October 31st, 2009

Weekend Discussion Thread: “I Wasn’t Too Pleased”

My old buddy Bill Stiteler writes:

Looks like someone’s a little bitter:

They’d later go on to have a second life on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Are you familiar with that show?
Yeah, right. I’ve caught some of those.

You have?
Yeah. With the idiots sitting in the front row and commenting on what they see on the screen.

You weren’t too pleased with those?
No, I wasn’t too pleased with those.

So, is he justified in his displeasure or should he lighten up? And whether or not he’s justified, do you think any other actor (or director or whatever) would be justified in not being too pleased with MST3K?

Me, I always thought they were a little mean to Kathy Ireland…


October 30th, 2009

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Pumpkins

Every year, Web sites post hundreds of carved pumpkin pictures. This is three of them.

And check out the first pumpkin posted on Kim Carpenter’s blog.


October 29th, 2009

RiffTrax Screening Part of Horror Weekend in Vegas

A showing of the RiffTrax version of “House on Haunted Hill” is part of an event this weekend, Fangoria’s Trinity of Terrors at the Palm Casiono Resort in Las Vegas. The show is at 10:30 p.m. Friday night in Brenden Theaters #3. More info here.


October 29th, 2009

Now Available from RiffTrax…

Will they keep the beloved “I’m gonna sink this bitch!” riff? Found out now!

Download it here. Free sample here.


October 29th, 2009

How Was the Show?

An open thread for reports from this week’s Cinematic Titanic shows.


October 29th, 2009

Episode Guide: 812- The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

First shown: 6/14/97
Opening: It’s walk-a-thon season
Intro: Pearl is taking the space kids home and has Bobo and Observer send the movie
Host segment 1: The bots try to read Mike’s future for 50 cents
Host segment 2: M&TB ask Shelli the Nanite for the “big hair” look
Host segment 3: Crow hires Ortega to cater the break
End: Crow and Tom build a roller coaster; Pearl meets the kids’ parents
Stinger: “What do you think we came here for…to eat?”
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (97 votes, average: 4.27 out of 5)
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• Ahh, what’s not to like about this episode? Unless, of course, you count the movie itself, which is less a coherent story than a particularly vivid fever dream. Still, the riffing is great, the segments are funny and, if that wasn’t enough, there’s … MADISON!
• Paul’s take is here.
• In a post a few weeks ago, I made a reference to this movie by saying something like: as a scary monkey clown once said, “Get your tickets here!” I was corrected in the comments section by people who noted that it was a scary clown monkey puppet who says that. But I was pleased when I re-watched it this time that there are also scary monkey faces clowns shown in the carnival scenes, so at least I have some explanation for why I thought of monkeys clowns.
• This is one of the few movies I had seen before (how could you see that title and not want to watch it?) it was on MST3K. I was very excited when they announced it.
• Daleism: During the first dance number, during a shot of the dancers hands, all sing: “I thought you were Daaaaale…”
• Obviously the idea for the acronym sketch came from the movie’s very long title and accompanying acronym. The part where Tom keeps reciting the very long name of the charity is very reminiscent of the Monty Python sketch about Johann Gambolputty-de-von-Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crass-cren-bon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelter-wasser-kurstlich-himble-eisenbahnwagen-guten-abend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwürstel-gespurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumeraber-schönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittleraucher-von-Hautkopft of Ulm.
• It’s with this episode that a new occasional character arrives: Ortega, who will occupy a similar spot in sketches that Torgo did in the Comedy Central days.
• Obscure reference: Theatrical director JoAnne Akalaitis.
• This is one of those movies that posits the existence of a burlesque/strip joint in which nobody actually takes any clothes off and which is attended by as many women as men (see “Flashdance”). I maintain that such places never actually existed, especially in the time frame of this movie.
• Mike is still sporting his very high hair in the theater but only for a about a minute.
• Tom has a brief freakout during the movie, but who can blame him?
The Angel’s Flight trolley, also seen in “Indestructible Man,” is briefly visited by a distraught Jerry.
• Daddy-O had lots of dirt on this one, including:
–> It was shot on a budget of only $38,000. Can you tell?
–> It ran into trouble with Columbia Studios, which was releasing another long-titled movie: “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” To stave off Columbia’s lawyers, Director Ray Dennis Steckler agreed to re-title this movie “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Etc.”
–> It was released in so-called “Hallucinogenic Hypnovision,” which basically meant that during the movie a few people wearing rubber masks of the movie’s characters would run down the aisles and try to scare the audience in the theater just after a turning hypnosis-inducing spiral would appear on the screen.
–> Believe it or not a soundtrack album was released.
–> Steckler directed and performed in 1962’s “Wild Guitar,” starring Arch Hall Jr., star of “EEGAH!” (You can see a poster of “Wild Guitar” in this movie: it’s on the wall of the boozing dancer’s dressing room).
• Bill and Kevin are the voices of the space kids’ dad and mom, respectively.
• Pearl calls Crow Art again.
• Fave riff: “You know what I’m looking at right now? That exit sign.”


October 28th, 2009

RiffTrax Reviews

Adam “Luigi Bastardo” Becvar reviews RiffTrax’s “Planet of Dinosaurs” and “Voodoo Man” at BlogCritics.org.

By the way, I missed this when it was posted a week ago, but here’s the guys singing the lovely “Planet of Dinosaurs” theme song.


October 28th, 2009

Win RiffTrax Shorts DVDs

Our buddy John Scott Lewinski from Wired is running a contest in his blog.
Post a comment and you could be selected to win one of the two recently released RiffTrax Shorts DVDs.


October 27th, 2009

Five Former Rhino Episodes Released as Digital Episodes By Shout

I’m not clear on what all this means (I may have an update later), but five episodes that were formerly part of Rhino Home Video sets have been released by Shout! Factory as digital-only episodes on iTunes. They eps are:

• 206- RING OF TERROR (with short: The Phantom Creeps, Part 3)
• 409- THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (with short: Undersea Kingdom, part 2)
• 414- TORMENTED
• 503- SWAMP DIAMONDS (with short: What to Do on a Date)
• 1011- HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND

By the way, the main MST3K store on iTunes is here.


October 27th, 2009

New Video Featuring Frank

Frank says: “For anyone out there who’ve been waiting for me to make a short comedy video with Donny Osmond, their prayers have finally been answered.”