Recently, at Lincoln Nebraska’s Marcus Grand Theater, there was a reshowing of RiffTrax’s Live: Starship Troopers. I have seen the ludicrously cheesy 1997 sci-fi movie a couple of times, and as the Grand is a modern theater that shows current movies, it caught my interest. Reading the description, it mentioned something about Mystery Science Theater 3000 or MST3K.
If you aren’t familiar with MST3K, it was about a guy, Joel Hodgson, who is trapped aboard a spaceship with two robots. Forced to watch bad movies, the trio make snarky comments to mentally cope. As the movies play, you see the silhouettes of three viewers at the bottom of the screen, sitting in a row of movie seats. It’s just like if you are watching a cheesy movie with friends, but here the jokes are scripted.
Anyway, from what I read of the performance’s description, it was a rescreening of the live event that took place on August 15th of 2013. Initially, I was hesitant. I thought it was inspired by the show so they would have three people making jokes. To my great relief, it was actually the three guys from MST3K: Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. At the same time, I wasn’t sure how the program was going to be. I mean, I hadn’t heard of them doing anything the past decade, so it might’ve been just a depressing attempt to recreate something from the past. I am happy to say that I don’t think anything could be further from the truth.
Watching this was the best cinema experience I’ve had all year. The jokes were solid and consistent. When the film’s newsreel footage covers the screen with “WAR” with flames filling the letters, one of the men quickly says, “One of Fox News’ more subtle graphics”. Later, one of them says “Oh that Busey has nice teeth...for a Clydesdale”.
They don’t really ever get political or preachy. As I mentioned before, it is just like having a group of friends over to poke fun at a silly movie so there’s nothing too heavy.
The tone of the production was light hearted. Starship Troopers is an incredibly violent movie (people are torn to pieces, dismembered, melted, etc.) but they managed to make it a fun experience by smoothly censoring certain parts. During a shot of a killed dog or a person being torn in half, for example, the camera fades to a shot of the audience putting the movie in the background or making it not visible. During the infamous shower sequence, Bill Corbett announces he has a surprise for everyone: a gorilla gram. The camera cuts over to look at the dancing gorilla, avoiding any extended sequences of nudity. This is a gag they reuse later in the showing too. Granted, it is silly and isn’t particularly funny but everybody understands why they are doing it so it’s ok.
According to the Wikipedia article, they were originally going to do Twilight but couldn’t get the rights to use it so they switched to Starship Troopers. Twilight would’ve been amazing but I wasn’t disappointed in the least with what they did with Starship Troopers.
I was so happy with the experience that I checked out the RiffTrax. It turns out there are a ton of movies that feature the three hecklers. The site sells digital downloads (and discs) of the movies with the commentary. They also, if I understand correctly, sell just the audio commentary track that integrates with a regular DVD. I had always wished that MST3K could come back to do current movies and my wish has come true.
On a similar note, they are going to do another, one night, live performance of Night of the Living Dead on Thursday, October 24th, 2013. You can get tickets on the Fathom Events Website. I, for one, can’t wait to see it. Whether or not you are familiar with MST3K, I highly recommend you check out RiffTrax (and of course MST3K).
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