The good thing about the second Rifftrax revival of MST3K (the SyFy years) is that we don't have to wait long to talk about it. So we will.
Failing to escape its connection with Roger Corman, Mike, Crow and Servo face something from the New World Pictures era with Deathsport, a post-apocalyptic feature from 1978. The Wikipedia page is pretty interesting since it spells out how much trouble they had making this movie. As Crow notices, "they spent all their money blowing up this movie instead of the movie itself." It's loaded with exploding motorcycles and vanishing victims thanks to a ray gun some of the bad guys have.
Before we get to the "plot", let's see what's been happening. As shown here, Pearl is trying to "revive" Deathsport by making it popular.
It does sound like she thought fake county fairs would lead to world domination (see "Squirm"). It also included injuries.
Anyway, the show starts with a short on hygiene for growing boys. There's a lot of comments about keeping clean and neat, and how bodies are like machines ("Rich is in dire need of an oil change"). It's good the show is reviving the mocking of shorts.
Also, check this out:
In the old days, you just saw silhouettes. Now, you can actually tell there are three guys suffering through bad cinema. There's some light showing some details of our gang. Not even the Gizmoplex could do that.
The movie's about Earth about a thousand years after neutron wars and such. It's mostly barren with some very small patches of civilization. Our hero, played by David Carradine, is Kaz Oshay, who battles bad guys in a loincloth.
He's eventually captured by Ankar Moor, who "recruits" people for Deathsport. It's supposed to amuse the survivors while they plan more wars. The idea is to make the average person think they can survive in the sport...until he doesn't.
He joined by a woman called Deneer, which sounds like an obscure brand of air conditioners. She's played by Playboy playmate Claudia Jennings. Her ample nudity is why much of the movie was cut.
She's trying to find a little girl who was captured in an ambush, but winds up in this:
The movie is mainly motorcycle chases, explosions and a lot of taunting. There's also the evil leader dealing with brain decay, and Moor ready to take over.
It ends with a boring duel between Oshay and Moor with singing swords that are really off-key.
The host segments are cute, though. Tom sings about the pleasures of wearing a loincloth, and Bobo almost joins in. Then Tom and Crow talk about Australian Rules Deathsport.
Pearl, though, has her own version:
TV's Frank has been through worse, though. Somehow Observer will get through this.
Let's get to the riffs:
David Carradine
Well, I'll be hanged.
A bunch of mutants
Oh, I miss Wisconsin (this is before Mike gets surprised by the Brewers)
"Your brain is decaying, my lord"
You need to floss your brain after every meal
Oshay and Deneer try their version of the Vulcan Mind Meld
You just know that Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were doing this backstage.
Again, motorcycles blowed up real good
If Michael Bay directed Rad.
There's also riffs on Bill Belichick, three movies MST3K mocked, Fanduel, Angela Merkel, Frontier Airlines and Trader Joe's.
Again, the credits are the best part of the show. Look at this viewer mail:
We also get a very short talk show that might be scorned by a comic who has a long name and some plants. At least Mike gets the upper hand for once.
So far, Mike is settling into his second kidnapping. It's also interesting he ruined a chance to escape but in a way that bots would have done. As for Pearl and her crew, she's starting to act more like her son when it comes to handling henchmen. The Secret Movie scheduled for next week for the Best Friends members (and November 7 for everyone else) may cause supposed harm in a unexpected way.
You can get the Rifftrax Experiments at rifftrax.com
