The Official and Very Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thread

[davejames]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I still find these guys endlessly entertaining. Shorts, crummy movies, Blockbusters; they deliver tha laughs. Which somehow reminds me, how can we forget their Riff of a 1940s Batman serial? That was some epic stuff.

Yeah those were pretty great. Here's hoping they get around to doing one of the Superman serials as well someday.

 

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I have rarely laughed at any riff as much as I've laughed at "Progress Island U.S.A.," the Puerto Rico promotional film that helped introduce "The Beast of Yucca Flats." Pound for pound, that is one of the fastest, funniest riffs in the entire history of the series and is great stuff from start to finish.

Progress Island is one of the greats! They were on fire!

I have to say that I really have enjoyed the Rifftrax blockbuster riffs--there are so many times when I watch a big time movie and think, "do the people who made this movie really think I'm that stupid??" like when I realized partway through the big Avengers New York battle that they were all talking to each other despite not using any actual communication devices (or it ever being shown/mentioned that they have earpieces or the like). I thought--whaaaaaat? So to have the Rifftrax guys take the blockbusters down a peg is always refreshing. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy those movies on their own (hey, I really liked The Avengers), I just like that the Rifftrax guys point out some of the stupider things that movies try to sell their audiences. I appreciate that. Having said that, nothing--and I mean nothing--can make sitting through Transformers a pleasant experience.

Okay, loading the Avengers Rifftrax now.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Jim Begg!

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRB3xDg5pnU[/yt]

"In the '50s people responded well to authoritative disembodied voices."

 

[Awesome Possum]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

This has become my favorite short.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Hym_r409g[/yt]

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

"Catching Trouble" is a horrible example of human behavior towards wildlife. But the way Joel and the 'Bots skewer and rip apart Ross and his disgusting hunting behavior makes it worth watching if just to listen to the show's writers attack the attitudes of those who feel they hold absolute power over the rest of the planet's animals.

 

[Unicron]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

This has become my favorite short.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Hym_r409g[/yt]

I was actually just watching that the other night and thinking WTF?

 

[Redfern]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

The odd this is, the Best Brains gang made references to this short years earlier in the series, when Joel was still the resident "experiment". I forget which episode it was, but Crow appears on the bridge and proclaims "No waffles!" in that same nasal quality as Coily and whistles that odd little sound the sprite made after each proclamation.

Obviously, they watched and analyzed the short early in the series, but for whatever reason, didn't actually air the short until the second to last episode.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Awesome Possum]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

They've mentioned that they've known about it for years and just never managed to work it in.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Yeah, the waffle bit was used as early as Season 3 ("Viking Women and the Sea Serpent") and the bit was briefly revived near the end of Season 4 in "Bride of the Monster" (only in that one Crow squawked "No Advertising!").

 

[Redfern]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Those instance were definitely "call forwards" (as opposed to "call backs").

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Redfern]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

last year, around May 2014, Sampo who currently runs the Satellite News site mentioned a seeming impossibility, the return of MST3K. At least, that's what I thought he said. But later, I figured I got it confused with the RiffTrax special aired upon one of the National Geographic channels. So for clarification, I wrote him directly. To my pleasant surprise, he actually responded. Here's a transcript of his reply. It's nothing "secret" since he mentioned it on the site.

"Now, in the recent Wired magazine article, Joel said he is thinking of/considering/exploring (whatever word you want to use) some sort of reboot. NO details at all yet, and no idea if it will happen, and he hinted on Facebook recently that the money to make it happen might come from some sort of crowdsource thing. But again, this is all just floating around in his head right now."

He sent this on June 10, 2014, just over a year ago. Obviously a LOT can happen in a year and Hodgeson may now think, "It'll never work." BUT, if Joel and others were to seriously consider this venue, a crowd-funded series, possibly streamed on the web, which would allow Joel greater control, what would you want from such a series, your hopes, and what would you expect they would more likely present? I mean, there's that word many have grown to loathe, "reboot". That could imply so many different things. It could mean the return of Trace as Clayton, Conniff as frank, Joel as Robinson, etc. as though they never left. Or, they might pull a "Next Gen" scenario, the same arrangement, mad scientist testing a subject with bad movies, but introducing all new characters performed by "up and coming" younger comedians. Or, they might go the NuTrek path, the original characters, but performed by new "up and coming" younger comedians. Oddly enough, that third scenario does not scare me as bad as the second. Why/ Well, the second opens the possibility for swapping out our beloved 'Bots, Tom, Crow and Gypsy, for totally different designs! No! Anything but THAT! I mean, we've seen them survive different performers, but dropping the iconic 'Bots themselves? That would be the back breaking straw for me!

So, to borrow a catchphrase from the series, what do you think, sirs (and madams)?

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I'd totally watch the crap out of an MST3K spinoff or reboot. But the 'Bots would have to more or less look the same if they reuse the original characters. None of this "let's make Tom Servo look a lot cooler and more realistic" stuff where a robot that's made from Slinky arms and a gumball machine and cracks jokes about bad movies has to suddenly look like a droid from a Star Wars movie.

MST3K's cheesiness and very low-budget look are a big part of what made it so popular to begin with.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I saw Joel at Dragon Con last year and he talked about the reboot. He said that the idea was getting new people to be on the show and perform the bots, but the original characters would show up from time to time.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Make this happen. Somebody needs to get on this idea now.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Right now: Watching "Parts: The Clonus Horror."

A movie from the late 70s, possibly early 80s centered around man in a compound where every day he trains to stay in peak physical condition and gets a basic education, hoping one day to win a chance to go to "America" in order to live a free life. He learns he's a clone of a rich man living in America only exists to harvest organs from should this man need them.

Sound familiar? Because it's essentially the exact same plot as the movie "The Island" including our clone accidentally bumping into a female clone and the two starting a relationship, even though it's forbidden the operators of the compound allow it in order to see what happens.

There's some changes once the clone escapes into the real world, in "Parts" the clone mostly stumbles around trying to stay hidden while the people he runs into does the leg-work on getting to the bottom of things whereas in "The Island" it becomes a fairly standard Michael Bay action flick. There's even a moment where the DNA donor turns on his clone.

The similarities were so strong a court awarded the creators of "Parts" an undisclosed amount in a copyright violation lawsuit against the makers of "The Island."

A fun riff with the cast taking delight in attacking our witless, dim, "hero" clone. Especially once he stumbles into the real world. Fun stuff as they meet a bickering retired couple.

Great moment when the clone stumbles into the compound's backstory department which includes notes on everyone transcribed by a third-grader learning how to do perfect cursive writing and a VHS tape -that he's never encountered but automatically knows how to use in the VCR- that tells him everything he needs to know about what's going on.

Also fun where he has a night with the female clone, when MST3K comes back from the commercial break it's the morning after, the girl is cuddled up against the male clone and smoldering campfire smokes just beyond the man's lap, making it appear his groin is smoking.

Mike: "Guess I should go a little easier next time."
Crow: "Boy, she really was on top of Old Smokey."
Servo: (as Smokey the Bear): "Only you can prevent groin fires."

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Refresh my memory on that one. It's the film with Dick Sargent, right? A YouTube reviewer of MST3K actually considers that one to be one of the better movies riffed on the series because the the story is actually an interesting sci-fi concept, only it was very inadequately executed by the producers.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Yeah, Dick Sargent is in it. And, as I said, the movie's plot is pretty much exactly "The Island." In a series of host segments Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy deal with a group of annoying space-children. Was given an official DVD release quite some time back.

One of the better movies? Ehhhhhhh........ Maybe?

I think the creators of it honestly tried and were just limited by time, budget and the talent available. It does have Peter Graves in it which brings a certain degree of credibility but he has a fairly small part compared to our "hero" and our female lead with a truncated nose.

I think once the movie leaves "Clonus" it drops off some, there's still some good riffing but seems like the story starts crawling and sort-of comes to a fairly unsatisfying ending for all of our main characters.

But, as I understand it the movie's makers did honestly try to do the best they could and even realize with more available to them they could have done better. In fact when one of the movie makers heard of the similarities in "The Island" he not only notices numerous near shot-for-shot copies from his movie but in many ways felt that the way it looked was the way their movie should have looked. (Though I suspect without the Bay Military Vehicle Porn, action scenes and the ending which I suspect was intended to have the "darkness" it had.)

Cheapness stands out in many parts, Peter Graves is a presidential candidate and at one point is holding a press conference. Not in a large auditorium or theater or anything like that, but more like a meeting room in a community college with a handful of people there.

Humorous riff comes when Peter Graves confronts his brother about revealing the truth of "Clonus" (which would upset those behind it.) We see Graves in a tacky shirt and sport jacket.

Mike: "He dresses like a liquor distributor."

 

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Page 3 people! Never let this thread fall that far, MiSTies!!

Ahem. Anyway. I have a good friend who just started a new job in another state. He's working there right now and his wife can't join him for another couple of weeks. He's living in a small apartment with his two dogs right now. Yesterday I texted him and asked him how it was going and he replied, "okay, I'm just feeling a little lost right now." I want to send him some links to fun things to cheer him up, and I'm thinking a couple of MST3K shorts should be in there. I know he'll enjoy them, but he's not really that familiar with MST3K (he knows what it is and has seen and enjoyed a couple), but I don't know that he's watched any of the shorts before. What are some good introductory shorts to send his way?

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

"Money Talks" and "Progress Island U.S.A."

Those two (which originally aired back-to-back in the same episode, right before The Beast of Yucca Flats) should put a big smile on his face and make him laugh more than a few times! I've rarely laughed as much at anything in the history of MST3K as I have at "Progress Island U.S.A."

A '50s educational short on good teenage budgeting habits and a '70s promotional film about Puerto Rico and tourism that features hilariously cheesy period music? A back-to-back pair of MST3K shorts has rarely if ever been more hilarious.