Briefly, I had a great time, laughed my ass off. The crowd was sparse in my theater near Scranton, Pa. I’ll probably post more later. Have at it!
And remember: if you missed it, there’s a replay on Tuesday.
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RiffTrax Live Open ThreadA thread for your comments on tonight’s show. Please hold off spoilers till the West Coast sees it.
90 Replies to “RiffTrax Live Open Thread”Commenting at Satellite News
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Loved the show! I had forgotten how bad that movie was. Almost a full theater in Norman, OK. Very appreciative crowd. I can’t wait for Godzilla.
I want to see Charlie Chaplin’s Godzilla now.
Less than 100 people in Flint, MI- sorry for those who missed this. May have had the best laughs yet. This effort was second to none.
I loved the hell out of it. It was my first time seeing SHARKNADO, and probably the best way to experience it. Despite all the hemming and hawing–“You can’t riff SHARKNADO, it’s too self aware of its awfulness”–the crew pulled it off as usual. It’s just another bad Asylum movie at the end of the day. If it had just been named NATURE’S RAGE or STORM ALERT, no one would really care. And to see them do A CASE OF SPRING FEVER again was delightful.
Also, seeing them play off the technical difficulties during the GODZILLA preview proved my theory right: that the MST3K guys can riff anything, including a blank screen.
Small but receptive crowd in Kalamazoo, MI. I had never seen “Sharknado” and didn’t realize just how bad it was! Aside from some technical glitches at the beginning, it was a great show, and it was nice to see Coily again before the movie.
It was fun. Full house at Regal Henrietta in Rochester, NY – the box office attendant actually commented on how many tickets he’d sold (over 100 in the building’s smallest theatre). Loved their ad-libbing when things went awry in the beginning.
I do hope this eventually ends up on VOD/disc. (I’d assume that The Asylum would okay a VOD, like Severin did with Birdemic.)
I loved the whole thing, but my two favorite riffs were from the short. Although I will say that now I get what people were saying about still hearing the MST3K “Manos” riffs during the Rifftrax version. I’ve watched the original riffing of “Spring Fever” a lot of times and there were a few moments where I was waiting for the old jokes (especially the Looney Tunes theme).
As for the movie… I almost want to do a drinking game where you take a shot whenever they change camera formats between edits, but I think I would get alcohol poisoning by the end of the boat scene.
Great show, fabulous show. I never thought Sharknado would be soooooo stupid! Funny moment from the preshow, the slide about what Harrison Ford said to Mark Hamill about acting came up and I called out “Hey, you take that back!” Then the next slide advised people to move away from people like me. The whole theater laughed.
The State Theater in MN was mostly full from my vantage point (2nd row! If any of you saw a fat chick wearing a leopard print top as the camera panned over the audience, that would have been me). Also, after we left the theater, I spotted Trace Beaulieu on the sidewalk! I was too shy to say anything but I did point him out to my kids. I was surprised at just how much I geeked out when Kevin, Mike, and Bill walked onstage.
We were very happy to see Coily too.
A good time was had by all, and maybe more!
full house here in Memphis just fantastic it may have even been better than Starship Troopers. To dust off an old mst3k bit the film makers “just did not care”.
@3: Maybe “self-aware” is true, but people need to stop saying that Sharknado is intentionally bad and shouldn’t be riffed. It’s not intentionally bad; it’s just another case of them coming up with a title first and then making a movie around it. They used to do that sort of thing all the time. The Killer Shrews, The Giant Gila Monster, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter…
A good turnout at the Clifton, NJ AMC with just a few rows near the front empty. I too am one of those who did not see “Sharknado” before the riffing. It was great! It was also nice to have them revisit “A Case of Spring Fever”. BTW, a good deal of us got a big kick out of that one pre-show trivia that joked about the old Sci-Fi Channel having a “cult TV show” with witty characters known as…………..ECW Wrestling!
Coily, the spring sprite! No SPRINGS, MOFOS!!!!!!
You would have thoughts that Cassie Scerbo would have gotten higher billing, but I guess Tara Reid’s training clicker also works on the guys who made the credits.
Speaking of credits, kickstarter supporters got boned *again*. *sigh*
‘And the Baha Men prepared for their finest hour’
Favorite riff.
Also, I had no idea how horrible this movie was. I actually considered fleeing the theater briefly during the beginning.
I watched it at the Crossgates Mall in Albany NY. They were showing it at one of the larger theaters in that mall. The place wasn’t quite full, but it was pretty close.
This was the first time I had seen “Sharknado”. I’m sure I could not have stood to watch the whole thing without some riffs to make it fun. There were so many problems with the plot and with continuity errors that I would have given up long before the end of the movie. It was kind of impressive how the actors tried to be earnest and keep a straight face even though nothing in the movie makes sense. The riffing was good in that they did a lot more than just point out how bad the movie was. Lots of fun cross-references to other movies or real-world events. Definitely worth the time and the money to watch this riffed version.
I was very impressed that they limited themselves to one Home Alone reference for the actor who played the dad. That was very Mystery Science Theater-like
I was initially skeptical of the film choice but they did a fantastic job with it. I was at the State theater and had a great time, although the house lights made it a little tough to see the film at times.
Up in Hanover PA the theater was bout half full. I’ve noticed it getting a few more people on every outing however. Anyone going into this saying “this isn’t gonna work” and “you can’t riff a movie like this” I think for the most part were proven wrong. The Godzilla preview was nice to see but them sicking Coily on me hit me out of nowhere. Was not expecting that… All in all another great show.
Completely full turn out in the theater here in Amarillo. Great riffing on Sharknado. I also agree that the people that were saying you couldn’t riff it cause it was intentionally bad were wrong. Anyways great show can’t wait to see Godzilla in August.
Saw the film at my usual place of Bowie, Maryland. This time, I saw the film with my eldest brother, as he and his wife (who sadly didn’t attend) enjoyed watching this film when it aired on SyFy last year. The crowd was decent, and there were a lot of great moments that had the theater howling with laughter (the two main ones on top of my head are the “Hey, O.J.” quip when a white Bronco passes by and “Look out gin, Tara’s home!”).
BTW, for those not familiar with online reviewers, the guy with Tom Servo during the closing credits is Linkara, host of the online web series Atop the Fourth Wall. It’s worth checking out, as his reviews tend to be a hoot.
Saw it at the State Theater in Minneapolis. Awesome. Cannot believe I missed seeing Trace :-(
I was too broke to make it to the State Theatre in Mpls, but the AMC in Roseville, MN, was sold out and good times were had by all.
A few highlights for me:
“Well you just lost a Werther’s!”
“Can I let go of my panties now? Yes, Ian, you can.”
“Hi gin, Tara’s here!” (Or something like that)
“I can take an acting class, or more!”
I saw it with my brother Bri at the Rialto in Westfield, NJ. Very good crowd.
I was a bit disappointed there was no test footage from a previous show, but the pre-show title cards were great. (One favorite: “‘Sharknado’ has an 80% fresh rating. So let’s just burn everything and salt the Earth right now.”) And I also appreciated their using “Nature Trail to Hell (in 3-D)”.
I thought the “Case of Spring Fever” re-riff turned out well, and the guys did a fine job covering the technical glitch during the “GINO” preview. As for “Sharknado”, the riffing was top-notch, but I think the movie is just about the stupidest film ever made during my lifetime (and that includes “Armageddon”). At a couple of particular scenes near the end, both involving the gun-toting waitress, all I could do in response was just gasp out “WHAT?!” for a couple of minutes. One criticism: they were kind of harsh towards Tara Reid, I think.
I might just go to the repeat showing of this.
While it was a middlin’ turnout in North Minneapolis/Brookyln Center (about 10 miles north of the State Theatre), that was sort-of expected with the main attraction being so close.
The pre-movie bits seemed uncharacteristically weak, with the Sharknado 2 bits REALLY out of place — but maybe that’s what let them do this. After the movie started everything fell into place. Movie-wise, it’s technically better than Birdemic, but with a touch of Hobgoblins (bad movie that knows it’s bad, tries self-awareness as humor, fails.)
I’m still trying to figure out how there’s a stupid hurricane/tornado/shark thing coming and people are sitting on the beach like Annette and Frankie are about to entertain them. This might be the biggest “They just didn’t care” movie Rifftrax has done — at least The Room and Birdemic failed in interesting ways.
Oh, and “The pool cleaning services in Beverly Hills are second to none!”
And “He’s going to be throwing so many shrimp on so many barbies.”
And “Jennilyn Sharkhater.”
Well heavens, there were a lot of zingers tonight! Can’t wait for Godzilla!
In Clifton, NJ, theater about 75-80% full….seemed like a different crowd than the usual MST3K loyalists…younger and perhaps pulled in by Sharknado more than Rifftrax….the redux of A Case of Spring Fever was ok, but it’s hard to top the original version, especially since it had the f/u host segment w/ mikey
The mike sprite…..some of my fav riffs: ” I had my #1 Lou Bega fan tattoo removed” “the Baha Men have their greatest hour” “what are you doing in Hollywood? …a question Ian Zeiring gets asked daily”,
“Welcome to Taradise bitches!” ….also one that made me laugh ( but apparently no one else):
Kevin: “what’s that thing spinning with all the sharks in it?” Mike: Have you been paying ANY attention Kevin? Kevin: No
It seemed odd that they spoke about all the things that were going to happen on the show , but basically it was just Spring Fever and the Godzilla preview (mit out sound) …did anything fall through ? Seemed like there should’ve been more…unless there was a post-credit sequence w/ Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury?
One gripe — all of these times Fin was mentioned, no comments about his brother Jake the Dog?
@27 Personally, I’m surprised the Rifftrax crew didn’t make a joke about how the bus driver who ends up getting crushed by the Hollywood Hills sign is Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch.
Packed house in Arlington, VA. I had a great time. Probably the most I’ve ever laughed in a theater
Special props to Mike’s Nic Cage impression.
Pretty low turnout in Evansville, IN. There was maybe about 30 or so people. It was a fun show, but man, that movie is horrible. I had never seen it before and I can’t imagine watching it without riffs.
“It’s not intentionally bad; it’s just another case of them coming up with a title first and then making a movie around it.”
Whaaaaa? It’s intentionally bad. They’re TRYING to be a self-aware bad movie. That’s why it doesn’t work, and why the addition of Rifftrax was necessary.
Looked like a 98% full house at the Briar Creek theater in Raleigh,N.C. I and my oldest daughter are glad we never bothered to watch “Sharknado” until now. Kevin, Mike, and Bill were spot on in their choice of movie, and live performance.
I was across town from the gang in Eden Prairie and there was a good turnout if not a packed house. Loved it, although I was appalled by how incredibly stupid the movie itself was. The only thing I can compare it to is Birdemic with a bigger budget. Still, the riffers made it work. That’s why they get the big bucks.
I was at the State Theater in my seat, but it was obstructed view, so while I went to my truck to get my glasses, my buddy who went with told me the usher offered us better seats upstairs. They were better seats for the most part, but it is touch to sit most places when I’m 6’4″. I also tried to take pics with my cell phone of the guys, but no matter how many times I played with the white balance, my “Smart” phone made them only appear as giant blobs of white light. Sadly, they did mention on Facebook there will be no VOD for this, so I assume this was got with the excess money from last year’s kickstarter. I guess the MP3 and Coily short will be on sale in the next couple weeks.
@34: That’s awful. It’s wonderful that they’re doing these shows, but it’s getting extremely frustrating that the studios won’t play ball with VODs. Half the joy in revisiting these movies is remembering the live experience. The Asylum (!) not willing to let them release a VOD is particularly galling.
So only one of four shows this year will be available for release – Mike did a Q&A last week that mentioned the planned Christmas show was Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. At least that’ll be available next year.
For the record: Sharknado is not “intentionally bad.” The Asylum make no secret of their formula: cheap, stupid movies with titles and premises that you can’t help but think “Oh, I have to see this,” but they’re all produced with a straight face. They’re the the 21st century’s Roger Corman – always under budget and profitable – which is why Sharknado and Transmorphers and Nazis At The Center Of The Earth and any other Asylum movie is excellent riffing fodder. That said… a movie can be so stupid that it’s not worth riffing, and Sharknado is definitely borderline. When the audience is already laughing before the riffers say anything, is it really worth the bother? This is sort of like a major league slugger versus a pitching machine.
I must admit that A Case Of Spring Fever was a disappointing surprise to me. Like RiffTrax’s revisit of Mr B Natural with the Twilight/Starship Troopers Kickstarter, Spring Fever was promised as part of the Godzilla Kickstarter’s shorts reward package, but I didn’t think it would be part of the live show. It felt like a bit of a rerun to me. It’s not like they don’t have scores of fresh shorts to draw from. (At least with Mr B they restored some cuts that we didn’t see on MST3k. Plus that was Joel and Trace, so Mike and Bill made it feel fresher.) I’m not saying the short wasn’t funny; I just think it was a bad choice.
Maybe I was just in a poor frame of mind because we got rear-ended by Joe Doakes in the nightmare cluster*@% that is New Jersey traffic, (I live five minutes from a galleria, why must I drive to Paramus?) but did this one seem significantly more seat-of-the-pants than previous live shows? I dunno. Still a fine way to spend an evening, even if I my sides aren’t sore from laughter.
Goshzilla, you are right that Sharknado isn’t “intentionally bad” in that they didn’t set out to make a comedy movie that emphasizes the bad elements and/or mimics genuine accidentally “bad” films, but it is intentionally trying to be outrageous, and very self aware exploitation schlock. The Asylum movies definitely aren’t produced with a “straight face” though. Even though they aren’t always trying to make “funny” bad movies (though some of them do push it a little bit, like Sharknado, Sharktopus, or any of the Mega-something vs. Something-oid movies they make) they are almost never taking the movies seriously. They pretty much make nothing but embarrassingly cheap big monster/disaster schlock, or mock-buster rip offs that only exist to fool people who don’t know any better into thinking they are other more famous movies when they buy or rent them. Even if they aren’t always hamming it up for laughs they are still never actually trying to make a “good” movie.
My personal history with Sharknado has been pretty short. I hate Asylum and Syfy Channel movies, and I’ve never had any interest in seeing movies that are trying to be bad especially when they look like an obvious one trick pony that has nothing going for it but a silly name (like Snakes on a Plane) so I never bothered watching Sharknado before. But I did watch it after they announced the Rifftrax show and I found it to be a very tedious and un-fun movie. It hovers in an area between a loving ode to bad films, like “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra”, and a genuine accidentally bad film, like “Birdemic” (which WAS made entirely with a straight face) and that middle ground seems to be a fun deadzone. It feels so cynical, like it’s just 100% a business thing, a promotional thing to use to make money from cheap film making, and has nothing to do with creating anything of genuine value on either side of the spectrum. Sharknado understands it’s horrible schlock, but it’s not emphasizing that or playing it up for intentional humor. But how is it fun to watch a movie that’s only bad because the person who made it didn’t care about even trying to make it good? Good “bad” movies are fun because you know the person making it actually wanted to, and often THOUGHT THEY WERE making an artistic statement or a good film, and they failed in a spectacular and enjoyable way. Sharknado wasn’t trying to be anything but a name they could put in an ad to get people’s attention. The movie itself is just an advertisement for the “clever” name. But I have absolutely no doubt that Sharknado 2 will absolutely try to be intentionally bad, because they now know what the real appeal of the first film was, and they will no doubt try to push that and play it more for laughs. They did that same thing with Birdemic 2, and it was truly awful in a “no fun at all” sort of way. I have no doubt Sharknado 2 will be insufferably bad, and not in a fun way.
But in the end even though I think Sharknado is for the most part just a dull and almost unwatchable movie I think it actually worked incredibly well for tonight’s Rifftrax show. Much better than I expected it to work. I was very impressed with how well they did with what was probably a tough film to riff without just constantly going for the obvious low hanging fruit. They did a great job of staying away from all that abundant obvious stuff, and instead picked up on a lot of great things that weren’t quite so obvious, even turning a few of them into great running jokes… or more! This was a very enjoyable live show.
Couldn’t go tonight, and my local theater has no listing for the Tuesday encore. :-(
There was a pretty full house in Topeka this time, and even though we got there 15 minutes before showtime for once, we were the next to last people to arrive. People were VERY excited about it, praise Coily.
I listened hard during the “any time is a good time to get out of Kansas” joke and I think most people laughed, but there was the expected tense silence from a few pockets of people. (Kansas gets these kind of jokes a lot, and my first reaction is always to nod and laugh, then freeze for a second as I assess whether anyone around me has gone into full Offended Mode.)
This was my least favorite Rifftrax thus far, maybe because it’s the third time I’ve seen Sharknado, and I question why I ever saw this thing even once. Corman was doing the same kind of outrageous Sci-Fi Channel movie shtick with Supergator (2007) and other films a few years back, and those were a lot more watchable than Sharknado ever was.
But the guys were off their game early on, both technically and with the mentions and other stuff they had to get out of the way, and when they segued into a short MST3K had already done, then previewed Sharknado 2, then showed Godzilla clips without sound, I really just fell out of the mood altogether.
So now that the spoiler warning period has passed, I’d like to call out those two favorite jokes from “A Case of Spring Fever”.
“No more springs… huh, probably should’ve asked him to do something about Hitler.” and “No! Christopher Walken had that hidden up his butt for five years!”
Our theatre was 90% full. Everyone had a great time! I must admit, I was very disappointed when the boys announced they were doing Sharknado, I felt is wasn’t worthy of their time and talent, I was wrong. I had a big ol’ slice of Humble Pie and a side order of Crow with that and I went so far as to offer my apologies the the gents on their Facebook page. At one point, I just yelled out, “What the hell is going on??!!” I shall never EVER doubt the power of the Masters of Riff again!
I, too, was at the State Theater. Still a bit hoarse this morning from laughing so much! And I’ll probably go to the replay on Tuesday, too, to relive the riffs – AND MORE!
I would say the theater in Royal Palm Beach, Florida was 1/2 full, and everyone had a great time. I knew when I saw the trailers for this on the SyFy channel before it aired that it would be just horrible so I did not watch it.
When I saw that the guys were going to riff on it, I said, “I’m in!” The movie makers definitely said, “We’ll just ignore every scientific principle that even a 3 year old would understand…” And I just have to get this out – HE WQULD HAVE CUT HER WITH THAT CHAINSAW, SO EVEN IF THE SHARK DIDN’T KILL HER, IAN WOULD HAVE!!! *phew* Thanks for letting me vent.
The Christopher Walken reference in the short still has me giggling.
If you didn’t see it last night – go on the 15th, it will be totally worth it! :)
Relatively low turnout in Baton Rouge (bigger turnout for Starship Troopers & Night of the Living Dead), but it was showing in two theaters in town, so maybe that was part of it. I get strangely nervous when there’s a small crowd, like it’s failing all over the country and the live shows will become a thing of the past. Very reassuring to see people posting about packed theaters elsewhere. As for the show, I had my doubts going in, but absolutely loved it–the Tasmanian quotes absolutely slayed me, and Mike’s riff about the shark coming out of the pipe was among my faves.
Great turnout in Danbury, CT. The theater was laughing and applauding throughout. This might have been my favorite live show yet.
Canton Cinema, Canton Michigan. about 2/3 full in the theater. A good sized crowd (about usual size) with enough wiggle room- Thats what I like about that theater. If you think amc 20 is too full, come over to canton cinema. The technical flubs early on were regretable- but eh- it happens. The riffs still made sense without the audio.
Wow that movie is even worse the second time- I noticed they didn’t use exactly, the riff from the contest. But did a shorter revision of it. I thought it was hilarious, good to see coily again. My only actual complaing was when they went from the movie, to shots of riffers and the movie- they cropped the aspect ratio of the movie down to 4:3, I think for say birdemic they maintained the 16:9.
It was a bit of a downer that the test material didn’t start at 7, and it was just random godzilla footage;)
Great show overall! 8-)
Saw this at the Regal Theater in Oaks, PA. We lost the satellite feed for a few minutes in the beginning of Sharknado, but it was restored before we missed too much. I sensed disaster and disappointment, but we avoided it.
I thought this was a good “gateway drug” for Rifftrax. My wife has very patiently sat through a lot of MST3K, Rifftrax, and Cinematic Titanic at our house, but I wouldn’t call her a fan. She made her first trip to a live show with me and my son for Sharknado, and really had a great time. Her second favorite riff is MST3K: The Movie, and I think they are similar in that they weren’t as rapid fire as some MST3K movies, and the references weren’t as obscure or geek centric as many (everybody, riffing fan or not, gets Tara Reid jokes.) Sharknado was a good choice to get some people in the seats that might not have come to a Manos showing, for example, and I think some of those borderline people might give Godzilla and Anaconda a shot now.
San Diego, Mission Valley theater was almost sold-out & people were lining up early to make sure they got good seats. Loved how they kept coming back to “science!” so often. And of course every other cast member of “90210” getting a shout-out.
“Aw, that’s so cute. Tara’s trying to act!”
It was my first live Rifftrax event! Thanks to a recent move from a place that didn’t carry the shows to one that does (not saying that influenced the move, but, well, maybe a little….).
At any rate, the theater was disappointingly empty, maybe about a quarter full. But those of us who were there seemed very enthusiastic. When I left, I was hoarse and my face hurt from laughing so much. Good times.
Favorite riffs?
[in Elmer Fudd voice] “Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I’m hunting Sharknadoes.”
[when a white Bronco drives by] “Hi, O.J.!!”
Usual full turnout at Union Square Theater 4 in NYC. I was one of those people who thought that doing an “intentionally bad” movie like Sharknado was ‘too easy’ but the crew hit out of the park! I laughed until I hurt. And so did everyone else in the theater.
I had seen Sharknado when it premiered on Syfy and thought it ‘intentionally bad’ in the most cheap, cynical kind of way, but it was so much worse on second viewing! Hell, even Corman’s Sharktopus tried to get some bogus science in there, but these guys didn’t even bother! And why o why were sharks the ONLY things twirling around in the air? There are a helluva lot lighter animals out there, yet none of’em seemed bothered at all! Very selective, these sharknados.
And yeah, there were technical glitches at the beginning, but it ended up being a nice chance for the guy to ad lib a little, which they don’t do often. Godzilla looks great, another big budget misfire ripe for mockery.
In conclusion, I thought this was the funniest live show they’ve done in a while, and I had expected the exact opposite.
Love it when the guys surprise me like that.