The Official and Very Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thread
- Thread starter cooleddie74
- Start date
I sit here four episodes into the new series. I agree with many of the comments. I'm enjoying the show over all, but still...
There is a dull sense of foreboding that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. A quiet click clack of keys (or are they war drums?) Many of you were are too young to remember. Many more of you had real lives...
I saw it. I was there. A boy, not even old enough to shave. None of us knew what was coming. The internet was a smaller, simpler (naive?) place. The war started simply enough. A sweaty Joe Don Baker. A crate of humdingers... We didn't know we were witnessing the start of the First Great Flame War.
I'm trying to leave it in my past. Yet, here we are. A new season, changing of the guard. I don't know who amongst you has thrown your lot in with Jonah. I don't care. I just think you're wrong. I don't want a fight, but if you're looking for one I might still have one in me.
Listen to an old keyboard warrior and think before posting that reply,
"It's just a show. I should really just relax."
There is a dull sense of foreboding that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. A quiet click clack of keys (or are they war drums?) Many of you were are too young to remember. Many more of you had real lives...
I saw it. I was there. A boy, not even old enough to shave. None of us knew what was coming. The internet was a smaller, simpler (naive?) place. The war started simply enough. A sweaty Joe Don Baker. A crate of humdingers... We didn't know we were witnessing the start of the First Great Flame War.
I'm trying to leave it in my past. Yet, here we are. A new season, changing of the guard. I don't know who amongst you has thrown your lot in with Jonah. I don't care. I just think you're wrong. I don't want a fight, but if you're looking for one I might still have one in me.
Listen to an old keyboard warrior and think before posting that reply,
"It's just a show. I should really just relax."
I'm guessing some contrivance forces him to do it, not the least of which being forced into the simulation via the Umbilicus, but it could be something to similar to how Joel, off-handedly, remarks on what forces him to remain in the theater, The Mads turn off the ship's life-support on the bridge during the theater segments meaning Joel has no choice *but* to watch the movie.
(I forget which movie it is, he tries to leave the theater in disgust but shortly comes back remarking to the bots the life support is off in the bridge/cockpit.)
So Jonah just may have no choice, he also seems to be of the Joel personality and just goes along with everything and what's asked of him, as Joel did seemingly holding no real ill-will towards Forrester and mostly going along with things in his sleepy-eyes way. Besides, what Evil Felicia Day wants? Evil Felicia Day gets!
My one little nitpick about the title sequence is that the voiceover kind of overpowers the song a bit at the beginning. On the other hand, I like how they emphasize, "I should really just relax!" 
This specific incarnation and its performers or the concept in general, "riffing" upon bad movies?
They need to slow down a little and give both themselves and the audience more time to breathe between jokes and riffs. There are plenty of moments when the episodes seem far too rushed and as if they're trying to cram as much into each minute of the show as possible, but other than pacing issues and a few minor nits to pick I like or even love the new episodes and don't have all that much to say about them in a negative or critical light.
There are fourteen of these, and they vary quite a bit. They really don't need to do a single thing to make this more like the old show or to satisfy pre-existing expectations, as it's a given that they cannot succeed at that with 100% of the existing audience and they seem to have hit it out of the park with the overwhelming majority. So...
No, I watched a bunch of them back in the 90's. Think they aired it on some obscure UK Sky channel. I remember it airing after a late night cartoon (Dr Katz or Duckman, maybe?) and I would try to watch the show afterwards. I understood what it was doing and, at times, I found it mildly amusing, but the shtick wore off on me after 15-20 minutes and I would turn off and go to bed.
Just not my branch of humour, I guess.
Hugo - not even the lovely Felicia Day or amusing Patton Oswalt can illicit interest this time around
"Cry Wilderness" was the moment where I knew these guys have this.
"Cry Wilderness" seems to be most people's top episode from the new season, but for me "Carnival Magic" is where its at. Some of my favorite episodes to date were the '70s psuedo-somber movies from season 7 (Incredible Melting Man, Laserblast), and this one fits right in with them.
Oh, and Starcrash. That one is a fever dream.
Oh, and Starcrash. That one is a fever dream.
I started with "Reptilicus", then skipped to "Starcrash", then back to "Cry WIlderness". I honestly love it, though the actual film of Reptilicus got a little draggy at the end.I actually liked the film, Starcrash, and wish they had made more. Yeah, Cry Wilderness is funny. Baron's not so great as Tom, but he might get better. I was just thinking "Why does Tom sound like Judge Whitey from Futurama now?" Something about these guys, and maybe I'm being to picky, is just too "Milliennial" for me. What's really weird about that statement is that I'm a year younger than Jonah...
At teh same time, I think the laugh level of the riffs is pretty high. I can't count how many times THey've said exactly what I was thinking only an instant before.
At teh same time, I think the laugh level of the riffs is pretty high. I can't count how many times THey've said exactly what I was thinking only an instant before.
While some of the other films are more enjoyable, I have a certain affinity for "Cry Wilderness" for two reasons. One, the "surprise guests". I admit I "squeed" a bit. Two, it is in this episode where my name appears in the "revival league" credits. Even better, they correctly spelled my name. (For some reason, some people are compelled to insert an "A" within my last name.)
They've done well with the selection of the movies - most of these are exactly the sort of thing they used to do, but of a slightly later vintage overall. Instead of 50s schlock monsters we get 80s-era schlock monsters. And the Hercules movie makes those older ones look like carefully researched historical dramas by comparison.
"The Land That Time Forgot" is a movie I actually loved as a small child. But then I also adored the original Godzilla and the other Japanese Kaiju movies of the '50s, '60s and '70s and was blissfully unaware of just how cheesy and corny (and in many cases downright bad) they were until my teenage years. The dinosaurs and monsters you loved as a little boy are often the ones you laugh and roll your eyes at when you're a grown adult.
