From my favorite movies..

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Both are produced by Union Pacific Railroad but take completely different approaches. The tone of "Last Clear Chance" is angry and hectoring, featuring a truculent state trooper who harangues the Dixon family, and us, on following traffic rules and signs. All to no avail, of course: one of the young Dixons drives immediately from the lecture into a train, looking backwards and laughing all the way."The Days of Our Years" tries a different method, not aggressive but passive-aggressive. Instead of a browbeating cop there's a mild-mannered priest with a soothing voice. Selfishness and private life are to blame in all three cases: Joe rolls over his truck because he's in a haste to get together with his fiancée, George pushes himself too far because he's looking forward to a comfortable retirement, and Lenny gets a torch in the face because he's overjoyed at the birth of his son. The (one hopes) unintentional message is that having a life outside of work is begging for a lethal accident and insincere compassion from a blase churchman. No doubt he twists the knife a little further into innocent George every Sunday.It's not an accident, I'm sure, that the toy which Lenny gives to his son at the end of the movie is a toy train.

I love this short, it is so depressing and MST are soooo mean with it and everyone involved. Where the heck does religion play into train safety? Who cares, it's a lot of fun. Earl Warren narrates here about members of his congregation who are train people and hate safety, and how these people will go to hell since they are accident prone.This is done by the same people who sponsored Last Clear Chance, another classic from Union Pacific, that one involved the police captain from Adam-12. I don't remember Earl Warren being in any other production except supreme court judge. He was a bit pasty which made him perfect for the role. It was law that you could not be tan in the 50's.

should always adhere to the rule "Don't bore the audience!" This one violates that precept but, even worse, milks it for all the maudlin whining it can get.This is sad, because there is a good, solid message in a film like this, which is that when we violate the rules we can involve ourselves in a serious accident and, in so doing, affect those people around us as well.But when a film like this tries to drag-out its plot like an afternoon soap opera, people will pay less attention to it. And THAT is the real tragedy in a film like this.

"The Day of Our Years" is an educational instruction film from the mid-50s made by Union Pacific. It's a classic in Union Pacific vaults but viewed as too corny by the average person. So, pretty soon it made it's way to Comedy Central's "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and is probably one of the funniest MST shorts. The film focuses on a Reverend better known to Tom Servo as "America's Favorite Decan of Death" who tells us three stories about death, accidents, and misfortune. The first story is about Joe. Joe likes to rush. So rushing his way home one day, he and two of his fellow workers. This particular story contains some of Mike and the bots' funniest commentary such as when Joe is on the road and while the Reverend is telling his story Crow blurts out (while we look at a close-up of Joe) "Out of my head, Reverend!" or the scene where Joe is seen in a neck-brace and Tom comments "Do you take this bionic man?" The next tale is of George. George is a crazy old guy (ya gotta love him) who's planning his retirement with his wife. One bright, sunny, cheerful, day George doesn't feel good. Could it be last night's Mexican dinner? Anyway, he ends up killing his neighbor in a (train?) crash. Ever since then George never moves from his chair, and closes the shade on everything while saying "BOOOORINGGGGGG!" The third and final story is about a man who has been blinded by a blow torch and gives his baby a train instead of his bottle. This particular MST short made my brother and I fall on the floor laughing at the commentary. I highly recommend MST version of this one (which, I think is now on videotape or DVD).