Cinematic Titanic

Thu., Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., $52.50-$67.50, Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-572-7650, keswicktheatre.com.

by Shaun Brady

movies/comedy

Twenty-one years after Joel Hodgson was first shot into space at the birth of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the Satellite of Love has been grounded and the 'bots are rusting in somebody's garage. Joel (now back on Earth and living in Bucks County) and several of his MST3K cohorts have corralled their forces under the title of Cinematic Titanic and taken the movie-mocking show on the road. Reunions are always a dodgy prospect, but over two nights this summer at the Troc, the crew showed no signs of riff rust as they tore down Filipino mutant hellbeasts and on-the-cheap alien invasions of Baltimore with a flurry of one-liners and pop culture references. They'll ring in the not-too-distant future — 2010, to be exact — with a marathon triple-feature of Z-grade cinema: the Japanese killer-bug flick War of the Insects, Italian sword-and-sandal pseudo-epic Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World, and legendarily delirious grindhouse auteur Andy Milligan's Legacy of Blood.