My thoughts:
• Despite the fact that I have seen a DVD version of this riff, and also saw it live in San Diego last summer, I still went away with a bad case of “laugh stomach.” Another great show. There were definitely some new lines and that was fun: Sorry, Fort Worth!
• The short was lots of fun. It really got everybody warmed up. “Thank you for keeping the plane snake-free.”
• I really liked the thing where they showed the riffers at the side of the screen. I wished they’d done it more.
• For the record, my theater was about 80 percent full, and people were laughing a LOT.
• There were four really brief signal dropouts, all only a few seconds long, in the first half hour or so. Each time I thought “Oh, God, another technical disaster!” But it was fine.
• This was my first exposure to Mr. Coulton and I really enjoyed it. I will seek more of his stuff.
• Every time they showed the two girls in the front row who were singing along with Coulton, people in my theater laughed and, I fear, not WITH the young ladies.
• Lowtax’s stuff didn’t strike me as hold-my-sides hilarious, but I laughed some. I think it’s an acquired taste. I may be too old a fogie.
• This was also my first exposure to Ms. Belmont. I don’t want to come off like a cranky old grandpa here, but quite frankly, for somebody being billed as “the queen of the internet,” I had never heard of her, Revision3, Tekzilla, Qore or the PlayStation Network before she was announced as the host of the Comic-Con show. I’m not a gamer, and she looks young enough to be my daughter so, sorry Veronica, you’ve just never been on my radar screen. You kids get off my lawn! Actually, she seems pleasant enough, and she discharged her duties cheerfully, but she was also a little out of place. To her credit, she seemed to be aware of it. I could almost hear her thinking, “What the hell am I doing here?” Maybe somebody with actual comedy experience (Bridget perhaps?) might have been a better fit, but she was fine.
• I would say that about a tenth of the total laughs the show got were people simply laughing at the movie itself. I’ve seen this movie a dozen times now, at least, and its rank incompetence still stuns me every time.
• It was interesting to see that, in the bedroom scene, they left in the photo of the two contest winners. A couple of years ago they ran a contest, I forget the details, but the prize was that Legend would put your photo in that picture frame. And it was still there.
• Speaking of the color print, it is very nice, not garish at all. Those Legend wizards do a good job.
• Seeing this again made me wonder what the REAL reason was that they never did this movie during the MST3K years. The more I think about it, the more I think the excuses they gave at the time don’t really hold up.
• Fave riff: Why are we beating them off?
Erhardt adds:
• I saw the show in one of AMC’s hoity-toity Fork & Screen theaters. The auditorium was completely sold out. I honestly thought I’d be about the only one there and I was quite pleasantly surprised. I think there was one other auditorium at the AMC Studio 29 also screening the show, but I have no idea what its attendance was.
• Several people in our comments section have posted that they and/or the audience didn’t particularly care for John Coulton. I thoroughly enjoyed his performances…especially when Kevin guest-starred as “the zombie.” Unfortunately in my theater, very few people sung the “eat your brains” line that Mr. Coulton exhorted us to.
• The first Lowtax “sponsor” ad got a HUGE laugh from the Kansas City crowd I was sitting with, as did the quick mention in the “Plans 1-8” song. I’ve always noticed that the residents here love it anytime their city is mentioned, whether that mention is particularly complimentary or not. I can only imagine that the reactions from the Fort Worth audiences were similar. But where the heck was OUR apology, Bill?
• I’ve got to agree with Sampo about Ms. Belmont. Her appearance, along with Coulton’s, just seemed to be an attempt by RiffTrax to heighten their “geek” cred. As if they need to. But she did a good enough job.
• The RiffTrax site actually crashed after the show as audience members rushed to get their free downloads. But they were able to make a few database fixes and got the site back up after a few hours.
• Favorite riff: Can Kevin’s “ptoo!” noise whenever a character waved a gun be considered a riff? If not, I’ll go with “The captain thanks you for keeping our plane snake free.”
Also: Reviews here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
8/22 Update: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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Saw it at the UA in Union Square, NYC. 100% sold out.
Man, I have not laughed that hard in a long time. Great crowd, too!
It was awesome. I would love it if the whole event were put on a DVD, the live RIffs, the Johnathan Coulton (I didn’t just sing along to the chorus, I sang the whole damn thing. :-)), and all that.
Good stuff all around. The short. Coulton. The movie. The only dud for me was the second of the two “ads”. Oh, and the guy sitting two seats away from me who thought it was appropriate to text message during half the movie… :roll:
Saw it in Hadley Mass and laughed more than I have in the longest time. There were the dropouts during the short that I think everyone experienced, but we also lost audio for a few minutes during Plan 9, which I think was the theaters fault. I was hoping for a “Sing whenever I sing” joke when the cops were doing the leg up bit in the graveyard, but I get the feeling that they don’t want to do too many MST callbacks. “Time for go to bed” was a nice touch. Hope there are more of these type of events.
Lakeland, FL
I half-expected to be the only one in the theater, but was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. Though not huge, it was a respectable weeknight crowd.
Everyone seemed to really like the short and the feature, but I got the vibe that some (just a few) resented the fact that some dude was playing guitar instead of riffing movies. I knew of Coulton in the periphery, but this was my first real exposure to him. I was on iTunes this morning downloading some of his stuff.
The fake ads were hit (Flour!) and miss (Berries!), but they were nice filler.
All in all — I laughed so hard it hurt.
Great great experience.
If (when) they do it again, I’d love to see another short and maybe some animation in addition to the main feature. I love the variety show format and would love to see this as an annual event.
I was also at the Crossgates theater up in Albany NY. The sound was very much out of sync at the start of the event, which made it hard for me to pay any attention to what Veronica was saying.
I thought the first fake-sponsor bit was great, partially because it started out seeming like a genuine (if odd) sponsor, and then kept going farther and farther into the absurd. I’d like to get that as a download sometime. The second fake-sponsor bit had a mildly amusing premise, but we knew it was not-real when we went into it, so we were expecting Funny, and (IMO) it wasn’t particularly funny.
Jonathan’s two songs probably got the least reaction from the audience, although many people did sing along (at low volume) to his “brains” chorus. While I wouldn’t say the songs were a hit, I do think they helped to loosen up the audience a bit.
The riffing of the short and the movie were great, and I was happy that the riffing of the movie included quite a few new jokes, while still keeping most of my favorite lines from the 3-riffer VOD version.
All-in-all a good night, although there were a few annoying technical issues which could be improved on for any future events like this.
#29 phatmogera — The show in Harrisburg was about 3/4 full.
I was there at the Harrisburg, PA show as well. I arrived while the short was in progress and went down to the front row, center seat. I was delighted that there was anything in addition to the feature. Despite my many, many years as an MST fan, I didn’t even consider that there would be anything else. Very full room (which was awesome to see) that really got into it. I was definitely having to control my urge to get into the riffing as well. I realized quite early on that the riffs on the feature were repurposed from the DVD but I didn’t mind to much. The ‘sponsor’ bits were kinda funny and JoCo was OK, but I could have done without them. I didn’t hate them; I’m just lukewarm about them.
Yes, please, do this more … much more. Despite the lack of advertising it seems as though most theaters had very good attendance. Getting there late, I would have been quite bummed if it had been sold out.
Leslie B asked: Random question: When Jonathon Coulton was performing, and they kept showing that one woman singing along in the front row- was that Kevin’s wife? She looked damn familier, and Bridget was seated right next to her…I’m just curious
I expect you were seeing Bill Corbett’s wife, Virginia. She’s on twitter as:
https://twitter.com/VirginiaCorbett
@ 97: go back & read some of the other comments on here – it sounds like your theater’s crowd was the anomaly, not cronkite’s.
A few thoughts (All probably shared previously)
– In a Denver suburb, we’re looking at a theater probably 85% full. Great atmosphere from beginning to end.
– The short was gold and amazing to a youngin’ like me who can’t imagine the air industry ever showing anything but contempt for passengers. Beds in a plane?!
– Also the only two hiccups we had were during the short and while the crowd groaned both times, they were only a second or so each and made no appearance during the feature film.
– While the girl was good looking, I don’t know who she is and to watch her hands shake she felt out of place. Thankfully, her involvement was minor.
– The short films were hit or miss for me. Thought the first one was awesome while the Berrywatchers fell flat. Only remember laughing when he offers to call her back in two minutes.
– JC (Can I call him that?) was new to me and I enjoyed him, enjoying a personal Comedy-folk music rebirth/birth (Thank you Conchords). While my theater had a resounding chorus, everyone stopped to laugh at those two girls. In all of the theater they managed to find TWO people who knew the song? Not really sure how he got on the card. Pleasant, but unnecessary.
– Lowtax fell flat with me and my entire room. Maybe you had to be there physically.
– After watching the one and three riffer version of Plan 9, I still ended up sweating from laughing (maybe I should start working out…). The Brady Vision of the riffers with flick was genious and very welcome. Honestly would have had no problem leaving it like that the whole film. The sound of gunshots went over huge as well as the male alien imitating the female, “Look, this is you.”
– The free stuff is great but totally unnecessary and almost made them feel desperate. You see CT live and it’s $45 or so and all you get is the show (awesome as it is). To be honest, RT semi-live was EASILY worth the $13 and the goodies made them look almost guilty for charging that just for the show. Like seeing a band and they give away their CDs at the end. I was quite prepared to pay the buck for the short and if the entire event is ever a Download to Burn option, I’m right there in line. But the contest and giveaways gave them a desperate feel I didn’t care for, but am happy to have.
– Overall I’m really impressed. The technical difficulties we all were expecting showed up for seconds and left. The whole event was very slick and professional feeling from the made up movie facts to the very end. I’m personally hoping for Night of the Living Dead around Halloween, but if they ever do this again, I’m there with bells on.
Whatever that means.
@Joseph Nebus #62,
Yeah, I neglected to mention that they gave out 3D glasses in Hamilton, NJ! WTF? I kept them along with my ticket stub.
If you feel they were being too generous, you can always go to the Rifftrax site and use Paypal to donate lots of money to them. I’m sure they won’t mind. Honest! :wink:
So how similar was this version to the 3-riffer version (which I forgot was available, hence my comment above about wishing to get my hands on a copy of last nights performance)?
Did anybody catch the riff on Dudley Manlove’s name? The audience was laughing so much I couldn’t hear anything after “once you’ve named your child Dudley Manlove….”
JoCo was well-received in Chicago and I was as excited to see him as I was to see Mike and the gang. Maybe the friendly audience is why he’s coming back here on tour in October. :)
I was at the Lloyd Center in Portland, which was packed and that was cool. We got there a little later than I would have liked (7:30) but we still got kick-ass seats. (So thanks MSTies for all being slackers like us!)
This was actually the first time I had ever seen Plan 9 (even though I own it).
I thought it was awesome, I really like the whole experience. I agree with Sampo almost exactly. The MC was weak, never heard of her. I liked Coulton although I had never heard of him.
The short was good, but it’s no Shake Hands with Danger.
I forget my favorite riffs but there were a few times when I was almost falling out of my chair but nobody else was laughing. so that was awkward. A lot of it was just laughing at the movie. The plane’s “cockpit” really busted me up.
Compared to the CT:Live event, i probably had an equal amount of fun, for a lot less $$ so that’s cool. Of course meeting people face to face is probably worth the extra money (once!)
The riff on Dudley Manlove was along the lines of, “If you name your child Dudley Manlove, it’s guaranteed that he’ll be at the head of the line wearing a leash and leather at the pride parade.”
John asked: So how similar was this version to the 3-riffer version (which I forgot was available, hence my comment above about wishing to get my hands on a copy of last nights performance)?
I’ll guess that maybe 70-80% of the jokes were ones that were in the 3-riffer VOD. In some cases, they had a joke which was the same basic idea as a joke in the VOD, but maybe built around a less-obscure reference. In other cases, they added completely new jokes that didn’t show up at all in the earlier VOD version. It would be nice to get some list of the new jokes, just because I can’t remember most of them (because I too busy laughing).
My GF and I saw this at the AMC Forum 30 in Sterling Hts., MI. It was shown in one of their smaller auditoriums, but was damn near a sell-out. The crowd was really into it. There were a few brief dropouts early on, but no big deal.
The host girl seemed out-of-place, but inoffensively so. (A professional emcee doesn’t read off a script.) Her and the singer were added for the benefit of the live audience at the actual event, I imagine. I don’t object to some padding to give us more for our $$$, and understand that it’s always going to be hit-and-miss. If they do this again, instead of cutting the show to just 90 minutes of riffing, they can experiment w/ different ways to make it 2 hours and see what works.
The short was GREAT. The first fake ad was pretty good (reminded me of a monster truck showdown ad, but for GRAIN!!!). The berry one was lame. I’m neither for or against showing the riffers on the side, as I just watch the movie. All in all, I laughed my ass off and would gladly do so again if they decide to do more Rifftrax Live events in the future. Bring on Night of the Living Dead!
For all those who complain that they don’t know who Veronica is, she has over a million followers on Twitter. If you’re not one of them, then so what? Just think, she’s promoting Rifftrax to a million folks who are not already fanatics for Rifftrax. People who are not visiting Rifftrax.com (or even Mst3kInfo) every day. This is the kind of clever cross-promotion which helps to expand the fanbase for Rifftrax, without a huge cost to Rifftrax.
She is a fan of rifftrax. Think of her as just some generic fan who won the right to do a few lines of intro for the show. She didn’t do some half-hour comedy routine that we had to sit through, she was just the host. She said a few lines, and got out of the way of the main performers. That’s what a host is supposed to do. They are not the main event, they’re just the host.
doggans, we were at the same theater-Branford, Ct. It was great when that guy brought in his Crow replica and sat him upright in one of the rows to watch the proceedings. Made it seem like there was an honorary member of the audience in attendance.
But anyway, Veronica Belmont’s entire opening monologue was absent. Instead of us being able to hear what she was saying we were getting some theater audio having nothing to do with the rifftrax show. Was starting to worry pretty good and then the boys burst out onto the stage and STill there was no audio and people were yelling but a second later, the sound was working. phew!
Loved seeing the guys live on stage. Really enjoyed being able to watch them during the short and Plan 9 as well. Favorite riff, and thank you Green Switch for reminding me of it: “running or defending yourself hasn’t been invented yet”. But everything was funny. Just a great time. My only negative is, and everyone seems to love him to pieces, J.C. Gawd I was bored! Could not W A I T for him to finish. And get off. Made slightly tolerable by Kevin’s zombie impersonations. One other comment. Veronica reminded me of Deborah Raffin if anyone remembers her(The Sentinel anyone?)
Miami, FL here (well, Coral Gables, at any rate…)
I was expecting to be the ONLY person in the theatre (AMC 24, Sunset Place) – which is why I bought a ticket for a buddy of mine to go with me. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the theatre was 60-70% full.
The opening acts/”filler” was pretty hit or miss, but it gave me a chance to take a bathroom break, refill the popcorn, and get settled in. The short was good, not great, but I appreciate the fact that I got to download it for free today.
And yes – count me in if they ever decide to do this again. I will GLADLY watch another live show.
I hope the guys made a fortune last night. They’re a national treasure.
I think I’ll go the next show. You know, just for kicks.
Hey, Sonny. Good to hear from someone else here that they went to the same Miami, FL area theater as I did. I did not realize that the theater was that full during the showing as I was very transfixed on the whole presnetation, only looking towards the back of the place at the very end, when many made a run for the exit, so thanks for the observational info.
I was in a group with four others at the base of auditorium’s stadium seating section wearing an MST3k-themed white t-shirt. We were laughing very hard and very much during the short at the beginning and again when Plan 9 started up. Our laughter did start to wind down towards the end of the event, partly becaused we had expended so much of our physical energy laughing at the riffing material earlier on.
In the end, I think these types of feature events can work when they are done every now and then. Perhaps no more than twice a year with some spacing in between, during slow moviegoing periods of the year as Fathom Events are designed for. If the 400 theater cap count and general locations don’t change, then these broadcast events should still be able to retain their unique and special status as a niche attraction. I guess you could compare it to those special screenings of The Room that occur in New York and Los Angeles that you hear about, weekend midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or to Comedy Central’s 1994 Nationwide College Tour screenings of the MST3k episode, Zombie Nightmare. If I could paraphrase a quote from the latter example from an article on this website, the depth of the fanbase for RiffTrax might best be characterized as being a mile wide and an inch deep. My best advice is to limit these types of events to similar low-traffic times in theaters like this and to October. The latter suggestion is made so as to match the festive, communal, outgoing spirit that time of the year offers.
My screening at the Westgate AMC in Glendale, AZ was only about 25% full. I got there an hour early thinking it was going to be packed and in the end I could have had an entire row to myself! Where you at my desert MSTIES?
This was my first exposure to seeing riffing with an audience and it was great vibe. It was also my first exposure seeing the boys under the Rifftrax banner and honestly, nothing’s changed. Funny, funny, funny.
My favorite riff of the night (aside from Kevin’s constant dodging of bullets), was during the missile firing sequence when the general is looking at the sky through binoculars and Bill said, “Surrender Dorothy, what the hell?”
I can only hope this opportunity comes around again and again and again and…
Saw it at the Ballston Regal Cinema in Arlington, VA. I’ll start with something I haven’t seen anyone else mention–am I the only one who couldn’t understand what the title of the short was until it started? I thought the host had flubbed the title at first–and then she said it again! I was literally trying to figure out WTF a flying stow-ar-tiss was. I was waffling between “outdated technology” and “something like a Selling Wizard” when the title card came up. That was quite the duh/facepalm moment for me.
My main complaints were with the theater itself, which is obviously no reflection on the RiffTrax crew. Even the popcorn was “meh.” And as many others noted, there was no advertising that I saw. Our screen listed District 9, so I went back to the (suspiciously zombie-like) usher and double-checked that it was the correct one, because that would have been an easy mistake to make. (#88, you had a poster? Jealous! Did you try to steal it??) I am glad that we experienced fewer technical problems than others have reported; only a few tiny glitches that I recall.
But the show itself was great. I’d say our theater was ~50-60% full. It sounds like some other VA-area theaters had a bigger turnout, which is good to know. (Maybe they knew to avoid this theater; I hadn’t been in ages, and it was close to work.) We had some enthusiastic Jonathon Coulton fans, and we all sang to the zombie song, so we enjoyed it. Given a choice, I would always take another short instead, but I’m greedy like that. Didn’t personally care for the “sponsor” ads. I didn’t hate them; I just felt they were forced. The first one did make me think of EXTREME RICE!!! though, which made me smile. It’s fascinating reading about the different reactions from different theaters.
I haven’t seen the RiffTrax Plan 9 DVD, so all the riffing was new to me. All the riffs already mentioned were great, and I also noticed that some of the funniest moments were when the movie got so ridiculous, they couldn’t even riff it. I enjoyed seeing the crew’s reactions and faces when they were onscreen, but I get why they didn’t do it all the time. I did wonder if we missed some visual riffs a few times when we could hear laughter from the TN theater when there were no audible riffs. But overall, it was an absolute blast. There is nothing quite like being with a group of like-minded people who are really enjoying themselves. I echo the plea for more; I’ll definitely be there!!
To the others who were at the Hamilton, NJ showing… you guys ever figure out why we got 3-D glasses?
Aside from the “sponsors” clips, had a great time. My favorite non-movie moment: “Movie Mistakes: Keanu Reeves was cast as the lead in The Day The Earth Stood Still.”
I was at the AMC Studio 29 in Olathe, KS. Not the Fork and screen, just the regular theater. It was about 75% full. The show was excellent. I have seen both RT and CT live now, and I think I enjoyed the RT more. The only thing missing from the RT show, was meeting the performers.
I would be interested in nationwide attendance numbers. (just to get an idea of box office sales)
:shock: <–is how I must have looked leaving the theater..
The Brier Creek Theater in Raleigh, NC was full (with maybe a seat here or there empty). Glad they had a good turn out – the more, the funnier.
Only two brief outages early on but the rest was fine.
The short was great (I think I preferred shorts over the features on MST3K),
folks did sing along, and Plan 9 is well, Plan 9. The riffing was great and despite the well-done colorization (which I hate), it was interesting the crew mocked the colorization that one character was turning into the Hulk when his tone was on the greenish side.
Overall it was a great experience, worth the $12.50. Hope they do more and hope the Cinematic Titanic folks consider this an option as well. (Although I still hope a live show comes to North Carolina’s Triangle).
To the others who were at the Hamilton, NJ showing… you guys ever figure out why we got 3-D glasses?
Nope, I just kept ’em as a consolation prize for not winning the iPod. Maybe the were to make the movie more… (cue thunder).. SCARY! WOOooooOOoo!!!
I was at the West Des Moines show. The theater was probably half full, which is good considering that it’s competing with the annual State Fair. The only noteable things about our audience was the guy up front with the brilliant blue mohawk and the older guy who brought in his home-made Tom Servo, which looked amazing – just like the real thing.
The short was brilliant, as was (for me) the Missouri Flour and Grain Expo short. I like Jonathan Coulton and knew both of those songs well, but I will concede that it killed the momentum of the show quite a bit (also, the songs are more interesting in their album form, I swear!). The movie was was fun and ridiculous as always, and the riffing was top-notch. Overall, it was a great experience, and I would gladly see it or any similar show again.
Mstie44772- The Hoffman in Alexandria was probably 80-90% full, so I’m guessing that Ballston was probably the odd man out in NoVA.
My wife and I loved the show, and she is no fan of MST. I’d agree with the general consensus about Coulton and the second Something Awful ad, but Plan 9, the first ad, and what we saw of the short were awesome.
Our only technical problem was missing the intro and the first half of the short. The feed didn’t come on until about 8:10 or so, and then when we saw the short there was no sound. What we saw was awesome, though.
I hope they do this again, and let us know how well they did on this (hopefully very well). I would love to see them do this quarterly. Might I presume to suggest that they do this again with The Room?
One more thing I’d like to note- I think it is very classy that Mary Jo turned out for this event at her local theater. That she is willing to turn out to support a group of former co-workers with whom she is now in direct competition is an impressive display of decency. She is a person of amazing character who also happens to be very funny.
My wife and I saw it at the Regal Georgesville in Columbus, OH. There were maybe a dozen people in the theater–we got there half and hour early and thought we might get a truly private screening!
The theater had NO advertising–the closest thing was “special event” listed by the theater door in tiny letters. Do theaters get a cut from Fathom based on sales, or does Fathom just rent the room?
We did enjoy the short and Plan 9, although we saw it in San Diego last year. The fake ads? I can see juvenile stuff like that on YouTube. I was fine with Coulton, although he seemed out of place (I know he’s doing Riffs now, but that’s different from him singing). Was he already in Nashville for another event? Having Belmont was a good cross-promotion, as was noted above.
They should do this again–and maybe do more than one short, as opposed to the other filler.
[cut and pasted from my RT Forum post]
That was an even better experience than I’d hoped – well worth the hour’s drive each way with no air conditioning. The Paramus AMC 16 is easily the nicest movie theater I’ve ever visited, and the largest indoor screen I’ve ever seen besides Imax. I felt a distinct perverse pleasure in seeing Plan 9 in HD on such a huge screen, and as one of the riffers pointed out in the Onion A/V Club interview, somewhere Eddie’s smiling that satellites in space were utilized to broadcast his magnum opus.
About 15 minutes before showtime, an usher informed us that the show was SOLD OUT and that we all had to give up our buffer seats. (Luckily, the AMC 16 features very comfy extra-wide seats and armrests. Kevin would approve.) Oddly, the front two rows of seats were empty despite the sold-out claim, but I’d feel sorry for any paying customer who would have to sit that close to such a giant screen.
The packed crowd warmed up very quickly with the short, in fact, there was a lot of laughter and applause even at the pre-show “movie facts,” especially the Keanu/Day The Earth Stood Still one. This audience came prepared to yuck it up MST-style, and personally I felt that Jonathon Coulton and Lowtax’s videos did more harm than good, though they went over pretty well in Paramus. By the way, Lowtax? You’re trying too hard, dude. Dial it back a notch.
So, when’s the next one?
Sorry, Fort Worth.
I loved it, as did all of the Batavia, IL. crowd it seemed.
The Berry watch ad went a little too long.
Coulton was better than I expected.
It would be nice if they’d release a dvd of the event or re-show it again.
Didn’t see the show, and I don’t know who that Belmont lady is either (I have a PS3 but only use it for Blu-rays), but the Coulton appearance doesn’t surprise me. The guys are good friends with him, and he riffed Tron with Paul and Storm for ‘Presents. It was probably more about thinking of ways to give people a full show. I don’t even recall hearing about him being a part of it, so it doesn’t strike me as trying to expand geek cred.
Well I didnt get a chance to go, having to get up early for work the today.
I really wish I had after reading all the glowing reviews, but that’s life.
So is this exclusive short that all the attendees are getting going to be available for purchase?
Because I definitely will buy it if it is.
Also, I already own the downloads of the Plan 9 3 riffers and the Fred Willard Missile, but I own them only in Divx, which I refuse to install on my computer.
Is there any known free programs that convert the divx file to regular mpeg?
If I can’t convert the divx, I will have to re-purchase these both in mpeg if they offer them that way.
Can any kind soul answer my burning questions?
I offer a free ’70’s fade-away jerk’ handshake to anyone who can help.
@ Projected Paul – yeah, the theatre was pretty packed; I was sitting about half-way up, and was able to actually see everyone as they came in and where they sat. I was ASTONISHED to see as many people as were there. Good to know that my friend Curt and I aren’t the only people in this city with any taste. Always a treat to know there’s another fan in the area.
I was equally as astonished to see as many people walking in “late” as I did (during the short/before the feature). But, this IS Miami. I’ve come to accept that 99% of the moviegoers in this town think the start time of a film is optional for them. (Just a MINOR pet peeve of mine…)
Nashville: Regal Cinema, Green Hills. (painfully only a 5 minute drive from the actual live event, *sigh*)
The Theater was about 2/3 full, a pretty good attendance for such an under-promoted event. Like others have noted, there was no indication anywhere in the cinema that Rifftrax Live was even happening.
We arrived a bit late, hoping to miss the movie previews & musical act, but sadly we missed 80% of the opening short. I thought the “flour & grain expo” sponsor ad was GREAT … had the audience laughing. Then the musical interlude with JC seemed to interrupt the flow … I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t add anything to the experience. The songs were witty but it felt unnecessary and people were fidgeting waiting to get on with the FILM & RIFFS!
Perhaps they should have axed the two songs and just done the Rifftones ‘Plans 1-8’ song, which was well received. As noted elsewhere the shots of the girls singling along with JC seemed so staged that it generated snickering laughs from the crowd after the 2nd or 3rd time they cut to that shot.
Only one 3 second glitch in our theater during the 2nd not-so-funny sponsor ad for ‘Berry Alert’ but overall the simulcast went very smooth.
I had mixed feelings about the inclusion of the periodic views of the riffers during the film. Perhaps they wanted to help connect to the vioces to who was riffing and show the riffers body language, etc, but it made it hard to concentrate on the movie side of the screen. Thankfully the face shots were only for brief 2 minute intervals. If they do that in future shows, they should make the face-boxes smaller, less intrusive and save them for only the best sight gags or whatever.
The movie went over very well .. lots of laughs from the audience (my face muscles are sore today from over an hour of nonstop laughs)
Quite a few times there was a lot of laughter during parts of the movie where no riffs were happening – it was just inept & funny with no commentary. The detective waving the gun around & Kevin’s gunshot sounds had everyone in hysterics.
Overall it was a fantastic event and I hope there will be more in the future. Great Job guys!!!
Keep it up (maybe 3 times a year?) and this could become a big hit even beyond the existing MST3K/Rifftrax/CT fan base. Lots of potential based on what I saw last night, hope they made some major $$$$!!
Bravo!
me and doggons: I was in the same theater as you. HI!
Had a good time. The Rifftraxers were funny. Hope they do it again.
doggans, I mean.
Manny — just change the extension on the DIVX file from .divx to .avi and open it with any regular video player like Winamp. I do that with all the Rifftrax files I download.
As for Rifftrax Live, we had a great time at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County. Like many theaters, it was about 3/4 full. We had no glitches whatsoever, although that may have been due to the fact we were on tape delay. Not a lot of singers for Coulton, but we thought it was a fun little addition. The short was mindblowing — was there really a time when passengers weren’t treated like cattle? Wow. Plan 9 seemed to be somehow even more terrible than ever on the big screen. Altogether it was a terrific show and I hope they made a lot of money!
“This is MY bull**** lecture!”
I haven’t laughed that hard since I saw MST3KTM in the theater on its initial run.
To NanoRiffite- Bill’s wife Virginia, got it. Thanks! She looked like she was having fun :D Weren’t we all.
I saw at from the AMC in Burbank. Our theater was about 95% full and reportedly sold out.
I have to say it was the most fun I have had at the movies in years! I hope they do more of these. I would gladly come every single time.
– Even with the few technical glitches early on (which all of us had great fun with), the show flowed really really well. And although I know of all the performers on stage, Veronica Belmont and Lowtax just seemed out of place.
– All you Coulton nay-sayers shut yer gobs, smallheads! He was a perfect addition to the show. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him (semi-) live and I enjoyed the hell out of Kevin doing his zombie impression.
– The short was so damn funny. I’m glad we got it for free as well. I look forward to watching it repeatedly for a long time to come. Then the main feature… oh man! I’ve only seen it all the way through once, when they released the original version with just Mike doing the riffing. It’s wasn’t nearly as funny as this. For some reason, Bill, Kevin and Mike together are by far the best riffing team ever created. Their chemistry shows in their work and it’s why I never get tired of their Rifftrax products. I just can’t get into Cinematic Titanic as much because it never feels as unified for some reason. Not that they’re bad by any stretch, just different.
So as I said before, I hope they do this again. Maybe once or twice a year will be enough, but it was so enjoyable. My congratulations to them for putting on a great show!
Saw the show at the Regal Union Square in Manhattan. There was a great crowd, whole place was sold out in two theaters (thanks to Bill Corbett for arranging with Fathom to move it to a larger theater -and finally a second theater- after the first series of tickets sold out in a week). Everyone was in good spirits, and there were some good chuckles during the joke trivia at the beginning. The Keanu Reeves dig got applause.
Our feed stuck together fine, no interruptions for us, so that was good. The short was a great warm up, and the crowd really enjoyed it. The Coulton songs were lukewarm at best. No one really seemed very into it, and it did break the momentum of the show. The funniest moment there was when he was trying to coach everyone to sing along with the zombie bit, and during a pause a friend of mine belted out “IT’S GONNA BE THE FUTURE SOON!!” I nearly died with laughter.
I was getting slightly dismayed with the show, what with the lame “words from our sponsors” stuff and Coulton. Luckily, all my fears were washed away when the feature presentation started and the riffing began! PERFECT! I haven’t laughed that much at the movie theater in a LONG, LONG time! So great, and a really fun time.
Ready for the next one!:cool:
Additional thoughts:
– We liked the split screen showing Mike, Kevin and Bill on the side. It gave more of a connection to the live aspect of the performance.
– Whenever they showed the small number of people in the audience singing along with the Coulton performance between the short and Plan 9, I couldn’t help but think that the cameraman deserved a bonus for finding the only few people in that large theater that were familiar enough with his work and enjoyed it enough to sing along.
– Plan 9 From Outer Space is nowhere near the worst movie ever made though it used to get mentioned that way a lot. It can’t be the worst movie made because it is so enjoyable to watch. I’ve owned it many times over the years, the first time on VHS without any jokes but the ones I’d make while watching it. It’s terrible, but a lot of fun to see, repeatedly.
I watched the show in Downtown Disney, AMC Theaters in Orlando. It was a sold-out show but there were still a few empty seats near the front. The crowd was really into it and the laughs were non-stop.
I enjoyed the songs and a majority of the audience sang along. We even had some dancing like Zombies in the front rows (was really funny).
I thought the short in the beginning was amazing. My favorite Riff was when the stewardesses were walking down to the boat and they said something like “don’t get to excited boys, these girls are Katie Lang fans”…lol
And I can’t stop saying “cover your nipples”.
The scene with Tor holding the woman with his mouth open….loved it!
I had never seen Plan 9 so it was all new to me. I hope that this is released for home viewing so that I can see it again :razz:
BTW..thank you Brian for telling me about this thread!
Saw it at the Century 14 in Downtown Albuquerque, NM and liked it VERY much. Was happily surprised the theater was at least 97% full (with a wide vareity of ages) and all were laughing along with me. I STILL wonder why Fandago, Fathom Events and/or the Century theater chain didn’t promote it heavier???)
I didn’t think Jonathan Coulton was THAT bad and was actually funnier than expected but I did feel that the show’s momentum slowed down a bit when he was on. The audience DID sing along but I did hear “hey who is this guy?” and “can’t we riff on his songs?” type grumbling. I guess he and Veronica Belmont were mainly there to appeal to the current (“younger”?) Internet &/or “Gamer” crowd but I actually had no real problem with them.
However WHO would I’ve preferred in Veronica and Jonathan’s places? Well how about?:
1. Joel McHale from The Soup (host) and Weird Al Yankovic (music)
2. Aisha Tyler (host) and The Lonely Island (music)
3. Bridget Nelson &/or Mary Jo Pehl (hosts) and Devo (music – and yes I know I’m showing my age here but seriously why not?;)
4. Janet Varney & Cole Stration or ANY of the other riffers from Rifftrax (hosts) and The Lonely Island (again for music – you can tell I like them huh?)
5. Tina Fey &/or Amy Poehler (hosts) and Spinal Tap (music – I know I know STRICTLY wishful thinking here but again why not??;)
Of the 2 Lowtax “and now a word from our sponsor” skits the Grain Convention commercial was best while the BerryWatch skit was just okay.
All of the riffs were pure comedy gold but the BIGGEST surprise laugh came during “Plan 9” when one of the pilots asked the stewardess about the “Albuquerque ball” and the stewardess mentioned something like Albuquerque was strictly a “9 am kind of town” I’d never heard an audience gasp and THEN laugh that hard in my life so far.
All n’ all a great night was had and I hope Rifftrax does it again sometime soon:)
viewed at willow knolls in peoria, il. probably 40-50% full, but a good crowd. very few seemed to give a crap for coulton, myself included. a guy and his guitar singing ‘funny’ songs just ain’t funny in my book. the flour and grain ad was a big hit here in central il, but the berry thing sucked. everytime the lowtax dude was on stage he was messing with his phone-give me a break!
of course, the movie itself was gold and i can’t wait for the next event. thanks, rifftrax!