Well, the big surprise, I guess, was the appearance by our pal Rupert Munch, the guy who is making the “Manos” sequel, as Torgo, and his music video at the end.
My theater was about 3/4 full and they seemed to really enjoy it.
The shorts really warmed folks up nicely. Norman and his catchphrase will immediately enter the lexicon.
There were a couple of points, where I heard, in my head, the MST3K riff, but for the most part I completely forgot about them.
I really appreciated the moments where they just let the movie be the movie, and didn’t feel the need to say anything.
What did you think?
UPDATE: Chris Griffy of Examiner.com liked it.
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Yes, Jimmy, you’re the only one. The Norman short was hilarious.
It’s interesting reading about the many folks here who think this version of “Manos” wasn’t nearly as good as the classic MST3K. Might be a new Coke old Coke argument, but frankly I didn’t even think about comparing the two. This take was what it was — and my favorite parts were the added sequences that just showed how very terrible the movie was (I love the long, long takes where folks just stand there, or Torgo just twitches like a cat with fleas. And Torgo taking 30 seconds to stand after which the riff has the Master say “No, no, don’t get up” — priceless).
However… I’m a little bummed that they are revisiting “Birdemic”. That means no new movies to riff in an entire year. I realize it’s cheaper that way, with no additional rights to clear, but so far my all time favorite live event was “Jack” and that was in large part due to it being something that had never been done before. Oh, well, at least we’ll get some new shorts.
I was also at the Roseville, MN AMC with the sold-out crowd. What a blast. I had not yet seen Manos, so it felt as fresh as that pile of steaming gunk can feel.
Question for other Roseville attenders: Did the sound seem a bit soft to you? Usually when I go to a theater, the sound is almost painfully loud, but for this show (and last year’s show), I could have used more volume. If others agree with me, I might give the theater a call before Birdemic and mention that a few of us thought we could use a little more.
Went to the Nashville show with four other friends, 3 of us took the drive from Cincinnati, picked up 2 others in Louisville (and man how fun to drive BACK in that storm). We also met two very nice ladies (loved Mike’s “Slave. Laaadies” riff) waiting in line, from Atlanta and DC, one of whom was having her birthday. So an event to draw people from everywhere!
We sat toward the back, so I doubt we showed up in reaction shots. Friday at work I felt VERY Norman from the lack of sleep I had. The cylinder short was bizarre.
For the first 5 or so mintues of the Manos, I kept having the original riffs play in my head, but it faded fast and I was able to enjoy the new take without distraction. I loved “Oh you don’t have to get up!” riff after the extended Torgo wakes up scene, the “Hal Warren DIRECTED THIS, he had in script, “lady licks me” riff from Kevin, and the “See! You didn’t need to jump on me after all!” gesture/riff, among so many others…Drunk Debbie…groovin Torgo…80’s wife/50’s wife…etc etc. It was also so nice to see Kevin singing up close.
Disappointed to not see them after, the birthday girl was really hoping to see them too, but still it was an amazing event and glad I got to see it TRULY LIVE for once….Normally I see it in Florence, KY; sorry to shrink the audience , Dr. Carlo Lombardi!
Saw it at Tinseltown 17 in Fayetteville, GA. Theater was maybe 40-50% full of cool people who let the riffers work alone & respected everyone around them. White Trash Twilight & Catherine the Great seemed to be best received riffs. I wonder why they skipped the credits (or “blames” in this case), but it was no big deal to me. Can’t wait for Birdemic.
“I see your hair; here comes my hand!”: an earworm I don’t need right now.
I also laughed especially at “Torgo’s stained couch comes through again” and that line about the stone relic also being a good place to tie up your dog while you go out for a muffin.
The guys behind me making up their own riffs almost ruined it for me, but I decided to be glad they were having a good time. Is it bad manners to shush them?
Saw it at the Forum 8 Theater in Columbia, Missouri. Theater was totally packed with people standing in the back due to lack of seats. It was awesome. That two-second prune ad thing they showed will be etched in my memory banks forever now.
Those little pre-movie slides were also freaking priceless. Took me a second to realise that no, those are definately not the normal standard before movie advertisements I’m used to seeing. The haiku about how Manos is regarded as one of the worst movies ever and you just paid to see it made me nearly fall out of my chair laughing. Good times.
After the show was over, we all applauded and were sitting in complete silence for a second, when a guy in the back row blurted out loudly, “Norman, huh?”. Laughter ensued.
“Texas: It’s not very good, but there sure is a lot of it.” I think that’s a potential T-shirt slogan if i ever heard one! Kinda like “Bob executive! Which way is business? ?”
No one welcomed Norman home. No one. Just saying.
got my brother to go at the last minute… great time. loved it. probably 50 people in benton, arkansas. but we were into it.
thanks riffers.
#76 “How did you feel when CT re-riffed ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians’ with Josh and Mary Jo present?”
Well, they made it all worthwhile when Trace tried to run away when he heard the movie they were going to do and Josh bragged that he hadn’t seen the film before.
—
Wow, the Riffers were definitely on fire with Manos. It must be hard to do the movie and avoid repeating yourself. Even the Torgo’s pizza gag was only a minor callback to the original.
(Sorry, Rupert, but Mike still does the best Torgo.)
And uncut too. Scary. One thing I missed was when Stupid Mike (the husband, not the riffer) was knocked out. I did hope to hear a few more “I’m the star, the director, and the writer on this film, so stop telling me I’m doing this wrong” gags.
Now I’m thinking about what the fertilizer salesman would have been telling the cast:
WARREN: Okay, now, lady, you come over here and knock me out, tie me to a post, then I’ll just sit here and direct everyone else.
THE LADY WHO VOICED EVERY FEMALE PART: How long do we leave you tied up there?
WARREN: Oh, about an hour, I think. That should stretch the film long enough for a feature. Give us some suspense.
THE LADY: I thought that’s what the girl fight was for.
WARREN: No, that was for the distributor I haven’t hired yet. Now stop wasting time, we’ve only got thirty seconds on the camera.
And, welcome back Norman. Now go back where you came from. What a stupid movie. We still have no idea what the point of that film was.
(Although, for you Brit-philes out there, just imagine how well that short would work if Leonard Rossiter played Norman).
Then we have Cylinders! I never saw the grass one, but I didn’t understand the point of this short. Were they trying to show THE WONDER OF CYLINDERS! or how kids can make crappy toys out of cardboard?
You know when this comes out on dvd, we’re going to have five versions of Manos, right? (the original, the mst special edition, the original uncut version, this, and Elvira’s version. Six, if you got The Essentials, too. And next year, that dreaded horror of horrors: Restored Manos on blu ray.
By the way, this collection is supposed to include Elvira’s version of Manos: http://www.amazon.com/Elviras-Movie-Macabre-Bloody-Madness/dp/B008FXLYS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345346520&sr=8-1&keywords=elvira+bloody+madness.
According to Wikipedia, it also includes The Killer Shrews and a movie we wished they did on MST: A Bucket of Blood.
Keep them coming, guys. Oh, and thank you for The Brainiac. I’ve been waiting for that one!
The showing I went to was, again, about three quarters filled. A really nice production with all the added touches (sketches, shorts) that set Rifttrax Live apart from ordinary Rifftrax and, sadly, Cinematic Titanic Live.
The only bad point was the one idiot in the audience who thought it would be funny to blurt out his own jokes (or re-hash MST ones). Leave it to the pros, fella.
Saw it at the Brassfield in Greensboro, NC. It was a modest crowd, but another theater in town was showing it as well. Brassfield is the only one that reserves tickets, though, and since my friend and I came from out of town, we wanted to be sure we’d get in.
I saw Cinematic Titanic back in March, but I have to say I think I enjoyed Rifftrax just as much. The shorts were especially fun; they’ve always been my favorite part of MST3K, so having two of them, especially ones as delightfully odd as Norman and Cylinders, were a real treat. I always thought Manos was longer somehow; maybe it just felt longer. It seemed to zoom by this time. I admit, I did have some of the old jokes in my head, especially during “Row Row Row Your Boat”, but I enjoyed the new ones just as much, and redneck Twilight was just brilliant.
I also have to begrudgingly give credit to the makers of the cylinder short; the constellations projected were surprisingly accurate. Though every time I’ve made a little projector like that, it’s never turned out that bright.
SCORE! My theater let me take home the full-size, two-sided lobby poster!! She asked if I was going straight to eBay with it. I told her, “HELL NO! I’m going right to the frame store!”
Beaverton, OR was completely sold out about 10 minutes before the show started, but the Rifftrax live events always are unless they are an encore presentation. You could tell you were in an auditorium filled with true fans when one of the biggest applause moments of the evening was the announcement of the “Birdemic” event in October. A fantastic time was had by all!
Rifftrax knocked it out of the park with this one! Not only were the shorts hysterical, but their re-riff of Manos totally eclipsed the original MST riff.
But I have to admit that the most amazing thing about the show for me was the surprise cameo of the Manos II gang and the Take It Easy video. It just goes to show what a GREAT bunch of guys the Rifftrax crew are. After all, they didn’t have to do that. But they did and in my theater the “Take It Easy” video got HUGE laughs. The cameo sketch fell flat, but only because the mic levels were too low and a few of their lines got stepped on, but the surprise was what was fun about it anyway, so it didn’t really matter.
All in all, the whole evening was a smashing success and I can’t wait to see Birdemic. I hope my theater will carry it and I can’t see why they wouldn’t because Manos was nearly sold out.
:-)
Saw the show in North Haven, CT, and I would estimate we had about 50-75 people. It was my first Rifftrax event, and I brought my 13-year old son, who enjoyed it immensely.
The thing I took away was how much fun the guys seemed to be having. When they enjoy it that much it definitely rubs off on the audience. Could not make heads or tails on the reason for the Norman short ever being made – what were the makers aiming for? As for the cylinders short, well, let’s just say LSD produced some bizarre forms of art back in the day….
Very excited to see this same theater is showing Birdemic in October, and we will be there!
I have to agree with the Manos II Torgo’s pizaa re-hash bittage. Not really that funny and frankly aftr seeing Mike, the guy playing Torgo just doesn’t cut it, he looks too healthy. However, the Master make-up was damn impressive with how well they managed to give hima slightly otherworldly apperance with very little latex work. But other than that really unnecessary.
I think people had a bigger reaction to CT in March in Greensville, when they did two MST callbacks of “Rock Climbing” and “Watch out for Snakes”.
i will say, now that i read through the comments. from a production view- this was the best live show, in that there was not alot of pointless filler. No unnecessary host, live music, (though i did love the funny commercials from plan 9) everything ran smoothly and was how it should be- I would still like to see all the extra material that Hal Warren’s Son has though, but would it help the plot, probably not ;)
@ Mark D. in No. 152 re: the AMC Roseville, MN sound:
Yeah, the sound was soft. I got used to it after a while, but it was disappointing. My wife is hard of hearing and can’t enjoy MST episodes because she can’t read lips on silhouettes. I’d hope that being in a loud theater would help her hear and love MST/Rifftrax… She heard it somewhat, but it would have been better at a louder volume. (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever wished for a louder movie experience, heh.)
SBV
This was the first rifftrax live show I’ve gotten to and it was fantastic! Always had trouble finding someone to go with me. Finally convinced a friend to attend and now he’s asking me when birdemic is playing.
My only gripe, and it is a small one, but both Rifftrax AND CT need to have better endings to their shows. The idea that we came to see the movie, and when the movie ends the show ends is ludicrous.
We come to see the fine performers. The original show had an ending skit (letters and “push the button Frank” ) and both theses casts need to end their shows with more than a bow after the movie ends.
This walk off just leaves us empty.
Only gripe.
#151: Again, my beef was with the short itself, not the RiffTrax treatment. The guys did well with the material, and I got quite a few laughs out of their commentary.
Went to see it with my 11 year old grandson. We had a great time.