The popcorn tells great jokes!: The work of Addison Binek.

Mystery science theater, just the words invoke immediate nostalgia for a lot of us, it brings us back to sitting late at night in the dim glow of the boob tube watching some dork and his corny robot puppets Joke their way through a horribly made movie. Were all the movies bad? not at all, but they all had that one thing in common, they were built from scratch and it showed. the lack of a big budget was especially noticeable back in the days of ever advancing techniques in prosthetics, makeup, animatronics and more but they strove to tell their stories regardless of budgetary constraints.

MST3K understood this and instead of laughing at the film they laughed along with it, often seeing through to what the intended product was meant to be and in turn sharing the experience of a night out with friends with those at home. Addison Binek understands this as well. he has a keen eye for the good/bad film, those movies that most people would walk by, never picking up to rent let alone purchase and he uses that keen eye to stare some of cinema's most atrocious entries right in their stupid fucking face and say "that was neat".

The last time we spoke about Psycho ape, the Addison Binek helmed B-Movie parody that showed us just how good bad can be but this time we are focusing on his youtube

channel as well as its offshoot project "Tromasterpiece theater", which due to reasons I am not allowed to disclose, is partially lost to time.

9 years ago on a small youtube channel, mostly known for posting funny videos, he had made with friends and a small attempt at a series named "addy and andy"

the seeds were sown for a filmmaker's passion and something much bigger. 9 years ago Addison sat and made the first "Movies to watch on a rainy afternoon", a series focused on good/bad flicks and the enjoyment and hatred that comes from them. exploring the film "Cannibal Terror" the first episode is a clear indication of Addisons love for B-Movies and the obscure in general, with enthusiasm bursting from the seems this rough first episode is enjoyable enough to bring you back for more and I feel like Addison knew this was going to be the formula going forward, it felt right, the MST3K Style riff tracks over the top of a condensed version of the film as to not anger the ever so fickle copyright gods paired with JUST the right kind of terrible worked, and would continue to work for 9 more years.

Continuing for roughly over 121 episodes and eventually evolving into Tromasterpiece theater and currently Roastmasterpiece theater, movies to watch on a rainy afternoon ended its run last year with ThanksKilling 3. The episodes are varied enough that everyone can find something to enjoy on the channel and the films, while terrible, have been condensed to save the torture of having to endure some of these cinematic sins making binge-watching completely bearable!

While the earlier episodes are strictly Riff tracks and the condensed film the format eventually switched to have hosted segments which you can see inspired the switch to Tromasterpiece theater. will we ever see more Movies to watch on a rainy afternoon? only time will tell... or Addison, go bug him on Twitter, make him tell.

as for Tromasterpiece theater, well that's a whole different beast.

Working on the Rainy day series had the gears turning, his love of B-Movies, MST3K, film review, and the idea of creating had him excited and with that in mind he set out to create the first Tromasterpiece theater. Starting as a youtube special featuring a long-forgotten Lloyd Kaufman silent film "The battle of loves return", a quirky love story about a down and out loser who while attempting to get a job, meets a beautiful woman as well as a few zany characters determined to make his day miserable. being a silent film Addison does a great job of keeping pace during his dialogue and making sure there isn't too much dead air, we also get a look at his new character and back story which comes with a nifty theme song that pays HEAVY homage to MST3K.

Addison is a movie theater employee who was bored during a late-night shift

searching for films he had never seen after closing time along with a sentient (but stupid) box of popcorn uncovers a talking film reel along his journey and at the suggestion of his new friends he unearths a film he has never seen and in excitement, we begin the episode which is a full feature as opposed to the condensed films we have been used to from the youtube

channel.

The film itself is nothing to get excited about, its a fairly confusing movie with a nonsensical plot that feels more like a filmmaker's guide than an actual film but the scenes while not flowing into each other well are always interesting to watch and I think that is the idea of the movie. I don't think it was ever intended to be a masterpiece, more of a proof of concept, an "i can make a movie too, you dick" than anything else. and it is entertaining. if I've said one thing more than anything else it's that if a movie is entertaining, it met its goal, good or bad and that holds true with The battle of Love's return. Addison makes a live-action appearance at the beginning and end of this feature to show off the neat movie theater, spiffy costume, and pretty cool puppets he has used and crack some great jokes and drop a little lore. the episode ends on a sort of cliff hanger with the popcorn and the film reel now just regular items and Addison being awoken from a dream, chasing after his boss and insisting "The popcorn makes great jokes!" we are left to wonder was this all just the dream of a man suffering from one too many late-night shifts or was what we just saw real?

Episode 2 gives us some more lore and explores the world a lot more than the first did and that is a welcome change as I really enjoyed the live segments of the previous episode. were given ALOT more live segments here as well with a few cuts from the movie to check in on the crew, we get a fun sketch about what movie Reel is anyways and some lovely popcorn masturbation, chicken fun, and a final scene that will leave you laughing and scratching your head. I honestly ADORED this project, which makes its demise even sadder. I am not allowed to go into detail but in short, the episode is no longer available and likely won't be at any time in the future. it was a very fun watch and I am VERY glad I had a chance to see it (thank you anonymous internet folk, you sure can find a lost flick) but sadly unless you do some diligent hunting you won't be able to see this on Addison's channel as you can with episode 1. I'd like to think that we may see corny and reel show back up in some form, perhaps on a rainy day... but for now that is a lofty dream.

Addison's career began on youtube with almost a decade of content, and continues there to this day, with the recent release of psycho ape and the slowly building hype

behind the film I have my fingers crossed that we may see a revival of the B-movie genre in earnest, the mind of a cinephile birthed on schlock may just be the key to

bringing a dwindling genre to the light again and letting us just tune in and turn off.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this look at the rest of Addison Bineks work, as always you can find links to everything down below, and id love it if you'd leave a like

and follow me on Twitter for more great content like this. maybe if I let him hit me with a banana (not that kind you sick freaks) he'll let me have a chat with him about the idea and process behind psycho ape, which I know was a team effort but very much drips Addisons style.

As always stay spooky and tune in next week for another or head over to Sindy Succubus Article if you into the more adult side of entertainment (NSFW)

Addison Binek on Twitter- @Addison_Binek

Addison Binek on Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0GegGMR2lNla1ZdJRWnt3w

Lily Spellman- @Lilys_Lab

Lilys Lab- lilyslaboratory.wixsite.com/website

the lab on youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJOB_nrGc-zhoh6LkdnW6_g