It's been nearly a year since Joel Hodgson, and his fellow MST3K alumni, visited San Francisco to entertain people with their clever way of mocking bad movies.
More than a thousand people at the Castro Theater decided to forget about getting Lost, and encounter "Danger on Tiki Island," another Independent International picture that carries on a movie tradition equal to Coleman Francis, Sandy Frank and Ed Wood. Yeah, that bad.
Apparently a scientist and his sex-starved wife encounter a monster who desires sacrifices from the local village. They are helped by a Fabian-ish assistant, a lot of short natives and a suspiciously handsome rich guy. The scientist, by the way, is played by Kent Talyor, the same guy who played the evil surgeon in the first CT classic, "The Oozing Skull."
I couldn't get all the jokes because the sound system wasn't as good as the one at the Marines Memorial Theater, where the CT gang appeared nearly a year ago. It's just as well, since the next DVD will be a live version of the same movie people saw at the Castro.
When that DVD is available in April, or at least that's what Joel told the fans after the show, we'll have comments on the doctor's face ("Mount Rushmore isn't that chiseled"), the natives doing Blue Swede's version of "Hooked on a Feeling", the doc's wife looking for sex ("Good God, woman, you've struck man"), and some of the midget natives being called "Filipino Time Bandits." As for the monster, Joel said it looked like the Michelin Man after a fiery car crash.
Aside from that, it was basically the same show as last year's event. Dave "Gruber" Allen was back, ready with a joke about Avatar and even one about a kid's magazine I hadn't picked up since I was 12.
J. Elvis Weinstein, the artist formerly known as Dr. Forrester's sidekick, joined in for some cool be-bop haiku.
Then we had TV's Frank Coniff, who talked about how a CHP officer stopped him, then let him off with a warning: don't see "Tooth Fairy" (wise cinematic advice, that). Afterwards, he went into his Convoluted Man routine.
Cinematic Titanic was the official end of this year's Sketchfest, which featured more comics than you can shake a rubber chicken or clown nose at. It's interesting Rifftrax was there in 2007, perfecting their "Plan 9 From Outer Space" routine that was quite the hit in theaters nationwide.
It was also great they chose the Castro for their second visit. It's probably the most impressive looking movie house around, aside from Grauman's Chinese and the Arclight Dome. Here's a link to some of the pictures inside the place, plus CT's appearance in 2009. To wrap up, here's two more pictures of the CT crew...
and a true MST3K fan, because he's wearing a shirt from its first convention from about 20 years ago.
Of course, the ultimate dream would be Rifftrax and the CT gang joining forces to meet its greatest challenge....riffing Avatar and both Transformers movies to submission.
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