Rifftrax Crappening Part 2: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sharknado

After Syfy made a movie that pitted Los Angeles, or at least two former TV teen idols, against a hurricane filled with flying sharks, what could it do for an encore?

Why, do the same thing in New York, and add lots of "celebrity" cameos, of course. People will really enjoy and respect this bold move in disaster movies, right?
Well, "enjoy" is a strong word, and "respect" is unlikely, as the Rifftrax crew proved that Thursday night in Nashville when it took on Sharknado 2.

Ian Zierling and Tara Reid are back as surfer/shark hunter Fin and his divorved wife (but maybe not for long) April. They're headed east to see Fin's sister Ellen (Kari Wuhrer) and her husband Martin (Mark McGrath). Fin's also plugging his new book on his experiences from the first movie (book based on a movie, isn't it the other way around?).

The flight does experience a slight problem, aside from Robert Hayes from Airplane more or less recreating his role. There's another storm, and it's filled with sharks. It takes out an engine and kills the pilot. So, Fin has to do his imitation of Airport 77 and land the plane. However, a shark bites April's hand off. She's sidelined for a while until she makes a big comeback in the end. Meanwhile, Fin is reunited with Skye (Vivica A. Fox), who was a childhood friend or almost girlfriend or something, While April's out of action, Skye helps out Fin. However, he makes it clear (kind of) that he's loyal to April.

From there, it's more of the same: people getting killed by sharks in absurd ways, bad editing confuses people where the storm is, and Fin and April wondering why it's happening again (as is the audience).

The Rifftrax trio of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett do their best to bite back on this movie. For example, when one of the sharks burst through the plane, biting a purple-haired stewardess (yep, Kelly Osbourne), it led to Mike hinting this scene may be irony.

They also comment on some of the cameos, like Wil Wheaton, Jud Hirsch, Billy Ray Cyrus as a surgeon (not quite a stretch because he was a doctor on TV) and Jared the Subway Guy. That recent raid on his house over alleged child porn led to him getting removed from Sharknado 3.

So, some of the riffs:

Fin tries to land the 747
Mike:  The new Hero on the Hudson, Captain Soily Pantsenberger

A Mets fan tries to get the biggest bat possible when the sharks arrive at Citi Field
Bill:  Novelty Looting!

The opening credits roll in 3-D while a band desecrates the memory of the Ramones with its Sharknado 2 theme song:
Bill: Upon hearing this song, the Ramones rose from the grave, flipped this movie the finger, then went back to punk rock heaven
Kevin:  Technically "credits", but I think of them more as "blames"

An umbrella blows by in the wind
Mike:  They killed Mary Poppins

Al Roker describes the Sharknado as a "twister with teeth"
Mike:  A twister with teeth is also his private name for Katie Couric

April arrives with a buzz saw where her hand used to be
Kevin:  It’s rare that getting a buzz saw hand isn’t your most radical plastic surgery.

There's also riffs on another of Kari Wuhrer's disaster movies, another movie about a "lovely day", Game of Thrones, Lost, Brian Williams, Ghostbusters 2 and the Today show. It's safe to say Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan don't escape unscathed, either.

Sharknado 3 is coming to Syfy on the 22nd, and judging from the website, David Hasslehoff's dare that this may be the worst movie yet (on purpose, he adds) may come to pass--along with the likelihood  Rifftrax will battle this movie next year.

Before that, the gang took on a short that was an interesting choice, It was the 1970s remake of Appreciating Our Parents, which was featured in the MST3K episode, The Unearthly. In the new version, an abused puppet turns its owner, a young boy, invisible. That way, he can see how hard his mom and dad works to take care of him. It also adds the fact that working moms exist.

By the way, Zierling was at the showing at the Horton Plaza in San Diego. Periscope has some footage of him meeting with fans.

The gang also mentioned that Rifftrax is approaching its ninth anniversary, and its 200th feature (although some fans have pointed out it's already reached that mark). They're planning a big special feature, and we'll have more on that soon.
The encore showing of Sharknado 2 will take place next Thursday. Tickets available at Fathom Events' website. The next new show is Miami Connection on October first, and apparently we can expect "kiss the ninjas" to be said a lot.