Worth it for the Baggs--Rifftrax Summer Shorts Beach Party

[mrsphyllistorgo]

So, this was the first Rifftrax of its twenty four (!) shows that I did not see in my trusty Pacific Place theater in downtown Seattle. For some bizarre reason they weren't broadcasting to that cinema and I had to ride a stuffed to the gills bus out to Lincoln Square Cinemas, which is run like the train station in SPACE from Stormship Troopers. It was massively crowded but luckily my particular theater wasn't too packed.

But it was worth it for Office Etiquette ("I just realized: none of this work matters now. Because you're dead.") Ricky the Bearded Raccoon Bear, The Griper/unmedicated clinical depressive, and of course, the "Is this happening?" experience of watching two poor bastards in burlap bags run, jump, ride balloons, ride bicycles, and row away from Nick Nolte's less successful cousin.

This might be one of the few where I don't go back for the encore because I cannot face that bus ride at ten thirty at night again, but it was definitely worth it and I'm looking forward to owning it so I can savor Paul F Tompkins in a yachting cap at my leisure.


See, the bags, they was alive.

[Torgo]

I thought it was a step down from both the previous live show and the previous all-shorts shows. It took a while to really get going, with the Raccoon short being weird as hell with the occasional laugh from both the guys and the film. Trace and Frank were fun, but not as good as the previous show, while the Rhythmic Ball short just grinded things to a halt with how boring and monotonous it was.

Bridget and Mary Jo kicked things up a notch with their consistently funny offering, but the MVP selection of the night was the Safety short that Mike, Kevin, and Bill did. After that the show stayed pretty funny throughout, though I kept forgetting Paul F. Tompkins was there, which I don't mean to slight against him it was just that he didn't really make that much of an impact for me.

And of course, that closing Baggs short...let's just say it was something I can't unsee.

Good show, but it was a less successful attempt at recreating last year's reunion show. I appreciate the effort, and I'm happy unlike last year they didn't reriff anything (I got worried once I heard something about "sentient bags" early on, but it turned out to be something far more bizarre). But I think there was too much of an emphasis on strangeness for reaction than laugh riot. My favorite shorts of the evening were the quaint outdated shorts like Safety and The Griper. While the back half of shorts were quality (and I loved that they connected one short with Design for Dreaming), they just didn't leave that strong an impression overall.

I did enjoy the compilation of memorable shorts over the years, with some obvious ones getting applause from my audience like One Got Fat and Shake Hands With Danger, though I was at least hoping to hear the words "Alert! Aware! ALIVE!"

[crowschmo]

Given how much of the gang was there, I was hoping for some much funnier stuff. The shorts were dull and they didn't come up with much to alleviate that. Some funny moments, but overall, not one of the best I've seen.

What the hell was that Baggs short even ABOUT? Two bags trying to escape from some guy who collects...bags. On the side of the road. HUH?

And that other one, Something Magic, or Magic Something (?) - the one that had Nuveena in it. Um. Was that about car shows or house parties? What drugs were these people taking back then? that's all I want to know.

Creepy bear - er - raccoon. Why a beard? Just strange.

On a brighter note - cheeseballs!

[angilasman]

I swear, Mary Jo just gets funnier and funnier. She's consistently become my favorite veteran MST performer.

[Torgo]

Jun 16, 2017 17:57:07 GMT -5 crowschmo said:

What the hell was that Baggs short even ABOUT? Two bags trying to escape from some guy who collects...bags. On the side of the road. HUH?

I'm almost convinced that Baggs has to be some sort of student film the guys stumbled upon, because I've been trying to come up with some sort of purpose for it to serve and coming up blank. Maybe it could have been for kids, but I don't really understand how kids might actually have seen the damn thing or who would have been cruel enough to show it to them.

The only thing I can think of is that there's some sort of abstract, outside the box thought process of someone naive trying to be creative, which leads me back to it being a cheap production for a college student.

But of course this is just an assumption based on next to nothing.

[Udvarnoky]

I thought this was as good as the reunion show. Excellent stuff.

[kmorgan]

As I posted elsewhere, I thought this was top notch. We had audio issues that I've since learned were from the source, but it wasn't much of a problem once the show proper started.

I definitely have to get the DVD of this one.

[Troy's Dad]

I went to the re=broadcast, the audio issues during the slideshow were unfixed from the original broadcast but a quick look at the Rifftrax Twitter account put me at ease as they said that was expected and the show itself had no issues. Still, weird that they didn't fix the slideshow for the rebroadcast.

Show itself was great! not as good as the reunion show, but almost as good. I loved the Office etiquette short the most, and there were a whopping three "what the f***" shorts with the bear/raccoon, the baggs and the ball handling.

Just a shame that that's it for Rifftrax this year, as I am skipping the Doctor Who show (not a Who fan at all) and then there isn't anything else planned.

[travis]

I missed out on seeing the Thursday showing, and was disappointed Tuesday to find my theater had cancelled the encore show (they hadn't pre-sold any tickets or something to that effect). Looks like I'll have to check this one out eventually on DVD.