|
 |
RiffTrax KickStarter Quickly Funded (Again)You already know this. We didn’t even need to say anything. (But we will.)
Yesterday RiffTrax announced another Kickstarter campaign to fund four live shows for 2015. In less than a day, the $75,000 goal was reached and at this writing it’s about to climb into six digits. For the record, the four shows are: “The Room” (May 6–take note–a WEDNESDAY); “Sharknado 2” (July 9); “Miami Connection” (Oct. 1); and “Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny” (Dec. 3). I knew nothing about “Miami Connection” but I just saw some youtube clips. Wow. 36 Replies to “RiffTrax KickStarter Quickly Funded (Again)”Commenting at Satellite News
We are determined to encourage thoughtful discussion, so please be respectful to others. We also provide an "Ignore" button ( Comments are closed. |
|
Satellite News is a fan site for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television and Netflix series. It is an independent publication written and compiled by Chris Cornell (msampo@aol.com) and Brian Henry (erhardt4@aol.com). Satellite of Love, LLC does not maintain this web site, nor is it responsible for this site's content.
All content posted on Satellite News is copyright © 2024 by Chris Cornell and Brian Henry, except where otherwise noted. This Date in MSTory is written and compiled by Steve Finley, Chris Cornell and Brian Henry. Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce This Date in MSTory items in any form without express written permission from the authors. Items of MST3K news may be duplicated or reposted, as long as Satellite News is cited as the source. The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Satellite of Love, LLC. No warranty is expressed or implied that the information given herein is completely accurate, and in fact this information can and will change at any time. So there. Mystery Science Theater 3000, its characters and situations are copyrights and trademarks of Satellite of Love, LLC. Banner image created by Larry Lee Moniz. |
|
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
Ok you can make the argument that Sharknado is unironically bad enough to riff. But Sharknado 2 is a full-on comedy dammit. Really disappointed with that one.
The rest of the choices sound great.
I agree that Sharknado 2 is the one I’m least interested in even though I enjoyed the first one. Also, very impressed at how quickly they meet their Kickstarter goals and it’s nice to see that they’re only going for $75,000 this time.
Rifftrax has made the Kickstarter front page again under “What’s Popular”. 97K and climbing.
I think I’ll just see The Room live and maybe Miami Connection (only because it’s my birthday and may be able to talk my wife into it!). The others I’ll wait for VOD. Didn’t back this time because none of the Rewards really jumped out at me. Maybe they’ll add some stretch rewards if the amount gets high and they throw in another show or something.
In regards to Sharknado 2: Yeah, it’s very wink-wink but I still think it gives them a very visible platform (EVERYONE knows Sharknado) and it will again be right before a sequel comes out. It might not be for everyone but I think sometimes you have to go with the best known Z-movie series of the century.
And I’m glad they got the VOD rights to the first one. This could be an opening to Asylum in general and there is a lot of ripe material there.
Have they announced the cities they will be visiting? I hope there are going to be some up here in the great white north…
It’s all going to be from Nashville.
Psyched for all the titles! I suspect The Room will be a sell-out at a lot of cinemas. Best to purchase tickets in advance for that one.
I thought I was being generous by donating $50 for the cause. But looking at the Kickstarter stats it looks like the average donation is works out to $80:)
I plan to see all of them and hope to make it to at least one of the live shows too. Thanks RiffTrax!
Sharknado 2 seems like a contractual obligation to Fathom (since they’re also transmitting the unriffed version), or at the very least doing them a favor.
If that’s what it takes to see the live riff of Miami Connection, then it’s a more than acceptable trade.
I was so excited to hear about Miami Connection being riffed! I hope they do that one in Raleigh so I can make the drive.
Miami Connection is, in my opinion, the Citizen Kane of bad movies. It’s thoroughly terrible, yet a pure joy. I saw it in theaters a couple years ago and the nearly sold out crowd was laughing uproariously even without riffers. I love this movie so much I’ve gotten the Blu Ray and it’s my number one, non-Rifftrax option when trying to explain to someone the love of bad movies.
TCM showed Miami Connection a few months ago, as part of their TCM Underground show. Basically it was made by a martial arts teacher in Orlando in the 1980s.
It’s a bad movie, yet it’s a good bad movie. It’s like a low budget Buckaroo Banzai
I’ve been wanting to do Miami Connection with my riffing group. Makes sense as every movie they usually get to eventually anyways.
Shut up, Retcon! Oh wait! Never mind!
Was so excited to see them do The Room, then immediately got the sads because it’s on a Wednesday, which we just can’t do because of work schedules. Totally a personal problem, I know, but between that and my complete disinterest in Sharknado 2 *AND* the lack of a Halloween RT, I’m less than excited this year.
Not that I won’t go to see Miami Connection and that terrifying Santa fiasco, because I’m going to watch the hell out of those.
I wish they would go back to releasing MP3 commentary tracks for movies. They have yet to finish the Harry Potter series. There’s also the more recent X-Men films, The Hobbit, several of the Marvel movies (and nothing since Avengers). They’ve been more focused on the live shows and the ones they can offer VOD.
I think I am done with Rifftrax. I dont care about VOD’s or this batch of live events. The Godzilla one last year could have been better, but it wasnt. Kickstarter is overused anymore, and I know I’ll be in the minority on that. Thanks Rifftrax, it was great while it lasted.
Any chance they’ll add a couple more shows, since they’ve topped their goal by a considerable margin?
So, apparently some people think RiffTrax has jumped the Sharknado. Not me. I love these shows. I would like to see some more mp3’s though for some of the modern films. I make my own film festivals from those (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Matrix, etc.) which are great excuses to bring in some new fans to the fold.
17: They posted that all the excess Kickstarter money goes to movie rights and putting on the shows, saying that their Kickstarter goal doesn’t cover the full costs of putting on the events.
I hope these goals are it, the stretch goal was cool, but I almost felt pressured ;) the amount required for those films last year was also waaay higher than what we have here. Kind of sad all of the live shows for the year will be kickstarter based- but at least two of them will be vod/ availble for download later. Gotta start putting the squeeze on wiseau. I am still going to all of them.
I’m certainly not “done” with Rifftrax but I am starting to be more selective. They just put out so much material that the quality is bound to dip at times. Personally, I much prefer the real oddball low budget obscurities like Galaxy Invader, Abraxas or Ghost House to the recent big budget stuff.
I understand the urge to do big ’90s studio epics for the live events, but they don’t always work. Starship Troopers was spectacular but Godzilla was just too turgid and uninteresting to save. On the other hand Anaconda was a total blast, and maybe the perfect riffable target, so it’s really just a matter of being choosy.
Look, even MST3K (my favorite show of all time) had some weaker episodes. It would be unrealistic to expect a home run each time but Rifftrax has an outstanding batting average and I’m so happy I’m able to directly support Mike, Kevin and Bill after all the joy they’ve brought to me over the years.
All that said, I loved the Sharnado riff. I couldn’t care less if the film is intentionally bad. Who’s to say what is permissible to riff? These guys invented the genre and they can take whatever liberties they want.
I’m most excited about The Room and sincerely hope it will be available on VOD too.
I wonder how much material will change for The Room. I liked their original riff except the parts with Cambotio or whatever the hell they called their robot friend went on way too long and were annoying. They need to fill that time with something better. I might wait for the VOD since the horror of The Room always drives me to drink and that is bad on a Wednesday.
@23: Good point–they’ll have to replace the gag with Disembaudio walking in during the sex scenes and freaking out. Maybe they’ll have a guest play that role (possibly even Greg Sestero if he’s interested since a lot of people want him to be a guest riffer).
I wonder if anyone will do the Rocky Horror-ish stuff that’s sprung up at other screenings; throwing spoons at the screen and so forth.
Maybe I’m imagining things, but didn’t Rifftrax already do a live riff of “Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny”?
Cool, I have a troll! :-D
I think they are really going overboard relying on handouts from fans rather than using real financing. I am getting turned off of Rifftrax now.
You aren’t the only, I thought Godzilla wasn’t that great for riffing. Rifftrax was good, for awhile at least, they are just getting lazy now. No rivals like CT to keep em on their toes.
As Mega Weapon pointed out, I also prefer the older and oddball stuff.
Yeah, they did a live online riff of that one a few years back. According to the Kickstarter FAQ this will be an alternate print (HD, widescreen, with a different “movie-within-the-movie” — Jack and the Beanstalk in place of Thumbelina).
Well it will pretty much be a different film since the Santa and Ice Cream Bunny scenes are just added framing around the main film.
Interesting! I haven’t looked at the Kickstarter page yet, so I missed that detail, but I did know that the “Ice Cream Bunny” wraps were used with another of Pirates World’s movies. I’m glad to know Rifftrax is doing it!
I’m already interested in seeing the live version of “Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny” just for the evil that is the Ice Cream Bunny. The fact that the version being riffed is the “Jack and the Beanstalk” version makes me even more interested in checking it out.
Shut up, Retcon. :)
For those of you longing for the “old days” of Ghost House and Galaxy Invader… have you seen the recent releases such as Alien Outlaw, The Dark Power, Wonder Women (with Ross Hagen!), or R.O.T.O.R? They are still putting out riffs every bit as good on movies that are every bit as wonderfully obscure as those you guys mentioned. You guys can bail if you want to, but you’re only hurting yourselves.
I hope they do a Rocky Horror live riff
I agree. The other “Hunger Game” movies are out and have yet to be done.
The only way I cold make it through the first on was with Kevin, Make and Bill along for the ride.
Love the VOD stuff, but I also look forward to the MP3 stuff.
Count me in on that sentiment. You may be in the minority, but I’m there w/you.
I absolutely adore MST3k (don’t we all??), love(d) CT and the earlier RT. But alas, RT seems to be getting derivative – their “Santa Clause Conquers the Martians” remake was way off. The energy just wasn’t there. And it’s not just a couple episodes; I’ve noticed the quality dipping consistently for over a year now. The energy is waning, the jokes are getting rehashed, etc.
I know they put out a lot of material (perhaps part of the problem?), and there’s only so much one can expect from 3 lead guys and a small writing staff (hopefully they have some diversity on their staff, that leads to a better and wider variety of jokes, a la MST3k).
But when I’m forking over my money, I expect, well, something to really make me say “I’m so glad I support this.” Isn’t that what made us all diehard Msties in the first place? It was new, unique, not a little subversive and to paraphrase Joel, not everyone gets it, but the right people will.
I gave (and gave generously) to every prior Rifftrax, but I’ll be sitting them out from now on. And I say that w/no small amount of sadness.