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Weekend Discussion Thread: What Movies Should the Reboot Riff?Well, what a week it’s been!
The news we got this week is causing all sorts of speculation…so let’s do some more! What movie(s) do you think would be good fodder for the new MST3K? Obviously they won’t be doing big blockbusters, so keep in mind that the movies will be a lot like the ones they did on the old show. Have at it! 203 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: What Movies Should the Reboot Riff?”Commenting at Satellite News
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I would like to see them tear apart Captain America. The 1990 film. Also I would like to see them riff on more shorts!
From Hell It Came. Giant tree throwing native girls in quicksand, dialogue that will put you to sleep, and an Island Chief with a Brooklyn accent.
I will also second the nomination of “Brain From Planer Arous” Giant flyin’ brains!!!!!!!
And wouldn’t it also be kinda cool to see them riff “Billy Jack”?
Did I see anyone mention “The Spawn Of Slithis” (1978)?
I saw this in the theater in my early teens. I still have not been able to wash the smell out.
“Second this one I do” says Yoda.
The Yesterday Machine (this is somewhere quality-wise between Creeping Terror and Killer Shrews, only without a cute monster)
How about some that Rifftrax has already handled, like FUN IN BALLON LAND or TO CATCH A YETI
R.O.T.O.R.
Kill Squad
From Hell it Came
Frankenstein’s Daughter
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
High Kicks
Cruel Jaws
Moment by Moment
Trog
Night of the Ghouls
Star Crystal
Space Chase
How about some of the ’70s disaster films like “Fire!” or “Two-Minute Warning”? The latter would have so many opportunities for Larry Csonka-like riffs.
My first pick would be Solarbabies.
– The script, the acting, the effects – what’s not to riff?
My second choice is Attack of the Puppet People.
– Bert I. Gordon + John Agar. That’s MST’s bread and butter.
Reptilicus
Konga
Empire of the Ants
I love me a giant monster movie, and all of these are super cheesy.
An unrelated question: I see the comments section is now organized into pages, rather than a long, long run of replies. New feature?
Let Mike riff the 80’s films and the nerd-blockbusters for a cheap gag, if there’s ANYTHING Joel knows, it’s 70’s kitsch. :)
Maybe they’ll finally have the chance to do “Killdozer”, like they teased with references to for the entire CC series.
From Hell It Came already has the stigma of being riffed on “It Came From Hollywood”, so that gives it the Plan Nine factor that it’s already too much of a Golden Turkey gag for them to touch, but, errrrr, you never know.
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman HAS that corny stigma that made us all giggle over it in the 80’s when the Turkeys first came out–Not to mention, how many people rented it thinking it was some kitschy “feminist metaphor” like in Monsters vs. Aliens, and found out it was just an overacted Joan Crawford-wannabe potboiler where a flying saucer was pasted into the script at the last minute? (Which, reportedly, it was.)
With Joel producing, Joel-era films are a very complicated matter, not just your average RiffTrax games of “Hey, they mentioned this movie in Golden Turkeys and this one on Agony Booth, and I saw this one on Nostalgia Critic!” How many of us had heard of any of the Cinematic Titanic movies, and even then he wants to find cheerier ones.
More The Master and Rocky Jones episodes
and do some more General Hospital episodes,too..
A*P*E
Babes in Toyland with Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore
Bigfoot with Joi Lansing and John Carradine
Blood Hook
GI Samurai
The Mighty Gorga
Return to Frogtown with Robert Z’Dar
Test Tube Babies
Hawk the Slayer
The Brain…
I’ll echo some of the choices here (The Thing with Two Heads, Yor the Hunter from the Future, Gymkata, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Night of the Lepus) and add some of my own.
There might be some overlap with previous suggestions:
Killdozer – they referenced this killer bulldozer movie often during the Joel years
Starship Invasions – Mary Jo Pehl mentioned this Christopher Lee sci-fi film as one of the prospective season seven episodes in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, but that obviously didn’t pan out
Mosquito – cheesy giant bug film starring the late, great Gunner Hansen
Mac and Me – this E.T. ripoff could be the Pod People of the new season
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster – never saw it, but this low-budget filmed-in-Puerto-Rico sci-fi film was ranked #7 in the DVD documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made, so take that as you will
Wild Guitar – never saw it, but Mary Jo Pehl mentioned it as a screened but rejected film for season seven in the ACEG. Ray Dennis Steckler’s directorial debut apparently has Arch Hall Jr doing the Cabbage Patch Elvis thing again.
Bog – never saw it, but according to Wikipedia and IMDB, a 1983 PG-rated creature movie filmed around Harshaw, Wisconsin about a bloodthirsty prehistoric gill monster that’s revived after dynamite fishing? That sounds MST3K-ish enough.
Hercules in New York – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s debut, and if the MST3K crew could afford the film rights, this piece of cheese would be perfect
More generally, maybe they can find another sword-and-sandal movie like the Hercules films or another wacky Russo-Finnish film?
I’d mention Bert I. Gordon’s Attack of the Puppet People, but that’s an American International Pictures film, so Susan Hart probably has a steel grip around that one.
Some people are suggesting movies that Rifftrax has done, which is fine, but I think as much as possible it’s better to avoid a whole lot of crossover. If I had to guess, I’d say a lot of us probably became MSTies by coming for the movies and staying for the riffs. There’s nothing quite like discovering a dumb old movie you’ve never heard of before, which is why movies like Birdemic and Miami Connection are so popular in our circles even without riffing. The riffing just makes it more fun. So I think as much as they can find some obscure turkeys we all most likely haven’t seen before, that’s what ought to happen.
I’m hoping for a selection a bit better than Cinematic Titanic’s. So many of those “films” were so dreary and scuzzy it was hard to watch, and it felt like they had to try too hard to wring the funny out of them. (With some exceptions: Later entries like East Meets Watts, Rattlers, and Astral Factor were good material. And Wasp Woman. You can’t go wrong with Roger Corman in coasting-on-fumes mode.)
Maybe another Don Dohler movie? CT’s Alien Factor and RiffTrax’s Galaxy Invader are both a lot of fun.
Number One on my personal list is Reptilicus. I had even half-planned to do an iRiff for a long time but the MGM DVD was out of print. Now Shout Factory recently put out a Blu-Ray, so it may very well be within the new show’s reach. *fingers crossed*
Something with the Paper Chase guy, he’s the Gintiest:
The Retaliator (1987), aka Programmed to Kill, a Cyborg action film with a young Paul Walker in one of his first screen appearances.
Or Golan-Globus?
Masters of the Universe is a 1987 American science fantasy action film directed by Gary Goddard, and stars Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Jon Cypher, Chelsea Field, Billy Barty and Courteney Cox.
RiffTrax has a VOD of Puppet People, so she definitely doesn’t own that one.
Wild Guitar would be a great choice, but I’m pretty sure it’s public domain and Joel has said none of the movies he has his eye on are PD. (Part of why they need to raise so much money.)
They should definitely cover Miami Connection from 1987. That movie is so bad, it’s good.
I wasn’t aware of either situation, so thanks for the info!
Cathy’s Curse fits all the necessary criteria.
What about some Charles dance Dennis hopper “Space Truckers”
One other that I haven’t exactly watched beyond some clips, but I am familiar with it: They Saved Hitler’s Brain. Why hasn’t this been done? Does something about Hitler being in the title make it too controversial or something? There’s also a version of it called The Madmen of Mandoras. Anyway, it’s from Crown International Pictures, so it should be cheap.
Prometheus (though I doubt Ridley Scott would allow it) and, as others have mentioned, one that creates kind of a bridge from the original MST3K to the new — instead of Gamera, why not riff on Godzilla (1998) or Transformers (2007 – a wealth of riffs to be had at Shia’s expense!). For horror, I’d submit Maximum Overdrive…or how about a decent but greatly flawed horror franchise like Scream, if getting the rights isn’t too costly.
“Blood Beach” (They can edit out the attempted rape scene).
“Invasion of the Bee Girls”
That one sounds absolutely perfect. The ’80s, Wisconsin, a gill monster, and dynamite fishing. Yee haw!
I’ll chime in yet AGAIN and say I don’t think the reboot should do any movies that have been done by Rifftrax. I want all new stuff.
White Fire
Starring Robert Ginty and Fred Williamson from Warrior of the Lost World and the guy who played Babyface in Secret Agent Super Dragon.
Chained Heat. Linda Blair AND a Women’s Prison movie
Navy vs the Night Monsters.
SOMEBODY has got to do Pieces at some point, but I fear it may be a little too risqué for for RT or MST…
“Kings of the Sun”
Yul Brennar plays a native American in the MesoAmerican themed movie set during the Spanish conquest….
I would prefer the reboot to take this approach as well.
Sure, anything the new MST3K would cover would be done hilariously and memorably, but I want them to cover all-new ground and open our eyes to film selections that most people haven’t heard of/anticipated.
I have a fondness for Hillbillies In A Haunted House. It’s got songs (Both kinds – Country AND Western), stars (Basil Rathbone! John Carridine! Lon Chaney Jr!), Spies and a freaking gorilla! I saw it on You-Tube not long ago, and it’s eminently riffable, and that’s not even a word!
I cannot believe The Giant Claw isn’t listed yet (EDIT: It was! The paging of older comments threw me off.) but there are a lot of other fine suggestions. There are still scads of crappy monster movies they could nail: The Creature Walks Among Us, The Brain From Planet Arous, Night of the Lepus, Twisted Brain, Without Warning, Mutant…
Irwin Allen’s The Swarm is probably well beyond their grasp but I wish Rifftrax would lay the smack on it someday.
Suffice to say I’d love to see them take on more Bert I. Gordon films and anything from Irwin Allen’s diminishing stage. Fire! would be nice, but Flood! is far more riffable.
The Swarm is way too Golden Turkey’ed to be out of RT’s cheap grasp, but anything from Allen’s post-Swarm “decline”–When Time Ran Out, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure–would be decade-symbolic enough to be right up Joel’s street, and obscure enough not to bring any gag-baggage with it.
(In addition to their TV-like retired-star casts, both have climactic “Okay, cross this bridge of certain doom, and you’re in the club” scenes that just have Women of the Prehistoric Planet written all over them.)
A turkey I saw recently. IFO, so bad that it could be identified
Master Ninja 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 please! Spread out over time, of course
Also would love to see:
Convoy
Russkies
Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla
Savage Beach (lol yeah, right)
1990 – Bronx Warriors
the last 3 Radar Men episodes
Hell Night
Inglourious Bastards 2
Combat Academy
Nemesis (Albert Pyun film)
Blood Shack
Blood Tide
Remaining old school Gamera (Viras, Super Monster, Jiger)
Trick Or Treat (1986, with Ozzy and Gene Simmons in tiny roles. I really want to see them tackle this one!)
The Astral Factor (never saw the CT version, but this movie, wow, ripe for riffing!)
UFO Kidnapped
Wacko (classic Joe Don Baker!)
Dudes (John Cryer)
White Comanche
Pandemonium
Top Ten:
Wild, Wild Planet
Starcrash
Mutant Hunt
Death Ray 2000
Knock Off
A Very Brady Christmas
Samurai Cop
Hard Ticket to Hawaii (probably too much T&A)
Revenge of the Ninja
The Swarm
Honorable mentions:
A*P*E
Destination: Inner Space
The Specialist
Skyline
Captain America 2 (w/ Reb Brown)
Sssssssss
Hercules (w/ Lou Ferrigno)
Rage of Honor
Starcrash 2 aka Escape from Galaxy 3
Baffled!
Stargate: The Movie
Yor, Hunter from the Future
Message from Space
The Bad Seed
The Concorde: Airport ’79
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
You Got Served
Cyclone (w/ Heather Thomas)
Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus (with Urkel!)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (and Death of Kirk’s Son)
Disaster on the Coastliner (w/ The Shat)
Bulletproof (w/ Gary Busey)
Death Wish 3
Star Crystal! yeah! I have that on my shelf right now. pre-mst3k I rented that and my mother was laughing so hard I got worried.
The Man Who Saves The World, Also known as Turkish Star Wars (Might be hard gettng the rights to it since you know they didn’t bother getting them)
You would know cheap
The 50′ woman.
Sharknado
Hider In The House! More Busey!
@88 I’m with you on the Andy Sidaris flicks, like Hard Ticket To Hawaii. A little trimming, and they’d be a good fit.
The 1999 Horror/Thriller movie called Bats!!!!
Return of the Killer Tomatoes, with a young George Cloney and an old John Astin. Or any of the other three Killer Tomatoes movies.
Ator The Fighting Eagle ( the movie that came before Cave Dwellers) or the sequels Ator: The Iton Warriors and The Hobgoblin/Quest for the Mighty Sword. (It’s known by either of those two names.)
Either of the Lou Ferrigno Hercules movies, or the Ferrigno Sinbad movie.
The made for Starz movie Escape from Atlantis.
On the AMA, Joel said:
“I CAN tell you that all of the new films will finally be widescreen (or academy aperture 1.85), but we’re still interested in maintaining their crappiness.”
I think that alone will disqualify most, if not all 70s TV movies.
For those that did not read the AMA, this quote is also VERY relevant to the conversation:
“We’d love to do more shorts. They’re such a key part of MST3K. I’m not sure whether they’ll be part of this new season, but I’d love to include more of them in the future.
We love The Room, but I think MST3K does best when we steer away from movies that are famous for being bad. That’s why we never did “Plan 9 From Outer Space” during our original run. “
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: starring Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Earth, Wind and Fire, Steve Martin and Aerosmith. It is awful, and the covers of the original music is even worse!
Zardoz. Please please do Zardoz. The gun is good, the penis is evil.
For the love of all things good in this world…..Master Ninja 3!!!!!
I’ve always thought Rifftrax or CT should do the “lost” episodes. The Green Slime, Invaders From The Deep, Revenge Of The Mysterons and the Mylar short. Now with the reboot there may be a chance to see them! What do think, sirs??!!