Fave riff: “Leave…the…bait.”
Sampo from the Guv’mint.
Theater about half full in Dickson City (outside Scranton). Lots of laughs. I’d forgotten about all the bad acting in this thing.
Fave riff: “Leave…the…bait.”
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Just got home from the TPAC in Nashville. Theater was pretty packed. Enjoyed every minute of it. Especially enjoyed meeting the Time Chasers cast. Glad to see Matthew Bruch without the 80’s hair, and Bonnie Pritchard has just gotten prettier than ever. George Woodard had exceptionally large hands when I shook them. David Giancola was delightfully self-depricating. I remember they were all very complimentary of my outfit. They all signed my poster!
Also, when Kevin told his joke about Edison and Tesla, my dad was the only one who laughed and clapped. Kevin saw him and nodded in appreciation. Dad was thrilled. And then ranted about Edison all the way home.
About 75 people in the usual 200 seat auditorium at my theater (east of Pittsburgh); usually it’s around half-full. Thought the short was…well, how the hell do they find these things? Hysterical! I enjoyed the Time Chasers riff as much as the original. Loved laughing at all the older techie references (alt.binaries -whatever the rest of the riff was and “Was it load, 8, 1 or load, 1, 8?”) but the funniest part of the movie was the taxi driver part cut out of the original broadcast. I see why they cut it for time but what a performance! And my total favorite riff of the night? “That’s not sap, boy.”
There were a few of us who got it in my theater. I was the only one I heard laughing at the “load, 8, 1” riff, though.
I saw the show at the Crossgates Mall near Albany NY. Theater was probably more than 80% full, and the audience seemed to enjoy the show. The newer print of the movie looks much better than the print MST3k had in 1997. There are a few colleges in the area, so there were laughs for most of the knurdy jokes (edison/tesla, etc). Not that everyone laughed at them, but the maybe a third of the audience.
I knew that DG and many of the cast members of “Time Chasers” were at Nashville, but it was a shame that those of us who saw the show outside Nashville did not get to see that they were all there. Some of the people noticed that Matthew Bruch was up on stage when the credits were rolling, and were delighted to see him there. But I didn’t see Bonnie Pritchard, Peter Harrington, or George Woodard during the telecast event (although I saw the excellent photo of them that Rifftrax posted to Twitter).
It was fun that they could work in so many “Lisa”-related jokes as a callback to “The Room”.
Assuming I’m not busy with any emergencies at the time, I’ll be happy to go to the repeat showing.
This was the first one I’ve missed in two years and only because I really wanted to see Captain America Civil War as soon as possible. I’ll catch the rebroadcast.
We were in a smaller theater than normal, but had it pretty full. Good show, my wife was vocally displeased by the insanity in the short, and the cab driver was spectacularly nuts. Where’s his movie?
Saw it at the Regal Commerce in North Brunswick, NJ. Good crowd, good response, including applause at the end.
I thought the pre-show title cards were good, particularly the variations on the Anagram gags. The complete print of the movie filled in a few plot holes; it’s still not great, but I thought it was actually OK. And I’m surprised filmmakers, even back in the day, got away with that short with the clearly psychotic monkey.
Oh, and may I suggest the following pre-show title card for next time? “DID YOU KNOW: They’ve finally started production on ‘Time Chasers II’. It’s about how the Kennedy Assassination is prevented by the Guv’mnt guard.”
No more than 25 people at Lakeland, Florida. Theater didn’t show any of the preshow cards. Thought it suffered from not wanting to repeat jokes from the experiment, especially when they first showed the future. Almost as shocking as the low turnout was leaving after the credits only to find 500-600 people standing in line in the lobby.
I was expecting at least ten seconds with the cast and director. Not their best show, but my ten year old son laughed throughout.
Crowds seemed about the same as usual.
Three points that became very apparent watching this print completely:
1.) David Giancola seems to belong to that list of great MST3K/Rifftrax/CT targets whose films indicate a view askew of the world- in this case, a world that doesn’t extend far out of Rutland.
2.) Was the dialogue done largely in post? It seemed that the print was rather out of sync, and not because of a problem in the showing.
3.) It’s rather clear that they never thought out any of these characters as characters- a university professor like Nick would have various other routes to funding, and Robertson gets really confused as to whether or not he’s using business or government services against our heroes.
The audio mix in my theater was perfect for this one, heard all the dialogue and riffs clearly. This hasn’t always been the case. I would’ve loved to have heard from the original cast, maybe as an extra when the VOD comes out, hint hint? Biggest laugh was for “Kenny G heard this soundtrack music and thought it was dickless.”
Been sick the past couple of days so I missed this one (first time too). I’ll catch the encore later this month.
I also found the sound levels ideal. The riffers are often not loud enough but I think they hit the right balance this time. I did notice the movie itself was slightly out of sync, which was a little distracting. And hoo boy, BBI did the movie a huge favor when it cut down that interminable bike chase.
Time Chasers itself looks quite decent on a big screen. Per EdgewoodStudios.com, they used the money from Rifftrax to make a new HD master of the film. Also, wasn’t Sci-Fi getting the rights back in 1997 what put the movie in the black? Getting his movie lampooned ended up being pretty good business for Mr. David Giancola. His work still impresses me considering he made the movie when he was 19. I could barely make a ham sandwich at that age.
I had a good time, but I did find the riffing inferior to the MST3K version. Which is a testament to how strong the episode is rather than any ball-dropping on the part of the guys. Favorite riff for me was the Visa/Mastercard ogling.
Now then, when will Shout! get the episode back in circulation?
Met the cast? What sorcery is this?
Theater was probably half full or 3/4 full, I got in just as it was starting so didn’t really take notice for once.
This was probably the weakest show I’ve been to, though I did still enjoy myself. The riffing on the short was pretty limp, and got few laughs in our theater. As Herendar pointed out, the main feature really suffered from them not wanting to repeat jokes from the original episode. There were so many spots where, instead of doing different riffs on a scene, they were completely silent, and that really bugged me. I’d honestly rather they recycle a few of their best jokes than leave funny moments in the film unriffed. It really made me want to just watch the episode instead at some points. It was really hard not to shout “I’m Batman” near the end with the Michael Keaton looking security guy.
That being said, there were some great laugh out loud moments, but overall I was much more distracted from it being overshadowed by the original episode than I was for Manos or Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
I know what you mean about the episode casting a huge shadow. Manos and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians are classic episodes, sure, but the gang really kept improving on the riffing aspect over the ten years of MST3K, and Time Chasers is one of the best episodes from an era where they just had it down pat. There wasn’t much room for improvement with this one, and I don’t think they were able to compete with what they’d already perfected.
I disagree that it was the weakest live show though. The only genuine clunkers in my opinion were Godzilla and Sharknado 2. The sheer length of uncut “Santa Claus” worked against that one a bit as well. I think I’d put Time Chasers on par with that outing — very funny but not close to their best.
I didn’t see Godzilla, but I would call Sharknado I and II the weakest episodes. A movie where the people making it don’t care how it turns out, and clearly know the entire time they are making garbage just doesn’t work for something like Rifftrax or MST3K.
Fairly small crowd in Durham, but seemed to be entirely made up appreciative fans, so it worked. More than one of us was sporting our freshly minted Castleton t-shirts. I thought the cab driver scenes were great fodder, and all the guvmint riffs had me rolling. The Chimp the Firefighter callback later in the movie was a nice touch. And this is the first time that I noticed that the crazy lady in the grocery store is the same fake-skydiving grandmother at the end. That is right, isn’t it?
See it again? I’d like that.
The audio for the film was definitely out of sync for the some of the movie. It seemed to improve as it moved along.
I thought the riffing was a bit during the first third of the film. Once the action sequences started, things really picked up.
I’m always fascinated by seeing scenes that got cut from the MST3K version. There’s usually some explanations to a lot of the events of the film. But they usually don’t improve the quality of the story much or give the riffers a lot to work with. It’s still neat to have those moments of “Oh, so that’s why they said time travel was being used as a weapon.”
Cinemark in Merriam, KS was about 3/4 full. I’m glad to hear it wasn’t just us that had the audio synch a bit off. Not badly, but just enough so you notice it & everyone looks like their dubbed. Great show! I did think the stage they were on was a bit odd, what with them not facing the audience. Didn’t make much of a difference really for those of us watching the broadcast, but that had to have been weird for people in that theater.
Major envy directed at all of you. My local theater apparently no longer shows Rifftrax. I saw the handwriting on the wall at the last few shows when there were maybe only a dozen or so people in the audience. Philistines. :-(
I noticed the audio sync issues during the night, though it looks like it may have been in the broadcast. I was paying attention to Mike, Bill, and Kevin when they were on screen for some of the really bad sync moments, and their audio was way off, too. Add to that the fact that we had no audio at all during the opening Rifftrax theme, and I was just going to chalk it up to my local theater having issues, until I started reading these comments.
Otherwise, it was a pretty good show at the Hamburg Pavilion Regal in Lexington, KY. A smallish theater, but still well over half full. The short rates as one of their classics, and Time Chasers itself, while maybe not their best live show, was still a lot of fun. I sort of DID wonder what, if anything, the taxi driving actor from New York had to do with the movie when I saw the MST3K version years ago…
The local theater that usually plays RiffTrax Live events wasn’t playing this one. Luckily, my Kickstarter reward includes a copy. I can wait.
I also see it won’t be showing the MST3K Reunion. That show I will trek out to the closest theater showing it.
60% at the Regal Cinemas in NY, NY. Very awesome crowd. Agree that this was at least as good as the original riff. Great to see the complete film. It was funny how much of an “action” film TC tried to be (Mike’s riff on “hard sci fi” nailed the point). Can’t wait for next month!
I didn’t see this one–not really interested in the movie. Glad others had a good time, though. Waiting for the Big Reunion in June. Might see that one twice. Just out of curiosity: what was the short about?
It was my first Rifftrax live event and I loved it. Time Chasers is one of my faves and I enjoyed seeing the scenes and bits that were deleted from the MST3K version – although they didn’t improve the movie any. I never realized how much of it was shot out of focus. There were so many great riffs that went by so quickly but a few of the standouts for me were “Oh thank God! A time boat!” and “She’s reading the instructions for carrots.” I can’t believe the guh’mint scene was cut from MST3K. That was comedy gold!
Noticed the pregnant silences where old jokes really rocked it. Filled them in and then laughed by myself at seemingly nothing. Weird. The additional footage seemed like longer pseudo-scientific explanations and shots of the reenactors. Not much. Did enjoy the forest bike chase. Can’t believe that was cut from the mst3k version.
I somehow thought that THIS was the MST3K reunion show. I mean, the whole point of doing “Time Chasers” was that they were going to bring back the cast of MST3K (Joel and the others) to join in…man, I misread somewhere. Epic fail, on my part.
….But I did enjoy the show. :-)
About half full (or half empty if you’re a pessimist) at the Virginia Center 20 in Glen Allen. One good thing about the uncut version is that it clarified that EvilCo was an aeronautics corporation. The edited version on MST3K gives the impression that Evil is their product.
I’ve never liked this sentiment, because it’s an absolute. It’s probably the case that earnest bad movies lend themselves to riffing more, but I don’t see it as some hard rule. Being deliberately campy doesn’t make you unriffable. It wasn’t true for Hobgoblins, and it isn’t true now.
That said, Sharknado 2 didn’t work. I thought they really proved the naysayers wrong with the first one, but they shouldn’t have gone back.
The short was about a psychotic chimp that wanted to join a local fire company, and the thoroughly stupid firemen who allow it. It must be seen to be believd.
And even then you might still not believe it.
As mentioned before, at Union Square in NYC about 2/3rd full, in a smaller theater than usual (the usual theater was being used for a Captain America preview and boy, were the throngs out for that!).
I too felt the presence of the original hovering over this one more than when they’ve revisited MST episodes in the past. I don’t know if they don’t want to re-use MST riffs or if they’re legally prevented from doing so, but certain of the MST Time Chasers riffs are about as perfect as you can get (“I will not accept this as our hero, movie!”) and their absence was felt.
That said, after a slow start, it picked up and there were some solid belly laughs in the middle. The additional footage did make for a more coherent story, but it was just as stupid as before … thankfully!
Also, it would have been fun if they had included the director and stars in the show somehow, seeing as how they were there for the occasion. Imagine Matthew Bruch marching on stage, interrupting the movie and demanding they leave his chin alone!
So, not the best, but a solid B+ and a good, fun night!
Did Lisa’s butt look good in the Present?
Some good new jokes, mostly from Mike. Lots of “meh” material. I had more fun watching a complete cut of Time Chasers, which I had been meaning to do for years but hadn’t gotten around to for whatever reason. It’s a pretty decent movie for its obvious bargain price – much more ambitious than, say, if the filmmakers had decided to churn out a crappy little slasher movie.
I noticed that the complete cut adds more lines about how Future Vermont was turned to garbage, but despite that the bad guy’s evil agenda remains somewhat murky and unfocused because we never actually see him DO anything that doesn’t involve chasing after our hero. That’s surely a function of the movie’s low budget.
Timechasers is one of my favorite episodes, and, yes, I did compare the two in my head as I was watching, but I thought the guys did a great job. Honestly, it’s the best live show I’ve seen in a while, and I go to almost all of them. A few of the new riffs equaled the best from the episode. I’m very glad I made it to this one, and I won’t be at all disappointed if they do more MST3K movies as live shows.
Sadly, the theater [Cinemark, in Monaca, PA] was only about a quarter full. I wish more people would come out. Unhappily, I’m not a young man, and most of my buddies don’t go out any longer. Happily, my daughter enjoys seeing the shows with me.
Believe it or not, this was the first time I’ve seen Time Chasers. I’ve seen the vast majority of episodes and have most commercial releases, but this one was new to me. Mostly because it’s not one of the readily available episodes.
So is this supposed to be a movie from a classic MST3K episode? Because I couldn’t really tell why this one is supposed to be special. Not to poopoo it or anything, but I couldn’t figure out why of all movies Time Chasers was picked and not, say, The Final Sacrifice or Hobgoblins. It was good and this show had its moments, but it kind of felt like this was something to do in the meantime while waiting for the MST3K Reunion Show. (Which I completely understand.)
This movie reminded me of The Final Countdown. Not the Europe song, but the movie with the battleship and Pearl Harbor or whatever it was. The story I think was actually okay, but this movie has the problem of being a time travel movie where the different times they travel to all have the same 90s feel regardless of the era portrayed, making the whole thing hard to follow. I feel that if it were remade with an actual budget it might actually be a fairly decent movie.
The riffs were good, but as I said it felt to me like they were kind of cruising through it to get to the reunion show. I was a little surprised and disappointed that they didn’t mention the villain looking a bit like Timothy Dalton. (Unless they did and I just missed it somehow.)
The short was strange. Assuming it was made for educational purposes, is it supposed to enlighten us about the life of a fireman, or chimps? Early on I would have said the first one, but then it jumps to the second. I can only assume this short might be a sort of “cartoon” and made to entertain really little kids only.
Looking forward to the reunion show!
Great always. Quick question those did rewards (time) for digital goodies. Did you get this badge they talk about by login in? I look for but didn’t see it. ASLO what up with these accivements?
Smaller crowd than usual at Theater 12 in the Clifton, NJ AMC. About 40% full with good deal of empty seats on the lower level………..My favorite seat was covered with a “Broken, do not use” cover on it.
But I digress.
Yes, there were audio sync issues but I still enjoyed the show. A good way to wind down after the 7:30-4 daily grind at work! Good short to start it off. A chimpanzee wanting to be a firefighter? Er…….OK! BTW, I knew the origin of that “face biting” riff! The “main event” was good as well. A BIG laugh was let out by the audience after the Paul Bearer/Undertaker riff. That whole riffing sequence with “Chin Butt Man” SLOWLY climbing down the tree after the plane crash was good too.
Oh, when I entered the theater the old Miami Sound Machine concert “test footage” was back on screen. I got to do my “40 pounds of butt in 30 pound butt capacity jeans” riff on Gloria!
The MST3K episode is much better, but the live show had its moments.
Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk? Where the struggling actor/cab drivers come from?
Rifftrax has developed relations with the company that produced it, Edgewood Studios. A couple of their previous VOD releases, Icebreakers and Radical Jack, are Edgewood titles. Plus I believe they mentioned plans to release a VOD for another Edgewood film later this year. Since an HD print of Time Chasers had been recently completed, they figured it would be a good title to revisit for a live show, since a good print is pretty important for a big screen presentation.
The theater that’s usually packed for Rifftrax screenings in Lansing, MI opted out of this one to show the new Marvel movie on as many screens as possible. Disappointing, but understandable, I guess; those things are money printing machines, & I can’t begrudge a business for making piles of cash (ethically, of course). They’ll be showing the rebroadcast next week, so I’ll be checking it out then.
For some odd reason the theater in Vegas where it was shown did not show the pre-movie title cards were missing. At first we thought that the theater had screwed something up, but then exactly on time the Fathom stuff came on the screen so it looks like the feed wasn’t up and running. The show was pretty good. I am glad that the bike chase and the cad driver scenes had been cut in the MST version.
I’m actually surprise how “good” the movie was considering the director was 19 years old, none of the actors could actually act and they had to use the local library as a Fortune 500 company’s office. It was a semi-clever idea and story. I really liked the in jokes at how it copied Back to the Future.