My thoughts:
• Despite the fact that I have seen a DVD version of this riff, and also saw it live in San Diego last summer, I still went away with a bad case of “laugh stomach.” Another great show. There were definitely some new lines and that was fun: Sorry, Fort Worth!
• The short was lots of fun. It really got everybody warmed up. “Thank you for keeping the plane snake-free.”
• I really liked the thing where they showed the riffers at the side of the screen. I wished they’d done it more.
• For the record, my theater was about 80 percent full, and people were laughing a LOT.
• There were four really brief signal dropouts, all only a few seconds long, in the first half hour or so. Each time I thought “Oh, God, another technical disaster!” But it was fine.
• This was my first exposure to Mr. Coulton and I really enjoyed it. I will seek more of his stuff.
• Every time they showed the two girls in the front row who were singing along with Coulton, people in my theater laughed and, I fear, not WITH the young ladies.
• Lowtax’s stuff didn’t strike me as hold-my-sides hilarious, but I laughed some. I think it’s an acquired taste. I may be too old a fogie.
• This was also my first exposure to Ms. Belmont. I don’t want to come off like a cranky old grandpa here, but quite frankly, for somebody being billed as “the queen of the internet,” I had never heard of her, Revision3, Tekzilla, Qore or the PlayStation Network before she was announced as the host of the Comic-Con show. I’m not a gamer, and she looks young enough to be my daughter so, sorry Veronica, you’ve just never been on my radar screen. You kids get off my lawn! Actually, she seems pleasant enough, and she discharged her duties cheerfully, but she was also a little out of place. To her credit, she seemed to be aware of it. I could almost hear her thinking, “What the hell am I doing here?” Maybe somebody with actual comedy experience (Bridget perhaps?) might have been a better fit, but she was fine.
• I would say that about a tenth of the total laughs the show got were people simply laughing at the movie itself. I’ve seen this movie a dozen times now, at least, and its rank incompetence still stuns me every time.
• It was interesting to see that, in the bedroom scene, they left in the photo of the two contest winners. A couple of years ago they ran a contest, I forget the details, but the prize was that Legend would put your photo in that picture frame. And it was still there.
• Speaking of the color print, it is very nice, not garish at all. Those Legend wizards do a good job.
• Seeing this again made me wonder what the REAL reason was that they never did this movie during the MST3K years. The more I think about it, the more I think the excuses they gave at the time don’t really hold up.
• Fave riff: Why are we beating them off?
Erhardt adds:
• I saw the show in one of AMC’s hoity-toity Fork & Screen theaters. The auditorium was completely sold out. I honestly thought I’d be about the only one there and I was quite pleasantly surprised. I think there was one other auditorium at the AMC Studio 29 also screening the show, but I have no idea what its attendance was.
• Several people in our comments section have posted that they and/or the audience didn’t particularly care for John Coulton. I thoroughly enjoyed his performances…especially when Kevin guest-starred as “the zombie.” Unfortunately in my theater, very few people sung the “eat your brains” line that Mr. Coulton exhorted us to.
• The first Lowtax “sponsor” ad got a HUGE laugh from the Kansas City crowd I was sitting with, as did the quick mention in the “Plans 1-8” song. I’ve always noticed that the residents here love it anytime their city is mentioned, whether that mention is particularly complimentary or not. I can only imagine that the reactions from the Fort Worth audiences were similar. But where the heck was OUR apology, Bill?
• I’ve got to agree with Sampo about Ms. Belmont. Her appearance, along with Coulton’s, just seemed to be an attempt by RiffTrax to heighten their “geek” cred. As if they need to. But she did a good enough job.
• The RiffTrax site actually crashed after the show as audience members rushed to get their free downloads. But they were able to make a few database fixes and got the site back up after a few hours.
• Favorite riff: Can Kevin’s “ptoo!” noise whenever a character waved a gun be considered a riff? If not, I’ll go with “The captain thanks you for keeping our plane snake free.”
Also: Reviews here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
8/22 Update: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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reporting from Clifton, NJ here.
I saw a preview for the event Wednesday when I went to see District 9. Oh, and a lot of hype in the @rifftrax twitter feeds… and from all three of the guys… And yet I somehow forgot about it.
Our theater was pretty full, too. I got in about 15 minutes early, and was stuck down in the third row (sitting up front made it feel more authentic, somehow…) We had some satellite glitches during the short and the very beginning of the movie, but otherwise everything worked well. I’m actually a huge JoCo fan, so I really enjoyed his set.
THERE’S NOT A MAN OUT ON THE WING OF THE PLANE!
Yup, this one snores like a breeder sow.
The Snakes on a Plane ref probably got the biggest laugh. :)
I also muchly appreciated the “TIME FOR GO TO BED” riff… maybe that’s because I use it all the time in real life.
Watched it in Phoenix (Awatukee) and my wife and I were ROTFL. I didn’t mind the solo song portion, but it did seem out of place. Rifftones were great!
My only complaint was the volume was too low, but that was probably the theater’s fault. This theater also didn’t do anything to promote it, which is a shame.
2 or 3 short (2-3 secs ea) little blackouts during the FANTASTIC short, but aside from generating groans out of the audience, it wasn’t too disruptive.
All I can say, DO IT AGAIN! MORE! MORE! MORE!
Saw it at the Lloyd Center in Portland, totally sold out, which was gratifying. It was worth every penny, but I really think all the non-riffing can go. The host was just horrible, and actually slowed down the show with her constant note reading and non-sequiturs. Jonathan Coulton just sucked, I don’t get it. It comes across as hipster nonsense, and having seen the 2 chicks in Nashville that were singing along, I’m glad I’m out of that loop. The 2 something awful commercials were pretty funny and a nice transition, but it was the riffing we came for and the guys delivered it in spades. My only critique of the riffing is the split screens the would do sometimes were distracting (although I kept anxiously awaiting Mike to do a “brady bunch” riff when they did it)
#34:
The photo above the bed changed because when Plan 9 was colorized, there was a contest held to ‘become’ the photograph above the bed. That would explain why it was the ‘new’ photo at one point, but the original photo during other cuts.
In Madison, the theater erupted into applause after the Wisconsin joke.
17 – That’s pretty awesome seeing Mary Jo. I went to a different theater in Austin which I would guess was somewhere between 2/3 and half full. Not sure why they were broadcasting to 3 or 4 theaters in the ATX metro area.
I found it enjoyable, but not amazing. Maybe I’ve just seen Plan 9 too many times. Still it was a very cool experience and here’s hoping they can do it again some time.
There were 3 or 4 blackouts during the preshow and short at our theater (in Texas, but not Forth Worth) but luckily they had it all worked out by the time the film began. I personally love that they had Coulton, and that they allowed some “prewshow” time to figure stuff like that out without ruining it.
It was a hillarious show, and a very slick presentation. I even liked the innovation of showing their faces occasionally during the riffing, despite the distraction at first.
“However, I have to emphatically state that, as much as we liked it, none of us thought it was better than Cinematic Titanic. We’ve seen Cinematic Titanic Live three times now and there was no comparison. As funny as Rifftrax Live was, if CT Live and Rifftrax Live were playing simultaneously and we could only watch one, CT Live would be the winner of our ticket dollars.
Same for the DVD at home experience. Rifftrax is great, but I think as a whole CT is more consistenly funny.”
thanks for that. really. i was sitting here at work, dying to know if a cinematic titanic die-hard thought that rifftrax wasn’t as good as their favorite thing ever.
Mr. B(ob),
I haven’t seen CT live (and probably won’t — they won’t come to Florida ) so I was not comparing last night’s event to anything they’ve done. Given the talent there (Joel was first and foremost a standup) I’m sure their stage performance is superb.
CT’s DVDs are rather hit or miss with me — for one thing, I don’t particularly care for the horror genre (I think the SCIENCE part of MST3K was always what they did best, and the 50’s sci-fi films are about as cheesy as anything that comes along). I have them all, I support all the work they are doing, I just don’t feel they’ve come close to hitting one out of the ballpark (perhaps a good ground rule double from time to time).
RT’s shorts, by and large, aren’t anywhere NEAR up to the old MST3K quality. The best way to describe most of Mike and Co. post Film-Crew work is that they were phoning it in (and I STILL think that’s how they collaborate on most of their work nowadays — it certainly plays out that way). Which is not to say I don’t keep buying all their shorts and any older movies they do — just that they don’t make me laugh much.
But last night… well, it was as good as it could get without the ‘bots (and perhaps Dr. Forrester). I’m on my second half-century and have seen a lot of shows in my life that were pretty fantastic (Steve Martin live, for example) and nothing made me laugh more. If RT wants to do something similar again I’m down for it — can’t think of a better way to spend an evening.
(But if you can get CT to come to my state I’ll also pony up the bucks to see them — I suspect I’d get more than my money’s worth there as well.
I saw it in Evansville, IN where the theater was pretty full, probably about 3/4 or more. I’m 19 years old and I’ve been to a lot of movies but that was the most I’ve ever laughed during a movie at the theater. The short and the movie were both fantastic. I hope they do this again soon.
@ # 58:
First, thanks for the thoughtful, friendly, interesting reply. A refreshing change on the Internet ;).
I’ll have to agree with you that the “science part” always worked best for me too on MST3K. The foray into other genres kept it from becoming stale, but the old SF movies were always my favorites with a few notable exceptions. Perhaps that’s why Doomsday Machine and Wasp Woman are two of my favorite CT DVDs.
We’ve been MSTies since we got Comedy Channel on our cable system during MST3K season 2 and we’re also about your age if you find that of interest. We went to both conventions in Minnesota too.
CT has’t come to Maryland/D.C. area yet which has tons of great theaters just right for the size and nature of their show. It’s frustratintg. We actually took a little trip to MN last year to see them, figuring we’d never see them again after that as we certainly wouldn’t be flying around to see them again. When CT went to Philly, we jumped on it as it’s only a 2.5 hour car ride. We stayed overnight and saw both shows.
I also really miss MST3K and the characters. Nothing done since is quite the same, but CT seems to come closest for us. Still, we bought the Film Crew DVDs and the ten Rifftrax DVDs. House On Haunted Hill is the best of those and as good as any post MST3K project since. We also really liked the Shorts.
About the Brady Bunch effect… I agree that it ended up being a little distracting; every time they appeared, I found myself not looking at the movie (and therefore missing some jokes), but looking over at the guys. On the other hand, it was still nice to see the guys during the riff.
It really made me more appreciative of Joel’s original ideal of the silhouettes. They don’t distract the eye, but it still gives the performers the option of making an over-the-top gesture or sight-gag when appropriate…
Hamilton, New Jersey for my viewing experience.
I’d say the audience was a bit over two-thirds, maybe closer to three-quarters full. A reasonable subset had on MST3K, Cinematic Titanic, or Rifftrax shirts. Quite a few of the attendees were kind of scruffy (me included).
It was a pretty game crowd although after the introduction of the zombie refrain only a few people actually sang it. It was among those giving it my best, which is not that distinguishable from my worst.
Our audience was less prone to applauding than the Nashville one was, but I think the laughing was comparable.
A few minutes after the movie started three women came in and sat to my right; the one immediately adjacent to me spent the whole movie getting up and leaving, eventually coming back for a few moments, and leaving again. I don’t believe I was doing anything offensive and I even moved my soda to the other armrest (adjacent to an empty seat) to be nice.
I was given 3-D glasses going in. Did anyone else get them? I was impressed by the possibilities of a 3-D Rifftrax Nationwide Event, particularly since this was two more dimensions than Ed Wood could include in his movies.
I never laughed at vitamins!
@dafs:
You’re not crazy. The photo over the woman’s bed definitely changed to a more modern picture for a bit. I never noticed it on the DVD, but it’s probably there. A bigger screen would highlight such a thing.
My theater wasn’t packed, but in all fairness, there were two others within a half hour drive.
Laughed myself sick! The short was fantastic “Sorry Ft. Worth!” and hearing a few new riffs thrown in with Plan 9 made it even better.
I’m really hoping that they release a VOD/DVD of the live event, as well as release Plan 9 on Blu-Ray with the RiffTrax commentary (since they went through all the trouble of making an HD print and all…).
This needs to be a quarterly event. They should record it – then perform it LIVE – then post the link to get a free RiffTones song – and then have the movie ready for me to download when I got home.
Money in the bank, baby. Money in the bank.
Cinematic Titanic should be paying CLOSE attention to this. If they followed that idea, it’d work out great for them. They do a live tour, record the three movies, then do a 3 night simulcast event like this – posting a link to get the movie they just saw (either EZTakes or direct mail).
It’s a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
Queen Shadowrama,
The picture did change. Legend films had an ebay contest years back when they first did the restoration. The winner got their face put into the film forever.
It’s the same with “House on Haunted Hill” too. Just a different winner/picture.
The only thing NOT funny: The “word from our sponsor” videos.
Good lord, even the lamest host segment from MST was better than that crap!
My husband and I went to the showing at the AMC Garden State 16 in Paramus, NJ and had a blast. I had never been to any of the live shows before, and although I hate to admit it I haven’t gotten my feet wet on CT/Rifftrax yet (I know, I know … what’s taking me so long?), so I was pretty excited.
The theater was pretty full … the usher kept telling us that the showing was sold out and we couldn’t save seats, but I saw just a few empty seats when it started. I have to say, the experience of all these people getting together in one place–all fans, both new and long-time–to laugh our butts off was amazing. I really enjoyed being there with tons of other people who “get it” too :)
As for the show itself, it was hilarious, but no surprise there! The taped skits were funny (the first one more so, though), and the singer was alright (not exactly my thing, but we did get a hoot out of watching those really enthusiastic fans singing along!), but we came for the riffing, and Mike, Kevin and Bill didn’t disappoint. Loved the short, and the riffing on Plan 9 was fantastic. It felt like I was in my living room watching an episode of MST3K. I especially liked being able to see Mike, Kevin and Bill occasionally as they riffed. All in all, I laughed so hard my head hurt, and I went home wanting to pop an old MST in the dvd player.
I hope they do more of these things … I would definitely go again!
I know it never would have happened, but I would have pissed my pants and passed out if during the cutaway to the guys riffing, Bill and Kevin were replaced by Crow and Tom. Just for 15 minutes. That would have been epic. :grin:
Oh I made sure not to say anything over the riffers because God knows they were the funny ones. I doubt many people heard anything we said over the laughter anyway and nobody seemed to mind since we were all having fun.
To each their own, really.
Also forgot to mention that I loved Kevin’s silliness with a completely straight face during the zombie song. That was the best part.
@ Mike “Ex-Genius” Kelley
What theater did you go to in Florida? I went to the Regal 20 at Citrus Park and had a blast.
I am 24 years old which seems pretty young for the MST crowd. I started watching late in season 8 and have since watched most of the episodes and own all the DVDs.
From Union City, CA: thought it was fantastic. Loved the short, never heard of Jonathan Coulton but thought he was great, liked the sponsors (more so the flour & grain expo).
I would love to own a downloadable RT of this version — do they plan to formalize it (add disembaudio, etc) and make it available for download?
I noticed that the version of Flying Stewardesses we got as a thank you gift wasn’t exactly what we saw in the theater. Interesting…
“This is you. Walk, walk, walk….”
The AMC 24 Theater in Hamilton, NJ was packed with MST fans! I laughed so hard, I had to keep wiping my eyes. I think the girl next to me thought I was crying.
Could have done without the music guest. Not that he was bad, but having him between the short and the feature killed the momentum of the show.
A few small tech glitches. Ironically, when Kevin said at the beginning that it was a live show and anything could happen, we were stating at a blank screen.
But overall, it was blast! Worth $11.00 for the popcorn and Coke. I hope they do it again soon!
I saw it in Gwinnett county Georgia (one of biggest in the country) at Discover Mills mall and it was maybe half full. I think like someone else mentioned, there were about 4 theaters within an hour drive playing the show. I had a blast. I haven’t seen/heard many of the Rifftrax stuff but I’m definitely going to check more out if they are this funny. I got to see Cinematic Titanic earlier this year and thought they were very similar. I guess it’s just how it’d have to be done, with them just sitting on the sides reading scripts and what not. I’m quite disappointed in my self for not knowing that they were doing the live show from Nashville, I’d have went up there to see it in person for sure!
Another note for those that noticed the differnt picture over the bed, there was also a name added to a tombstone in one scene. Those two “honors” were both auctioned off on eBay. Yep, the winning bidder got to be immortalized in the Legend colorized version of the film.
Reposted from downstairs (it’s more appropriate here):
I was in the somewhat-filled Century theater in Evanston, IL.*
We had the hiccups during the short, knocking out a couple of riffs, though not Mike’s killer, “NO!!”
Everyone certainly enjoyed the first “commercial,” and while Coulton’s songs were less-well received, they were mostly enjoyed. In particular, our audience seemed to revel in the Nashville crowd shots during those songs – the stone-faced, “Get On With It!” types always got a good laugh. Then there were those two women, singing happily along to his songs. Take a bow, ladies, you were enjoyed!
I had recently seen the “Plan 9? DVD, but I didn’t remember it being quite as sharp as this was. This was a lot of fun. I hope this proved enjoyable for them (as well as profitable) enough that they might choose to do this again.
*After seeing all of the theaters showing it in the area, I decided to just walk up. The cashier told me they’d sold “at least 100? by that point, and that he wished he wasn’t working, so he could go too. I just don’t know quite how full it really was – it seemed full enough though.
I saw the show in Sterling Heights, MI, just north of Detroit. We had a really good crowd and there were lots of cheers when Detroit was mentioned in the short (and we didn’t get an apology either). The short and Plan 9 were fantastic. As far as the extras, I liked the songs, but quite honestly they didn’t go over great with our crowd, although quite a few joined in on the zombie chorus. I thought the first ad about grain was really funny and the crowd was into it. The Berry Alert ad didn’t go over as well, but was still pretty well received. All in all a great show.
As I said, we were at Pleasure Island, Downtown Disney, Orlando. There were actually four theaters within 60 miles from us (we live in Leesburg) but we’ve been to WDW so much we feel most comfortable there.
To everyone: Isn’t this great? Both the CT live shows and now this. Did anyone over 30 (sorry, kids) ever think we’d be able to see this kind of live performance by our MST3K gang?
I well remember the day MST3K did their last episode and felt it was the end of an era. Well, in some ways it was, but it’s nice to know there is still life left after all.
I also have to say to all you younger viewers that it was soooo nice for everyone in our own audience to be so respectful of the performance. I was really worried about “wanna-be” riffers competing with the pros (trust me — no matter how funny you think you are, you aren’t). Everyone hushed down and was actually more quiet for the show (except for the laughter, of course) than most modern movies nowadays. This is something I’d do as often as they make it available.
Santa Barbara, Ca.
The theater was only 1/4 full (maybe 60 or so people.) Fun crowd though.
As someone who was mainly a Joel and Trace fan and thus not a huge Rifftrax guy I have to say, the Rifftrax guys we absolutely fantastic last night. The short and the movie were just non-stop funny. The songs were OK (but were made very funny by the two singing girls,) the ‘commercials’ were pretty lame.
A couple of technical hang-ups, but nothing major. And I seriously could have lived without them puttting up the images of the boys talking next to the movie. Really? Am I supposed to watch them talk or watch the movie? It’s not like they’re doing site-gags.
All in all, would do it again in a second.
I managed for the most part to keep my comments to myself, and just listen to the RiffTrax team. I had not watched Plan 9 on the large screen, just on DVD. When I saw how the ornaments on the leader’s desk were held together with black electrical tape, I blurted out something like, “Oh, my god, electrical tape.” (I hope that I didn’t annoy my neighbors too much.) I knew the history behind Plan 9, but that scence decore was truly superb. I saw the movie here in Houston, TX and the whole audience got a big laugh out of the slam on Fort Worth. I had a great time, I too, got a laughter induced headache. It was really wonderful to “share” the experience with others. Absolutely fantastic!
I was at ground zero in Nashville and I gotta say, that was the best theater experience I have ever had in my life! Everyone was into it and the guys were on their game!
Hanging out with Mike, Kevin, and Bill after was a real treat. They were super nice and humble.
Interesting that so many theaters seemed to have negative reactions to JoCo. At my theater, my siblings and I were just about the only ones who knew his songs already, but just about everybody was laughing in the right places and singing along to the zombie chorus, so he seemed to be a hit.
Everything was a delight! I have not smiled that much for a long time!
The show was EXTREMELY funny. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in a theater before. Excellent short, and the riffing was fantastic throughout the feature. I really hope they do this again.
Omaha, NE (Village Pointe theater–it was playing at 2 places in town) was little less than half full… but the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highlights included the repeated gun-shots, the Barney Fife-reference, “Let’s go balling,” and… yes, “Beat them off???”
Then there’s just the movie itself — it’s so relentlessly BAD that it really doesn’t need much riffing (“YOu see, you see! Your stupid, stupid minds!”)
In all, VERY glad I went!
PS — Wasn’t that Coulton guy also the teacher on Beavis and Butthead? ;-)
I can’t read everything, so sorry if I cover stuff others have said.
I agree with Sampo about everything he said except that I couldn’t laugh too much at the recycled jokes. I didn’t think they were all that great in the first place and the new environment didn’t help much. (But it did a little. Some jokes worked better this time.) Thankfully there was enough new material to keep me interested.
The problem for me and “Plan 9” riffing is that I’m probably too close to the material. I don’t like the jokes about Bela’s drug addiction because even if I could enjoy making fun of the horrible things he went through, he was “clean” by the time he shot his footage that’s in “Plan 9”. I was sorry to hear them repeat several inaccuracies about the film: “Plan 9″ was made in 1959…” No it wasn’t. “Bela died before finishing the film…” No, he died before there was even a script. That kind of thing. I simply know too much to find those jokes funny.
But there was still much to enjoy. I really liked the short and the Coulton songs were amusing. (Kevin’s horribly unfunny antics, however, were not.) Could’ve done without the “sponsors” and Veronica Belmont was *terrible*.
I brought my thirteen-year-old nephew (who’s just getting into the MST3K/CT/FC/RT vibe) and he had a great time. For me, it wasn’t perfect, but still a good night out.
Fresno, CA.
Great show, but I gotta say that Coulton really put the brakes on everything with his songs…they should’ve had Raffi up there too while they were at it. The theater seemed about 3/4 full, and my friends and I only counted about 5 fat guys with ponytails. Some guy a couple rows behind us seemed to have tourettes and was swearing loudy…I feel bad for the parents who brought their young kids.
Saw it at the Golf Mill theaters in Niles, IL. it was about 2/3 full and the crowd was great. Everyone got into the short and movies, the riffs went over fantastic. Its so much better to see with a crowd of like minded people. The music and comercials, not so much, but was a good place for a break to go to get popcorn etc. Really wish CT would do something like this
I was at the Salt Lake City showing. Our theater was at least 90% full. Only the first 3 or 4 rows in front were empty. The theater had a movie lobby poster up, so there was some advertising.
Everyone had a great time and laughed throughout the evening. Coulten went over well, as did the commercial shorts. We only had 3 or 4 minor dropouts during the Stewardesses short, which caused massive moans and claims of buffering.
The crowd was enthusiastic to the very end, and the photo switch in the bedroom caused quite a bit of laughter as well.
I enjoyed seeing the faces of Mike, Bill and Kevin while they were riffing. I hope they do this again. It was great! :grin:
Saw it at the Regal theater at opry Mills in Nashville,Tn since the Belcourt had sold out. The show was fantastic!!!!! My wife which i really didn’t think would enjoy it really did.
Anyone else go to Longview, Texas?
I had no idea how the turn out would be, but I thought it was pretty decent.
The only advertisement I was aware of was a story in the paper last week – there was never an ad even with the movie times to my knowledge.
In Philadelphia, the sound was out completely up until halfway through the short. There was a guy about two rows behind me (in the block of frontmost seats) who thought he was really “funny” and wanted to lighten the mood by riffing over the short himself, but was actually just loud and annoying. If that guy is reading this: NOBODY THOUGHT YOU WERE AMUSING, and it was literally taking all my self control not to turn around and threaten you with violence.
It was a great show. The highlight for me was the new short (and I was so happy when I saw that was part of the freebies on Rifftrax.com because I was dying to get it anyway, and would happily have bought it for the standard $.99). That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy seeing Plan 9 riffed live. I just enjoy the shorts so damn much that seeing a new one (and such a good one) premiered was extra great.
The low point of the show would have to have been Jonathan Coulton’s set. That kind of more rambling storytelling style of “humorous” music has never been a favorite of mine, and those two songs didn’t do anything to change my opinion. The “future” song was SO sappy way, and almost felt too serious. And repeatedly showing shots of the same few isolated people singing along (who I suspect were friends, family, or a few previously known Jonathan Coulton diehards in the audience) just made the whole thing really really cheesy, but not in a good way (though it was unintentionally funny sometimes). I also have a feeling that it wasn’t going as well with the crowd in Nashville either, which might have been why Kevin came out during the zombie song to try and help get the audience going a bit more. I don’t have anything against Mr. Coulton, and as a non-musician I always admire people who are obviously talented with an instrument (and I actually do enjoy “I’m still alive” from Portal within the context of that game, though I’m not sure how much I’d like to hear it performed by him with just an acoustic guitar), but it is impossible to deny that it was a deadzone during the show. I think a large number of the people in my theater felt pretty much the same since many took advantage of it as a chance to go to the bathroom or concession stand, VERY few sang along, and even those who did only did so the first one or two times, and more than a few of the more obnoxious people vocalized their displeasure and impatience loudly (one notable comment from a person near the front of the theater was “is it possible to fast forward a live satellite feed?”) and when he came out again with the Rifftones there was as much shouting of things like “not him again!” as there was excitement for Mike Bill and Kevin. The “sponsor” ads went over pretty well with most of the people in the theater, though I really didn’t like them all that much myself. They felt like a low rent attempt at doing something “weird” like Tim and Eric would do, except without T&E’s exceptional understanding of absurdity, and their mastery at creating hilariously cheap looking, yet highly original and creative imagery. The first one was funny in the beginning when it seemed more like a low budget “local” advertisement, but it didn’t know when to quit while it was ahead, and wound up just being kind of annoying.
But overall the show was awesome, and well worth seeing. I can’t wait for the next one when or if it should happen. I’d like to see Planet of Dinosaurs myself, though I have a feeling it will most likely be “Night of the Living Dead” given that it is much more familiar to the general public, and so it would attract a larger crowd of people who might not be huge MST or Rifftrax fans.
#54, I also saw it in Madison and I thought it was great. This was the first MST related event I’ve seen with other people, and it made it a lot more fun!
I also thought the singer was a bit out of place…it’s not that he was bad, but I think they should have had him BEFORE the short. It really broke up the momentum. I had never heard of him before, and it seemed like most people around me were a little confused!
It was a great show however. I’m glad to know that Madison wasn’t the only theater with technical problems! I will totally be going to the next show!
For those who were less than impressed with Jonathan Coulton’s performance, I implore you to check out his other songs and see if it changes your mind. For starters, I highly recommend “I Feel Fantastic”, “Chiron Beta Prime”, “Tom Cruise Crazy”, “Not About You”, “I’m Your Moon”, “Space Doggity”, “Blue Sunny Day”, and, of course, “Baby Got Back” and “Still Alive”.
like #23 i saw it @ the cinemark 18 in pittsburgh (the only theater in the pitt area showing this) and a good time was had by all! it was actually shown on 2 screens but there was no poster @ the box office or anything! i felt like us MSTies were entering a hidden room in the theater that no one knew about lol. i love the short and i love the riffs for the movie. this film is indeed a classic but 4 some reason this was only the 2nd time i saw the film. i was 1 of the only teens there. i never watched it with the rifftrax until last night and legend films did a really good job on the color restoration. i hope they do another one, maybe with House on Haunted Hill or Night of the Living Dead! I should have wore my MST3K the Movie shirt!
I saw it at the Cinearts Theater at Santana Row in San Jose and the theater was a under half full. Like other areas, there were a couple theaters showing it within driving distance of each other so there is a good chance that the audience was just spread out over a larger area. The whole experience was fun though it would have been better if they would have given more of a heads-up in the promotion that there would be more than just the riffing. There were a couple broadcast hiccups during the first 20 minutes but they went away once the the music started.
On the content of the show, I thought it was fun and most of it had me laughing. The fake sponsor commercials were okay, though the first one was definitely more funny to me than the second one. The short really had the audience going but it had one of the server hiccups in the middle of it so that kind of put a damper on it for a moment. The movie was great even with the normal “hour and 15 joke letdown” that has shown up in all of the MST3k/CT/RT work.
All in all, I’d say it was a good show all the way around. It would help to have a little tightening up on the total presentation of the show if they want to do this again but all of the pieces are there and it was a lot of fun.
@ 92 – It sounds like the lack of singing along was just in your theater because everyone at the showing that I was at sang along and no one left the theater during it. More people ran out during the fake sponsor shorts than at any other time during the entire show.
I told you the Snakes on a Plane reference was the best riff.
Still sore from laughing … my kids and I especially loved the bit where the alien made fun of the lady alien walking across the spaceship … okay, this is you …
I hadn’t seen P9 in color so that was an added bonus … also loved the drug references with Bela …
we saw it at the AMC Theaters in Tysons Corner; about 90% full, shared hiccups at the beginning and everyone shouted NOOOOOOO but then they came back. JoCo was a hit, we liked the grain show but not so much the berry watcher.
I will say that when Criswell appeared at the end for his dramatic conclusion, I got that same sad twinge as when the bumper ball appeared at the end of the episods. You knew it was the all-over.
#73-jacide 53: I also saw it at Discover Mills in Gwinnett County (named for Button Gwinnett, famed as the SECOND signer of the Declaration of Independence for both of you history buffs out there), but it seemed a lot more full than your recollection, but maybe that’s just my own misconception as so many were singing along with the “We just want to eat your brains” song. Tastes differ, but I thought the musical act and the “somethingawful” guy’s stuff were, well, awful. Never heard of Coulton before, but I DID enjoy the song about Plans 1-9. From Outer Space, of course.