RiffTrax is performing two Live Shows in 2018 simulcast to hundreds of movie theaters nationwide: SPACE MUTINY and KRULL.
RiffTrax is performing two Live Shows in 2018 simulcast to hundreds of movie theaters nationwide: SPACE MUTINY and KRULL.
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RiffTrax Unveils Latest KickStarterRiffTrax is performing two Live Shows in 2018 simulcast to hundreds of movie theaters nationwide: SPACE MUTINY and KRULL.
67 Replies to “RiffTrax Unveils Latest KickStarter”Commenting at Satellite News
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I called it THREE YEARS AGO (think it was in the James Horner obit discussion), that Cole wouldn’t be able to keep his dopey lil’ kiddie-winkie-Millennial hands off of Krull for being, yuk-yuk, “so 80s”, for long.
And look!…It’s in a Space Mutiny double feature! Can you guess what the theme is, fans?
Is the theme “Filling EricJ with absurd, impotent rage?” If so, I fully support it.
Let them eat Space Mutiny.
I’ve always considered it the worst episode of the whole series. Although Christmas That Almost Wasn’t comes close.
But hey, if you can make a living off of it, more power to you.
A double feature that’s two months apart. That’s a hell of an intermission.
looking forward to a heavy dose of ‘beef mclargehuge.’
David “Poutylips” Ryder
David “Two Sheds” Ryder
or my personal favorite,
David “Big Dave” Ryder
There’s a couple of then unknown actors in Krull who should be good for a few riffs. Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane. Also, the teacher from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory playing a man who tends to change into animals.
And the movie on Blu-Ray is a bargain on Amazon. $5.99. Cheaper than the DVD version.
Space Mutiny is an easy choice – gets people into the theatre and shows Fathom and theatre chains that broadcasting live shows is still good business.
Krull is at once gloriously silly and wonderfully earnest. Thanks to the brass at Columbia Pictures for thinking they could compete with Return of the Jedi in summer 1983 and lighting a then-hefty $27m on fire for our amusement. Look, I own the movie, soundtrack CD set and Marvel adaptation (an extra on the DVD!).
In short, I like the movie a lot, and it’s *perfect* for Rifftrax. Expecting something along the lines of Jack the Giant Killer riff-wise.
I find it fascinating how fan opinions can be all over the place concerning episodes of this series. I think this episode is pretty good, but online I constantly see it referred to as one of the best episodes of the entire series which I don’t know if I agree with. But if you pay attention, you’ll always find that every episode has people that both love it and hate it. It’s very interesting, but it makes it difficult for me to recommend specific episodes. Sorry you didn’t like it. Maybe you’ll like the Rifftrax Live version better.
I saw the announcement and my reaction was “eh.” I know others are excited are about the choices and I’m happy for them. But they don’t do anything for me.
Nothing can top the excitement of the 2016 entire cast reunion or the hilarity of 2017’s Samurai Cop. We never missed a Rifftrax Live until “Five Doctors” (not a Who fan), but we’ll probably wait to watch most of these at home, unless it’s something exceptional. Not a big fan of re-riffing MST3K selections, except for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, which was done by all Three teams. Has riffing reached a saturation point?
Not in general IMO, but I kinda wish they’d stop doing ones that have already been done.
Krull discussions also usually turn up on discussions of “Moon Zero-Two”, when (older) film-buff posters wonder who else “Carry On” regular Bernard Bresslaw ever played besides the cyclops and the lovable thug who dreamed of rabbits.
(Although gives you some idea of what RT riffing has devolved down to, when the most deserving fodder is “Hey, they could running-gag about what other more famous movies these guys were in!”…Nnno, I think that might be too subtle a comic area, and go over their heads.)
I’m not saying Krull is 100% good-good, but there was a lot more earnest gravitas thrown at fantasy during the early days of the great 80’s Summer of Love than there would be later on.
Make any list of the best-LOOKING fantasy films of the 80’s, and this one tends to short-list right behind Excalibur and Neverending Story….Yes, Your Parents’ Decade, the One with the Big Hair, the Huey Lewis Songs and Knight Rider, actually made films with some real physical effort and attention.
(There’s “Easy”, there’s “Easier”, and there’s “Cheap fan-cult whoring”…Which does RT do more often when they have to raise Kickstarter bucks?
Besides “Manos” and “Reefer Madness”, I mean.)
I expect that they’re expecting something along the lines of JtGK, because they’re so set in ruts that they hear “80’s sword-and-sorcery fantasy” and thinks, well, that was the same decade “Sword & the Sorcerer” came from, so how hard could it be? (Except, of course, for Cole, who hears “80’s-icon title” and thinks the entire decade was the one that gave us “Dirty Dancing”…No one backs Prince Colwyn into a corner.)
There’s no such actual thing as Good or Bad in their now shtick-sheltered world, there’s only excuses to re-tell a certain number of already-told jokes, and getting Fathom to pick up the tab. If they actually liked sitting in theaters, the distinction might be an easier concept to grasp.
It would be hilarious if the guys didn’t do any “Blast Hardcheese” riffs on Space Mutiny. The internet provides plenty of those tired chestnuts these days. There is more to MST3K than a string of riffs from Space Mutiny. I say this as a fan of that episode and the newer movies used on the show in general.
That seems unlikely, since there’s a reward level in the Kickstarter where you can write your own Dave Ryder name and have them use it in the script (subject to approval). It’s fun, but now you suggest it, I kind of wish they wouldn’t either. I might feel differently if the character’s name suggested such jokes in the first place, rather than being jokes about his beefiness (not that they aren’t deserved).
Delete your account.
Delete your account.
Delete your account.
Delete your account.
Like a majority of us here, that’s *my* decade, d-bag.
How young are you anyway, junior? I mean, from the impetuousness of your posts, it’s fairly evident, but still…
Just… Delete yourself.
This’s the group that shouts “Captain Santa!” every time Cameron Mitchell appears in any other RT’ed film, what makes you possibly think they’ll hold back now?
(There, I figured that was worth one.) :)
You’re not a TRUE Krull fan without a copy of the Atari 2600 game tucked away in a closet somewhere.
In all seriousness, I love Krull. It’s my favorite “this is not really that good of a movie” movie.
I thought EricJ originally hailed from RATMM?
…Would you accept a MAME .rom of the old arcade game as substitute?
If a majority of “us” were alive to appreciate the 80’s, “we’d” have been alive in the early 90’s to watch Comedy Central.
Just that there’s not as much of a majority on the new RT riffing staff…Which, would be why they’re trotting out Space Mutiny again.
For everyone here who is fed up with Eric J. and his mean spirited ramblings:
Don’t feed the troll.
Check out the “Faith’s Take” channel on YouTube. She’s a MSTie and Rifftrax fan who has more class, intelligence, and humor than Mr. Eric “I hate Mike Nelson for no possible reason other than jealousy” J. could ever imagine.
You’ll feel better.
If half of it wasn’t a film that Mike & Kevin & Bill have already riffed, I might chip in. We’ll never know for sure.
If they must have repeat films, why don’t they get Trace, Frank, and someone else to riff those?
That’d be even more of a repeat than Space Mutiny…
Making no sense, as per ushe.
Look kid, you’ve had a good run on this whole “I hate Mike” shtick, but it’s just getting pathetic now. Get some new material or just STFU already.
Yipes, I KNOW I’m feeling old when the only one I agree with here is Eric.
In all fairness to RT, though, I’ve discovered in rewatching some MST3K recently that perhaps it’s me (or at least partly me). Times have changed, we’ve all gotten SO much snarkier and “aware” then we were when MST3K first arrived. While I think the riffing, in general, has gotten a lot less clever I also think it matches the times (in which calling folks names or repeating endlessly “delete your account” is somehow considered to either be funny, or the right thing to do). It may well be that it’s impossible anymore to do the kind of gentle humor riff MST3K was properly famous for (the kind of “we’re not making fun of you per se, we’re just bemused”).
So I’ll refrain from making any more disparaging remarks about how much RT has fallen (which should be a blessed relief to all of you who). And, no, I can’t do anything about Eric (he’ll have to make his own decisions, but my advice would be to let it go, that those of us who understand RT isn’t any good any more don’t need to hear it repeated).
Regarding the topic of re-riffing movies, I think it’s important to note that 1) at this point the Rifftrax catalog consists of more movies and shorts than the entire MST3K catalog, so you can’t say they lack variety and 2) they haven’t sat down to riff those MST3K titles in about 20 years, so it’s fair to say they might have some new things to say about them compared to when they had a different outlook and writing staff back in the 90s.
I think these movies look great as Rifftrax selections. Space Mutiny is due for an update when it comes to riffs, and there’s so much to use. Now, if they could just get Dave Ryder to make a guest appearance.
I’ll likely go see both of these, but I’m much more excited for Krull than Space Mutiny. I’m OK with MKB re-riffing movies from MST3K that one or more of them wasn’t in on the first time (either Santa movie, Manos, etc.), but I’m not really too interested in them re-riffing anything from the seasons that they were all the onscreen talent. I mean, I get it, Space Mutiny & Time Chasers get butts in seats, but I’d be much more interested in a re-riff of Pod People or Day the Earth Froze (imagine them riffing a decent-looking print of a widescreen Russo Finnish film; they’re goofy as hell, but they’re filled with detail & shot wonderfully) than doing something all 3 of them riffed before on MST3K. Wishful thinking aside, I’ll probably go & laugh my ass off anyway.
The problems with RT at the moment is that while RT may have started out as just Legend Films’ gimmick to sell one more colorization of “House on Haunted Hill”, once MK&B went solo, they wanted to go into “contemporary” material, did their Just the Jokes audio riffs of Twilight, Avatar, SW Prequels, Transformers, Marvel Films That Only Nerds Would See, Tolkien Films That Kevin Rages Only Renfest Nerds Would See, and so on–
They had to perpetuate a “cult” to keep a private online business going, and the more they insulated a “cult” to agree with them, you could see the choice of titles turn more into their own personal rage issues against other nerdy fan-cults that annoyed them: It started out as “Some Movies (ie., annoying sparkling-vampire fangirl movies) Have It Coming”, and began transforming into some free-floating “ALL Movies Have It Coming” vigilante campaign against the tyranny of the 10’s actor/entertainment industry, with annoying celebrities name-dropped aplenty.
They no longer pick on movies for being “cheesy”, they seem to want to pick on any movie they can get their hands on for creating an industry that gave Shia LaBeouf a job. Something in the last ten years has knocked them off of whatever perch made them like picking on movies in the old Minnesota writer’s room; once they started getting the cheering rally-love from the live tours, they’ve gone on their audience-avenging Mission From God, and when all else fails, just slip in a “420” joke for the stoners, they’ll always love you for it. Even their copy no longer says “Hang out with two strange hours for this one”, it’s “Here’s something new, watch us HATE this one!” Preferably in person at the live shows, Kickstarter donations permitting…It’s become like watching some kind of comedy Trump rally (“Lock Michael Bay Up!”), neurotic narcissism-disorder included.
When you lose the compass you started out with, in TV, they call that Jumping The Shark. I don’t know what they call it in online Kickstarter businesses.
(“But it’s not MST3K anymore! It’s something new!”
Well, then that brings us back to the question of why they keep trotting up Space Mutiny, Manos and the Mexican Santa Claus every time they need a quick four bits.)
New riff/headwriter Cole Stratton and his main squeeze Janet Varney, who’ve provided RT with solo riffing on “Dreamscape”, “Dirty Dancing”, “The Lost Boys”, “Ghost”, “Footloose”, “Jaws 3-D”, and other movies on a rather distinct running theme.
(And you thought Bridget and MJ were the only one-joke “theme” riffers.)
Who the hell is Cole?
Like in “The Family Circus”?
I…I…I’m utterly speechless. Just where did you get that piece of information from? It must be Double Secret or something because sure as hell not even the Drip subscribers know that!
(Fry “Not Sure If Serious >_> ” meme: https://www.rifftrax.com/riffer/cole-stratton )
No, the kind where the vocal riff-delivery used to sort of go up and impishly enthusiastic, because the riffers want to be silly and break up everyone in the room–As opposed to the riff delivery we’ve had for the last twelve years, where every line goes down and crabby, anger-issued, hair-trigger impatient and bitter because they’re openly resenting the waste of whatever time of their life the movie took away from them that necessitated spewing the riff back at it.
(And they call ME the 24/7 negative one…)
It’s possible to get that “innocent” riffing back that MxgK misses–Jonah’s done a good job under the more canon-official Netflix version, with the (ahem) original creators of the show working on it.
But to get that “original” mindset of the humor back, you have to get back to how it was first created, and that means sitting in a theater, and being a rowdy audience…What else?
Instead, we’ve got a generation that grew up in cineplexes, and when they hear “movie theater”, they think exactly what RT wants to militarize them against: Crappy Michael Bay Transformers sequels with looney overpaid actors. And off the cult marches to war, beating their movie plowshares into swords, and then empowered to take on anything else in their lives that dares annoy them with gleefully “deserved” high-school bullying.
My complaint a while back was “That’s what Mike’s done to the fandom”, and as MxgK seems to be complaining, that’s exactly what Mike/RT’s done to the fandom.
The Titanic live shows delivered the silly rowdy-audience rush, and the RT live shows claim they’re the “only” ones who can deliver that, but again, they seem to have bigger, deeper issues on their agenda than just throwing toilet paper back at Rocky Horror,–And that’s how the riffing starts becoming darker, less “innocent”, as the poster put it, and just less damn fun to sit through for an angry, grueling hour and a half.
No, no – please don’t refrain on my part or anyone else’s. We all have differing opinions regarding favorite episodes, hosts, etc. You’re perfectly fine.
I object to the ever-present, constantly banal, often trolling nonsense that spews from EricJ’s corner. As we can all agree at this point – it’s just old and tired. He’s still stuck in the JvM flame wars of the 90’s and it’s just sad and pathetic at this point. We get it – you no like Mike.. move the F on already.
In any event, as for you, Sir – your comments, and pretty much anyone’s, are always welcome here. True, rational commentary and even debates are fine; consistent, obnoxious trolling is not.
Gare
Delete your account.
Where does that say he’s headwriter?
Well, considering that’s under the “Guest Riffers” header in the About Us section of the RiffTrax wevsite, I’d say you’re stretching things. But because I wanted to make sure you don’t have a super-secret mole in RiffTrax HQ, I shot off a message to Erik Peterson, a/k/a TorgosPizza, the RiffTrax web guy, to ask him what was up. His response:
“Hey [my name], you’re right, Cole is only a “RiffTrax Presents” riffer/writer. I’m fairly certain that hasn’t changed. If you’d like, just send me a link to the post in question, and I’d be glad to chime in.” And a few minutes later:
“I found the post, but it looks like the site has changed the way the login works, and I’m too busy to go into it, haha. But yeah just let him know that NO, Cole is not a head writer. Not sure where he got that info but it’s 100% incorrect.”
So much for that theory, Mr. J. I still can’t understand how you arrived there from the write-up on the RiffTrax website (and why would you be browsing there if you hate them so much?), but thank you for the hearty belly laugh I had today. Also, please don’t say you never meant to imply that Cole Stratton was the head writer at RiffTrax, or running things there, because your comments about him most certainly did, in this thread and elsewhere.
The Original EricJ:
I called it THREE YEARS AGO (think it was in the James Horner obit discussion), that Cole wouldn’t be able to keep his dopey lil’ kiddie-winkie-Millennial hands off of Krull for being, yuk-yuk, “so 80s”, for long.
And look!…It’s in a Space Mutiny double feature! Can you guess what the theme is, fans?
Mr. Krasker:
Is the theme “Filling EricJ with absurd, impotent rage?” If so, I fully support it.
Quote)
48 likes
There are forty-eight commentators in here? Or did some people create new extra accounts just so they could extra-like Mr. Krasker’s post?
Well, wasn’t he complimenting said era by attributing to it films with some real physical effort and attention?
Yet…you not only keep reading it, you keep responding to it thereby PROVING that you’re reading it.
He’s like the Dana Carvey Cranky Old Man character that used to pop up in 90s Weekend Updates. Sheesh. So I get halfway through a grumpy comment, peek up to see who wrote it, roll my eyes and scroll down.
Moving on, after thinking about it, I’m actually surprised we didn’t get a Dave Ryder Double Feature: Space Mutiny and Yor, the Hunter From The Future. Or as I like to call it (Your Preferred Nickname) Goes To Turkey. It’s just been released on Blu-Ray (!) with Reb Brown commentary (!!).
Since the Kickstarter’s already 85 percent funded as I’m typing this, it really wouldn’t shock me if they go full Punch Rockgroin and dangle a live Yor show as a stretch goal.
Prove it.
Yup. I read the comment feed by RSS and there are some people I just skip over.
Well, I know I’m looking forward to these. I think they’ll turn out OK.
I’m just hoping they’ll do one more show in the fall, or maybe throw in a couple of encores.
You are now my favorite monkey-shaped-pretzel ever.
Gare
…whistles innocently..
Nah, not really engaging in much back and forth actual conversation – just encouraging him to piss off already. There’s a difference.
What I find amusing is when he puts a smiley emoticon in his posts, as though he’s our friend. He’s not.