-than-passing resemblance to Curly to turning into Carol Channing due to the bad power of the film, you'll be chuckling at this. This is up there with MANOS and Mitchell.


One of the MST3K top ten best.   May 28, 2004
Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY)
Some of the best MST3K episodes focus on films that have the Cold War as its subject (Invasion USA, e.g.)or when the entire production team takes itself so damned seriously (Cave Dwellers). In RED ZONE CUBA, Mike and the 'bots have the best of both worlds. A jailbreak movie that turns into a "road movie" that turns into commie-baiting, Cold War paranoia movie, RED ZONE CUBA must have been a field day for Mike and the other writers. For that reason alone, this skewering would rank among my top ten favorite episodes. But it's also the "bumper" scenes between commercial breaks that are a riot here. In that sense, I got the best of both worlds.


One of the finest, funniest episodes. A must have!   March 6, 2004
Ryan Harvey (Los Angeles, CA USA)
This DVD of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" offer up the movie "Red Zone Cuba" (which was originally released under the title "Night Train to Mundo Fine"). This awful, incomprehensible, and completely bizarre 1961 film (re-released in 1965) made for one the greatest episodes of the show. This is classic comedy, a must-have for fans, and a must-see for anyone who has never watched an episode of this hysterical TV program.

For those of you unfamiliar with "Mystery Science Theater 3000," (MST3K for short) it is a ninety-minute show featuring a silhouette of a man and two robots in movie theater seats projected in front of a terrible movie. The hosts provide side-splitting, satiric, and culturally-savvy wisecracks to accompany the movie. Each episode also includes sketches and songs and adds up to some of the most hilarious comedy you will ever see.

This DVD offers up episode #619, from late in the show's run on Comedy Central. Mike Nelson had been the host for a full season at this point, and he had really hit his stride with his two robot co-hosts (Tom Servo, voiced by Kevin Murphy, and Crow T. Robot, voiced by Trace Beaulieu). The riffing is razor sharp and wickedly biting, and "Red Zone Cuba" is possibly the best Mike Nelson episode of all time.

This is the second of three movies from director Coleman Francis that MST3K took on. Thanks to his exposure on the show, Mr. Francis has become a bad-movie legend on the level of Ed Wood. But Coleman Francis's flicks make Ed Wood's look like Stanley Kubrick movies by comparison! Coleman Francis was originally a bit-part movie actor, appearing in many Westerns and other b-programmers in the 40s and 50s. He decided to take a crack at movie directing himself, and along with his producer/drinking buddy Anthony Cardoza, crafted three mind-numbingly horrendous yet startlingly bizarre films: "The Skydivers," (available in DVD the collection: "Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vol. 1), this movie, and "The Beast of Yucca Flats" (not on DVD, but it should be some day).

Francis's films have a weird atmosphere: bleakly washed-out gray, packed with scenes of cars approaching, planes landing, people walking, bursts of sound and silence, and plots that are impossible to follow. The acting, from Francis's buddies like Tony Cardoza, is so wooden as to be unbelievable (third grade Christmas pageants have better acting), and the characters are so inexplicably bizarre and the editing so blunt ("I think my neck just got snapped in that jump cut!" Mike screams at one point) that his films seems to take place in another universe. In the hands of the MST3K team, his movies achieve a level of sublime comic entertainment.

"Red Zone Cuba" is Francis's finest (in other words, worst) hour. A runaway convict named Griffin (played by the greasy, obese Mr. Francis himself) joins two drifters, Landis and Cook, somewhere in New Mexico. They fly down to Florida (which looks like New Mexico) to join the Bay of Pigs invasion. It fails because the U.S. only hires eight insurgents and gives them twenty minutes of training in how to jump before unleashing them on Cuba. Imprisoned in Cuba (which looks like New Mexico), Griffin and his buddies stage a daring escape, fly all the way to...New Mexico, I guess...and then stuff a guy down a well, find a mountain of pitch blend, have trouble with a convertible top...

Well look, your guess is as good as mine as to what in the heck is going on in this film. I can't really describe what a wonderful experience this movie is with the MST3K team heckling along. Oh, and did I mention John Carradine pops up in a cameo and actually sings? Because he does! The film eventually drives Mike Nelson insane, and he thinks he's Carol Channing.

As a bonus, the MST3K boys watch a short film before the movie, "Speech: Platform Posture and Appearance," designed to help the salesman of the 50s present a speech effectively by putting his hands on his knees and rotating them. (I'm not kidding.) As with most short films on MST3K, this one is hilarious.

If you are new to MST3K, this is one of the best episodes to start with - it's as funny as they come! If you are fan, this is one of the MUST HAVES of the whole series run. But you already know that, Cherokee Jack!


Ultimate Classic   February 20, 2004
Red Zone Cuba is, along with Manos The Hand of Fate, the best MST3k episode hands down.

I would say Deathstalkers would be in the top three as well.

The pace is slow and pointless. The dialouge meaningless and bordering on psychotic. It is such a pointless and non-sensical film you just have to turn away at points.

Who could forget these lines:

" My mother was a wood duck"

" I'm Cherokee Jack"

" Water, sick man, thirsty"

Who could forget the classic scene with the old man and the well? The blind piano player? The invasion of Cuba? The prisoner camp at "Cuba"? The tire changing scence? The scene where you just hear crickets for 5 minutes and nothing else? How about the scene where they smoke cigarettes? How about the great scene where they "fly" from New Mecixo to New Mexico? How about the "dirt and the drainpipe" scene?

The truth is, this is a hilarous, hilarious MST3k episode. It will make you spit up your drink and hit the floor in laughter. the cast is so stupid, the writing so poor and the editing so akward you won't believe it.

" Hi,I'm Cherokee Jack"