MST3K Live Is Making Contact With Bad Movies Again

 

The Mystery Science Theater Live tour is underway, and stopped off at the Pioneer Center in Reno recently. It presented a movie that was made out of leftover bits from every Spielberg movie, while the newest Mad tried to show she was supreme.

Someone was supreme:  the new "victim", Emily Marsh. She is more than a match for MegaSynthia's schemes and is probably more of a heir apparent to the experiment than Jonah. She clearly knows the show and how to riff even the cheesiest movies. As we told her in this post, she is the Kate Bishop of MST.
Was she pleased? VERY!

I will say one thing: fans should know not all stops in the live tour are the same. They're saving the "meet and greets" for the bigger cities, and not everyone who gets the premium seats get even a lanyard. This was the case in Reno, but I was glad to find out they had the face mask set. A bit pricey, but it's one of the models I will keep once the $@#!! Covid thing is over. 
Besides, I still got a great view of the whole thing. Thing is, I was the only guy with a jumpsuit.

So, what's the live tour theme?
Well, since MegaSynthia is still relatively new in the MST-verse, she thinks weird hair and scary behavior would be enough. She even showed pictures of the other Mads, and made sure they weren't flattering at all. After all, this is HER show.
Then Emily Connor (her name on the show) and the bots arrived, and let's say her version of the theme reveals she became the test case a bit too willingly.

Then the caper:  Meg "traps" everyone in a Time Bubble so we go 33 years in the past and be forced to see every episode starting with The Crawling Eye...which aired in 1989.
First off, true fans can do that themselves by any means necessary. Also, some of the past experiments have been shown elsewhere (but certainly not Monster-a-Go-Go).
She's new. She'll do better in her third live tour. Maybe better hair. She should be more well-known once she gets her turn in the Gizmoplex next Spring.

They took on an early Roland Emmerich movie, Making Contact. When you get mad at Moonfall next year, blame this movie. It's about a kid named Joey who just lost his dad. However, thanks to a toy phone, he can talk to dad...or does he? 
Then he acquires strange powers, like moving stuff with his mind and having toys do his bidding or something. Then, an evil dummy causes even more chaos.
Mix in some annoying kids, a cute girl with pigtails, and a bunch of scientists who have enough gizmos to set up an "avant-garde production of Jesus Christ Superstar", and you have a disaster. 
Well, at least it didn't stop him from making Godzilla look stupid by mixing him with Sleepless in Seattle. 

Emily and the bots approach the movie by looking at the surprising amount of licensed items, and commenting a lot on the evil dummy. There's also the fact the plot was Spielberg's Greatest Hits, only knockoffs of the best parts. At one point, she compares the dummy to Paul Williams.
Even GPC2 got into the fun, just like Jonah's version does sometimes. They also had two great musical spoofs in the riffing, including one that was perfect for the season.

The host segments were very good, as they talked about knockoffs of familiar toys (including one that might be a bit inappropriate) and compared the movie to a familiar brand of pasta mix. The best was Emily singing about how buying stuff makes one happy...like maybe at a nearby souvenir stand at the lobby.

One thing they especially noticed is that the movie had a lot of slats everywhere, from Joey's door to the decaying house where his "friends" were planning an attack on him. It seemed annoying, until one came in quite handy during the end of the show.

The fourth live tour holds up quite well compared to the previous three editions. The first one was just like the Netflix show, while the next two depended on the presence of Joel Hodgson to pull in the fans and pass the baton to the next generation. With Emily, the future is now, and Mega should fine-tune her evil eye to "intimidate" Emily. It's clear Emily Connor is more than prepared to riff away (and maybe because she's looking for an easy gig). 

Unlike my Rifftrax reviews, I'm not listing any riffs because the tour will be going until February, as it prepares to move back east after the New Year. They'll be heading soon to Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Atlanta and New York City. Check the schedule at mst3klive.com/events.

Rifftrax Halloween Show: Amityville 4, NBC 0 (or Night of Beelzebulb)

 

It's never good when a television network tries to make shows out of movies (with some exceptions)
It's worse when they try to continue movie franchises, as NBC did when it made a sequel to the Amityville Horror in 1989. 

                                       

It thought it had a winner when Patty Duke and a small army of priests battle an evil lamp.
AN. EVIL. LAMP.
They shouldn't be fooled by what it looks like. It's ready to pounce, even at the mom from Father Knows Best.

 

The Rifftrax crew of Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett (who was dressed as a skeleton) and Kevin Murphy provided a lot of solid riffs against this movie when they appeared a few days before Halloween in Nashville.

The movie's about an evil lamp from Amityville, NY (natch) who's defeated by an army of priests. It's bought by someone in a garage sale, who sends it to her sister (Jane Wyatt) in Southern California as a "gag".
She lives in a big house, and is joined by a widow (Patty Duke) and her three kids. 

Naturally, evil things happen thanks to the lamp. It possesses the youngest daughter by tricking her into thinking it's really her dead daddy, and also kills the housekeeper with its cord. It also causes the house to kill a plumber. 

One of the Amityville priests eventually arrives at the evil house, and the final battle is pretty dumb due to bad writing and Dollar Store special effects. Let's just say the possessed child does a decent impression of the main villain from a recent sci-fi movie.

The riffs come fast and hard, and they center on the lamp and past roles from the main stars. They comment on how Duke's character dreams of a twin cousin, and also cheesesteaks. Wyatt accuses one of her grandkids of lying, since she was also Spock's mom (really). We also had these gems:

Jessica arrives, pre-possessed
You finally got out of that well

The young priest tries to call the family about the lamp, then the lamp calls back and melts the phone receiver.
That's what happens when you have too many jalapeno poppers

The water suddenly turns black
We're in Flint, Michigan

The lamp kills the maid
This could happen once we all get smart homes

Jessica explains why she thinks her lamp is dad
He has more charisma and a better physique.

There's also riffs on Dennis Miller, Mother Teresa, Pixar, Only Fans and Back to the Future.

It was preceded by a short on industrial accidents called "It's Your Accident". It's supposed to show people how they should take responsibility on work safety. It centers on two guys named Mike who injure their hands, and a guy named Joe who seems to like to dodge forklifts.

It's not as good as "Shake Hands With Danger" or "Live and Learn", but it does show a weird scene where the older Mike's teen daughter fed the younger Mike some tomatoes. A better way to describe it is "Andy Richter in Falling Down".

The Rifftrax guys should be commended for getting this year's live show season off the ground after losing a year due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Hopefully, it'll be business as usual next year when they have a new Kickstarter campaign going.

Rifftrax Live Returns With Hobgoblins Redux

 

After being kept off theaters last year due to the COVID pandemic (except for a Halloween special)
Rifftrax Live returned this past week by taking another look at the Rick Sloane travesty, Hobgoblins. 

It was an MST3K favorite way back in the '90s, and the crew of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett took a big chance seeing it again. This time, they didn't try to run away twice. At least there's that.
MST fans know Joel Hodgson took a look at the original episode on YouTube. His reaction to the movie was very interesting, and, to be honest, better than this second look.

Fans may have been hoping to hear some of the original riffs, but this was all new. Some may have been repeating some of the original riffs, though. This second look didn't have as much zing as the original, maybe because Mike and the bots couldn't believe how bad this movie was the first time.

As with all Rifftrax features, the movie was uncut, but it dragged a bit. At least the Club Scum section was complete, and was even sleazier. That worked just fine.
Still, the re-riff didn't work as well as the original. That was expressed by a lot of fans on Facebook.

The plot, such as it is:  four furry monsters who are Gremlin knockoffs, wreak havoc on the life of a security guard and his friends. It features terrible dancing, frantic punk music, and a guy who is not Rambo and never will be. The riffs included comments on Murder, She Wrote, old Hollywood, Mean Girls, and Joy Division (the band is described as being like that band, but less joy). 

It was preceded by a Coronet film about life in a medieval town, mostly about a serf being supervised with a guy in a weird green hat. One of the comments include a guy who looks like Mike Ditka.

It was still great to see the guys back on stage after a dreary year. Hopefully, their next movie, Amityville 4, will go better in a couple of months. Seeing Patty Duke trying to fight an demonic floor lamp might be better than a dopey blonde pretending to fight a hairy puppet.

MST3K, The Streaming Channel! Coming Soon....If You Want To Help

In the not too distant future, etc.

"DAMMIT!"
"MAX!"
The angry woman slugs her poor lackey.
"OUCH!"
"Hey, you should have noticed I'm wearing my MODOK costume for the next Comic-Con...whenever that happens"

Yeah, it's Kinga and Max. They just found out not even Shout Factory TV won't OK another season.

"This is an outrage," she says. "They show the really old stuff, some of the newer ones. We can make more."
"Uh, Kinga, you better see this..."
"See what, Max?", she says.

She then sees Jonah and Joel announcing the new Kickstarter plan for MST3K to be its own streaming service, with new stuff and specials.
"BLASPHEMY!", she yells. "Why didn't I think of that when we had all those COVID specials online thanks to President Virus Chump?"
"Maybe because you alienated all those other streaming services," Max says.
"Hey, I tried to be charming, offered the Satellite of Love to Amazon Prime to help with their delivery services. I still refuse to believe HBO Max when it said I was more terrifying than Godzilla or Kong. I'm more sure of that after seeing that movie the other day."
"Yeah, I think it's more terrified that Millie Bobbie Brown is 17"
"Why?," Kinga wonders. "Because it means Enola Holmes 2?"
"Well, Max says, "let's see if we can horn in on this before Synthia or Mega-Synthia find out."
"Yeah, I don't need that sequel to Attack of the Clones."

So, they see the new attempt to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000, found at 
MakeMoreMST3K.Com

After they see the pitch video....
"OK, where are we in this?", Kinga wonders. "Besides, I thought Joel retired. This is not the time to pull a Jay Leno."
"Of course not," Max says. "Since you have that Conan O'Brien shrine, with rubber duck."
"Hey, Funko didn't offer that.

"Well, aside from dropping a few bucks of our own (thanks to our somewhat official swag we did sell), we can figure out a way to be the Mads again. I don't want that loudmouth Mega-Synthia taking over my job."
"Right," Max says, "or you shoving me towards Meg when she tries to attack you."
"Why would you think I'd....OK, that's too easy."
"It's not as if you'd be friends with Pearl's Clones."
"Sure I would....until I betray them...or they do....

"Look, let's just make sure this Gizmoplex is made, then we can inflict ourselves in it. In fact, let's make a threat, er, video, on that."
"Good idea," Max says. "The first goal is two million for three episodes..."
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, to quote a Super Dragon. We must break six million...and we're already close to a million four hours after this started. This will be a snap."
"Yeah, and thanks to being stuck in that other theater Jonah made for a couple of hours, and reviewing all the previous experiments, we'll have some ideas on new entries."
"Well, it wasn't my idea to do that, but once I found out some TV-movies were riffed in the pre-historic days, I just had to look."
"Sure. Of course, Kinga, you really want to get the sequel to Grizzly since it was shown on Showtime."
"I'd prefer getting Mike Nelson and force him to see it. It's bad enough he's our arch-enemy, the least he can do is be mad at us when we recapture him."
"Yeah, but what if we try to borrow a movie he's riffed, like with Ator?"
"I'd rather not do that. We just have to beat him to the punch, or maybe punch him if he offers us Lycan Colony or something like that"

"Come to think of it, what about our dads?", Max says.
"OH, THEM! They fake their deaths so they wind up mocking bad movies online too? Whose side are they on? Next thing you know, fans will expect us doing it."
"Well, I've watched enough Turner Classic Movies...."
"You dare suggest me doing it and I'll find that Metal Reptilicus you found a few years back and turn you into its lunch."
"Actually, it made up a third of the Metal Godzilla in that movie."
"How? It looked more like a bad Lego set."
"Hey, let's just make sure this Gizmoplex is funded, then make sure we're part of it."
"Damn right we will. No clone gonna replace me.

"Come to think of it, what about Emily whats-her-name. Could she replace Jonah?"
"Maybe they take turns. Since it's a streaming service, maybe it's twice the experiments."
"Well, let's get this funded. Maybe we can get revenge over those who have forsaken us, especially Netflix."
"Maybe. By the way, Kinga, could this lead to spinoffs like Dr. Donna St, Phibes' Monster Kingdom?"
"Oh, great, waste 30 minutes on seeing the wild Trumpy, Beast of Hollow Mountain, Hobgoblins or Coleman Francis in their unnatural habitats. 
SAAAYYYY..."

If you want MST3K's streaming service Gizmoplex to come true (watch out, Paramount Plus) go to makemoremst3k.com. The campaign will run until May seventh. Lots of bonus swag will be available depending on how much you want to give. They even include a music box and snow globe. 
HI-Keeba!