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Update: RiffTrax Live Reviews ‘n’ StuffUpdate: John Scott Lewinski also offers a review.
John Sinnott of DVD Talk reviews the show last night. David McKendry of Fangoria interviews Mike about the show. And John Serba of MLive.com gives a brief review and posts the unriffed versions of three of last night’s shorts. The comments section in this post is being used to discuss the show. 120 Replies to “Update: RiffTrax Live Reviews ‘n’ Stuff”Commenting at Satellite News
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@ #98
“Distracting audience reaction…”
Hm. Just a suggestion – but don’t go to a live show if other people are going to distract you. Especially if they’re going to distract you to the point of being a joyless, overly-picky, control freak who clearly thinks that everything must be produced to fit your tastes and your tastes alone.
In other words, your opinion, in this case, is “small, and of no account.”
While I agree that the vomit scene at the close (in particular, the sound effect) was as gross as gross can be – I have to admit that it’s a “different kind of funny.” I was far more horrified at Kevin’s smooth, shapely things encased in black nylon and lace and framed in festive red and white plush. Eh…excuse me – I have to go vomit a little myself. Brb.
…..
There, done.
My main point, though, is that MST3K has a rich history of barf jokes. Are we all forgetting the sheer volumes of gross-out moments involving the likes of Joe Don Baker making kissy face with a forever traumatized Linda Evans? Or Trace’s marathon spew-fest during the closing credits of one episode where TV’s Frank is being overly cute and giving himself a “chin-rascal”?
Or is it just that a number of people who post here aren’t really that up on MST3K – they’re just along for the ride now that CT and RT are on the intertubes?
Hmmmm….I smell conspiracy….
“Christmas Rhapsody” is available!
http://www.rifftrax.com/shorts/christmas-rhapsody
(Looks like a studio recording, though…not from the live show.)
My GF and I caught the live show at the same theater we saw Plan 9 in: AMC Forum 30. It was between 1/2 and 3/4 full. (I would attribute the attendance drop to there being an encore the next night.) The crowd didn’t seem as lively as for Plan 9.
It was a good show, but Plan 9 was funnier. Cutting the unnecessary host and using vintage commercials instead of fake ones were improvements. Weird Al was underused. The only MST3K reference I caught was Prince of Space. The little tree’s monotone narration seemed like a great place to slip in a “Flag on the moon, how did it get there?” for longtime fans.
As another plus, we spotted local late-night horror host Wolfman Mac (sans makeup) in attendance. (You can check him out at http://www.chillerdrive-in.com and syndicated on RTV.) And since both my GF and I are perplexed by the whole “Twilight” phenomenon, we have to get that “Sparkly Vampires” song they played after the show!
Like #98, I’m surprised by all the sterling reviews here. It makes me wonder just how much Rifftrax most folks have actually seen if they were so impressed with this. Compared to many of the regular rifftrax (Twilight, Titanic, The Happening, just to name a few) this was pretty subpar riffing. Many of the other shorts they’ve done were more inspired than this extremely mixed bag of holiday weirdness. I do agree that getting rid of all the excess crap from the first show (music, comedy skits etc…) was a big step in the right direction. Still love rifftrax, just not thrilled with this show.
First @101, then @99, then @102, then @105, then @103:
“@ #98
“Distracting audience reaction…”
Hm. Just a suggestion – but don’t go to a live show if other people are going to distract you. Especially if they’re going to distract you to the point of being a joyless, overly-picky, control freak who clearly thinks that everything must be produced to fit your tastes and your tastes alone.
In other words, your opinion, in this case, is “small, and of no account.””
Woooow. Way to misinterpret my point there.
I like these live events. A lot. I like seeing the riffers doing their thing. I like how animated the audience is during the riffing. I like hearing the laughter of many others around me. It’s a fun atmosphere in general. But if I’m going to buy a copy of what was riffed for repeated future viewing, I like to be able to hear all the lines – many of which I missed – clearly. Is that so wrong? Was my horrible joylessness so unambiguous that you had to attack me over it? And didn’t I say that I basically enjoyed myself overall?
Happy freakin’ holidays, I guess.
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Regarding Family Guy: I don’t just hate on the show. Seth MacFarlane is clearly a brilliant humorist, given the scope and variety of what he can make funny. But Family Guy, much like The Simpsons and South Park, has not been anywhere near as funny as it once was. And I would maintain that those shows actually stayed fresh quite a few seasons more than Family Guy did. I’m a big fan of FG’s first several seasons, but most of the stuff they put out over the past fews year has been (by my tastes) unwatchable dreck. The vomit scene is an example, from relatively early in its history, of what I would tolerate to get to the good stuff. Now there’s very little good stuff at all. So in summary: not just dissing FG fans, since I am one.
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As for MST3k having barf jokes . . . sure, and often to good effect (and with stuff like Paper Chase Guy and Carlo Lombardi slobbering on hapless actresses, for good reason!), but the best ones were to-the-point and usually didn’t go on for a minute and a half until petering out into nothing. That’s how I see it, anyway. They simply could have done better (vomit or no – just needed something *more*).
“Like #98, I’m surprised by all the sterling reviews here. It makes me wonder just how much Rifftrax most folks have actually seen if they were so impressed with this.”
Exactly what I was thinking. My first thought was to compare it to “Drugs Are Like That” and other good shorts. *Those* are great. These ones? They were OK, but I’m not entirely convinced they were worth my movie money. They’re worth buying as shorts, certainly. But if anyone thought this Christmas stuff was great, I have to strongly recommend seeing more of their other shorts, ’cause a lot of those are even better.
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““Christmas Rhapsody” is available!
http://www.rifftrax.com/shorts/christmas-rhapsody
(Looks like a studio recording, though…not from the live show.)”
Kickass.
I like how when people like a thing, they just say they like it and share in the enjoyment of that thing.
People who, for whatever reason, don’t “get” why others enjoy that thing so much more than they do and feel the need to explain why they’re right and everyone else is wrong? Not so much.
Oh, this just happened right now! My wife and I were just talking about what to make for Christmas dinner, and she suggested ham. Of course, I said “Ham. I love it.” in a deadpan Vorelli voice. She doesn’t get it…
Okay, I’m on the wrong thread. How’s it goin’ over here?
I, like most people on here, absolutely loved the show. Wanted to get to see both shows but had to finish some shopping. :sad:
I was also a bit bummed that Weird Al did nothing but a couple of lines in the pork short. It didn’t really make sense. I really wanted to see him perform like the Coltrane(sp?) guy from Plan 9 live. Would have made it a 100% great. Still 98% though. I fo sho want this to watch every holiday season with my wife and new child.
I went to the encore showing. Post #98 pretty much sums up what I was going to post.
Saw the encore Thursday night in Northern Virginia. Theater was about 2/3 full. I was laughing too hard to notice if anyone else was. Best preview Movie Trivia Card: Movie Goofs: Renee Zellwegger is constantly cast as an attractive person. Biggest laugh: Rudolph. Favorite riff: The family spends every Christmas Eve behind police tape, watching their house burn to the ground.
Will definitely buy the CD … must we wait another five months for the next Rifftrax Live?
“I like how when people like a thing, they just say they like it and share in the enjoyment of that thing.
People who, for whatever reason, don’t “get” why others enjoy that thing so much more than they do and feel the need to explain why they’re right and everyone else is wrong? Not so much.”
Who exactly are you replying to? I’ll take a crack at it regardless.
I know plenty of people who are genuinely perplexed by why a friend likes something or other, and as a part of normal conversational self-expression, they feel the need to explain their perspective. Then the friend explains why they like what they do about it, and the conversation can either get into an interesting discussion of how tastes differ between people and why different backgrounds lead to different subjective preferences, or, more commonly, some good-natured mutual teasing in which neither person respects the tastes themselves but in which both people still respect each other. In either case, the friendship is fostered by the sharing of thoughts and experiences that don’t normally get to be expressed in the course of daily life.
There is no “right” or “wrong” in any empirical sense – because this is subjective after all – just a discussion of how and why one’s perceptions lead to a given conclusion on their part. Given that all people by definition differ in their tastes, this seems like a natural to me.
I guess some people like to get into more in-depth discussions of their appreciation (or lack thereof) than just saying “lol i lieked it lots” and leaving it at that.
(Exaggeration used for dramatic effect; note the part where mutual respect is endorsed.)
What *I* don’t like is when people assume that when you disapprove of their tastes, you must, of course, *also* be making a moral judgement of them and concluding them to be inferior people. Yet I personally keep my judgements of ideas and institutions separate from my judgement of people’s dignity and moral worth. And as someone who strongly believes in civility, open communication, and fostering meaningful human relationships wherever possible, but who is also a nonconformist by default, this assumptional tendency in humans really gets to me sometimes. /end rant
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To contribute something more interesting to the thread, I’ll ask, what does anyone think they should do as their next live project? They covered an infamously poorly-done movie to start, and then did a theme night. What else is well-known enough to draw in the next crowd? I personally would like to see something really cheesy, something along the lines of a Gamera film or some ridiculuous “giant bug(s) attacking a city” movie.
I guess their next live event would have to revolve around what they could get the rights to-I would LOVE a Gamera film, but there would probably be legal issues.
One thing that might be cool is if they could do some sort of “double feature”-two short movies, a couple of shorts, and they could run some old drive-in stuff and riff on that. They seemed to be heading in that direction with the fake movie trivia track, so…it might be fun (although maybe a little long).
I went to an encore in Plymouth Meeting, PA, and the place was 1/2 full.
I agree with PumaMan about the Renee Zellweger joke; it got the biggest laugh in our theater.
Good show, minus the Swimming short. Yep, that’s it. Please don’t analyze my post Raptorial Talon (just messing, you have to be one of my favorite posters in here).
“One thing that might be cool is if they could do some sort of “double feature”-two short movies, a couple of shorts, and they could run some old drive-in stuff and riff on that.”
That sounds fun . . . I kinda wish I were more of a movie buff so I could think of some shorter B-movies. Something with a sort of famously bad/infamous actor (known to MSties) would be amusing – maybe John Agar or someone like that. But you’re right, it’s what they can get the rights to that most clearly determines what they’ll do. Ah well.
“Good show, minus the Swimming short. Yep, that’s it. Please don’t analyze my post Raptorial Talon (just messing, you have to be one of my favorite posters in here).”
Heh, thanks. I’ll just reply in gratitude instead of analyzing. ;)
@116-One good thing about a “drive-in” type of theme night is that a lot of those shorter B movies are in the public domain-I’ve seen DVDs that replicate the experience, with two movies, shorts, old ads, etc, all of which would benefit from riffing. (it would be a nice “hook”, too, like Plan 9 was.)
One thing is for sure-2010 should be a big year for Rifftrax live, seeing as how they’ve proven (twice!) that they can pull this type of thing off on a large scale. They will most likely have a lot more theaters participating in future events.
Oh, boy, I forgot to mention the the commericals (the “gifts”) they gave each other. That was such a great addition to the show, and one of the reasons I hope they release the whole live event on DVD.
Remember that episode where Mike cracks everybody up during every bump by doing his silly little Erkel impression? It was simple and kind of dumb, but the ‘Bots, the Mads, Jan in the Pan, Huggy Bear, Pitch, Santa – practically every “guest” they had in the Hex Field for the last 2 seasons – were just busting a gut over how funny they thought it was.
And then in wobbled Torgo to say, “pERsoNAlly, i dOn’t sEe WhaT’s sO funNY aBout ERkeL….” and he just killed the mood.
I guess there’s a little Torgo in all of us. But more in others.
——
Back on Topic:
A week later and my wife, my friends and I are still cracking up over “Rudolph…I NEED you tonight…” and “I am small – and of no account.” But, frankly, I’m terrified of hearing that “Ham” song again – it took the Rudolph short to get that accursed tune out of my head!
Merry Christmas, everybody!
I can understand not wanting to have a musical guest interrupt the main event (the riffing). I enjoyed the Jonathan Coulton songs from the first event, but I probably would have preferred a second short, riffed at the level of the Flying Stewardesses short. My suggestions would be to consider having the musical guest perform BEFORE the 8pm start of the show, like a warm-up band at a concert. That way everyone who wants to see Weird Al sing can show up early, and everyone else can file in at their leisure.
One of the things I disliked most about the format of the second event was the lame dialogues that Mike, Bill, and Kevin had between the shorts. It’s fine to have a this-is-so-ridiculous tone during the riffing, but using that tone between the shorts made it seem like they were making fun of the event itself.
The swimming short was a bad idea and added to the feeling that the whole event had been thrown together haphazardly, and then padded with extra stuff in a vain attempt to reach the promised 2 hour mark. (Or else they are being meta and arch and deliberately matching the quality of the production to the quality of the material.)
The skit at the end might have worked if it had been Crow cross-dressing rather than a human being. The vomiting was stupid.
I really felt let down by RiffTrax on this one. I loved the Plan 9 event and told friends to go to the Christmas Shorts event. Now, I hope that they can improve the quality of the next event, so that I might consider going to the one after that.