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Post by angilasman on Aug 21, 2009 13:17:00 GMT -5
Had a great time and the theater here in Huntsville, Al was full!
Aside from one or two moments of the picture going out for a half a second or so the picture and audio were great. I kinda wished that they kept the three windows with Mike, Kevin, and Bill on the side the entire time since it does utalize the widescreen of the theater. Great audience, aside from the one guy who yelled out his own comments (who recieved a few "shut up!"s from nearby attendees).
The quality of the sound makes me think that if Cinematic Titanic decided to go with Live DVDs then it is A-Okay with me.
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Post by Blue Raja on Aug 21, 2009 14:31:15 GMT -5
Just got home from the show. It was a long way to go but well worth the trip. I think our theater held about 200 and Raja and I estimated maybe 160-180 in attendance. We has pretty bad syncing problems through the short and the "without further ado" guy. They didn't detract from the great short and were solved by feature time. The feature was excellent. Mike, Bill, and Kevin are such pros and all definitely brought their "A" games with them. Our audience had a really good time. Do it again soon! Mr. Sky pretty much covered and seconded (firsted?) what I would've said. Excellent excellent show, despite the early-on syncing issues*. Loved the short especially - hope they release that one soon. I would even dare to say that we had much closer to 180 than 160 people there - there were very few empty seats once it got started, from my vantage point. As has also been echoed here, there's something about seeing riffing in a group or theater that just makes it that much richer an experience. Not only do you have infectious laughter around you, but a theater naturally grabs your attention significantly more than, say, your living room TV while the dishwasher is running. I definitely hope that they do more theater showings, either live for a day or even with VOD releases if possible. *Strangely, we came to notice that the men's room after the show had SINK issues. Coincidence?
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Post by Crowfan on Aug 21, 2009 17:32:29 GMT -5
Arrrrgh. I had to miss this and by all your accounts I missed a grand show! My wife had organized a minor league baseball outting for her work that night and I had to accompany her to the game as one of those marital obligation things. So while you were all basking in the glow of the show and MISTY nerd love, I was out in the oppressive Jacksonville heat watching a sorry assed minor league baseball game. (The Sun's lost, big time.) Yes, not only mediocre football in Jacksonville but mediocre baseball as well. I thought about all the fun I was missing during the whole ordeal. i think this is grounds for divorce
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Post by tygerbug on Aug 21, 2009 17:46:54 GMT -5
A very enjoyable event.
A few technical problems, more than even at other locations ...
Here at the AMC Theater in La Jolla, CA, the main mess was at the beginning. Instead of starting up the movie, some sort of Latina singer and her band came up, and the people were completely clueless about what went wrong. We were watching this Latina singer over and over again as the guys opened up a Dish network selection screen .... you know, like if you have the HD Dish network on your home television! Some guy shouted, "I can get this at home!"
It seems that Rifftrax was on a private channel on the Dish Network, and that the recording had started early. This was obvious, but the projectionists didn't figure it out for about six minutes. Then they fast forwarded through the Latina singer, and through the entire [apparently Rifftrax provided] slide show.
Yeah, it looks like the Rifftrax guys prepared their own little slide show of "Trivia," like you see in some movie theaters these days. We didn't get to see that, because the projectionists didn't know to run it before the movie started. I read a bit of it as they fastforwarded, and there was one about Planet of Dinosaurs.
Finally, they found it .... then they rewound it, then finally the show started. With audio that was a bit too loud, and continued to be so throughout.
We had a bunch of dropouts, like most of the theaters. The picture would cut to black for about five seconds, and then back, so we'd miss a few seconds of material. Mostly we lost a bunch of material in Flying Stewardess. These dropouts didn't completely stop until the feature started [the last one was right after Jonathan Coulton stopped playing].
By the time Plan 9 From Outer Space had started, things were fine.
I thought the show was very funny, with a lot of obviously new material during Plan 9 ... I've never seen the Legend Films releases of it, but there were a few jokes which were obviously current, and not from that DVD.
The camerawork was quite professional, with the camera on a crane or jib or something, flying over the audience.
However, the audience in La Jolla wasn't laughing, or at least not laughing loud enough to be heard over the Nashville crowd. It didn't feel live (partly because in California it isn't, partly because of the bumbling projectionists and dropouts, partly because it just plain didn't) .... It didn't feel all that special, as occasions go .... the theater was about half full, and not that energetic. Flying Stewardess didn't get as good a response as Plan 9.
[Keep in mind this was time delayed, so it wasn't even "live." That may have been a factor.]
The colorization was interesting, about as well done as a colorization probably could be. I think for a film as silly as this, it's fine to see it colorized. However, the spaceman turning green when punched was an artistic flourish that shouldn't have been allowed.
Rich Kyanka's contributions were very funny and went over very well with the audience as well.
I'm not sure this audience "got" Jonathan Coulton, though it's hard to tell. I'm a fan and was mouthing the words during his two songs [two of his most popular - "The Future Soon" and "Re: Your Brains"] ... as were the Nashville audience onscreen. But it felt to me like the audience, or most of the audience, were thinking, "What the hell? Why is this musician guy interrupting our Rifftrax fun?" We had a dropout RIGHT as Coulton finished playing and the audience's nonreaction was palpable. Coulton is one of my favorite musicians, but I guess his appearance felt unexpected ... it might have worked better as an opening act, before MKB showed up. Certainly the audience were not singing along during "Re: Your Brains." A talent like Coulton deserves better, and again I was jealous of the live Nashville audience, who really got a much better show than anyone else.
The quality of the broadcast was very clear, and the bit rate must have been extremely high.
On the big HD screen, Mike, Kevin and Bill looked oversharpened. Mike's white teeth looked like terrifying fangs, and I couldn't help but be distracted Kevin's sassy pirate earring. Mike looked surprisingly thin and in ok shape, thanks presumably to his bacon diet [which also might explain why his teeth have morphed into the feral fangs of a blood-seeking beast]. Bill translated best to HD, probably because he's already white and oversharpened.
All the hosting and introduction stuff felt very awkward. The Flying Stewardess and Plan 9 stuff, the guys were really performing the hell out of everything, but during those little introduction bits, they seemed a little lost, looking at the papers they were reading and looking down. Mike in particular looked down a lot ... he even seemed lost as the Rifftones with Jonathan Coulton performed "Plans 1-8."
Similarly, although his short films played very well, Rich Kyanka stared at his feet and mumbled when Mike dragged him out onstage. I think he might have been impersonating David Blaine.
Most likely, the lights onstage were exceedingly bright and our Riffers were simply blind, but Bill and Veronica hid it better than the others.
I don't have a clue who that host woman is, but she gave off the air of "cheesy, attractive host who knows nothing about comedy." Veronica Belmont - apparently she hosts various technology and gaming shows, and has played Rock Band live with Jonathan Coulton. Fine, she knows technology and gaming. But she's not funny, or wasn't in this, and she gave the opening of the show an earnest cheesiness that seemed false and inappropriate.
The other problem, arguably, would have been a host who tried too hard to be funny, that could have been terrible. Actually I'm not too sure what the Rifftrax guys could have done other than what they did. Arguably, all the pieces were in place.
Jonathan Coulton is a huge name, and very talented, and so is Rich Kyanka [though I'm loath to admit it, his shorts were quite good]. Veronica Belmont apparently has quite a following as well.
Here's the real problem for me.
Doing this as a stage show, on a theater screen, I can't help but think we're watching the Brady Bunch Variety Hour version of MST3K .... in that MST3K had a fun and funky setup that really drew you in and gave a nice quirky feel to everything you were about to see.
Here, the talent is the same and it's exactly as funny as you would expect from Mike, Kevin and Bill.
However, the "wrapping" is just your standard cheesy stage show. Obviously I don't expect a live Rifftrax to visually be like an old puppet show set on a spaceship, and I've watched dozens of Rifftrax without being bothered ....
It's the introductions here I'm complaining about, as they're not done in the humorous style we expect from Rifftrax .... They have a factual, nearly corporate feel to them rather than laid-back and funky. I sort of expected us to see something almost skitlike, with Mike being taunted about his love for bacon, or something.
The MST3K format, back in the day, worked very well, taking breaks from the movie to do little skits and things. And the shadowrama worked better than the little glimpses of Mike, Kevin and Bill we got here, glad as I was to see them.
What I would like to see is for Mike, Kevin and Bill to get a little looser and more comedic in these introductory segments .... to not just have some well-groomed woman come on and announce the players in a factual manner as if she's never heard of them before .... I'd like to see more banter, and for these segments to become funnier in their own right, while feeling more improvised and relaxed as well.
Keep in mind that we people across the country, especially us poor tape delayed folk in California, are paying up to 14.50 to watch a Rifftrax, and we don't get to really see it live. It's rather like watching television, and it ought to be good television throughout, rather than be 95% good television with a few awkward hosting segments, which only remind us how good and relaxed the host segments were on that puppet show that one time. The format of the stage show just feels too generic and wrong to me, without the quirky edge that I would expect from Mike, Kevin and Bill.
So, was it worth $14.50? Did I enjoy it? Yes, I enjoyed it, Plan 9 was riffed extremely well and I think Mike, Kevin and Bill accomplished all they wanted to accomplish here. The camerawork was very professional, and the special guests were huge names and performed exactly as you'd want them to. Whether they fit into the overall format is hard to say. The format itself felt generic and flat, with generic hosting by Veronica Belmont, and the event only worked 100% when Mike, Kevin and Bill were riffing the main feature. So there's still some room for improvement outside the Rifftrax itself. But considering the riffing of the main feature is most of the show, and exactly what you paid your $14.50 for, I must rate the show at 100%, since anything else must be considered a bonus. Occasionally the bonus materials hit 100% as well. It was nice to hear Jonathan Coulton sing his two familiar hits and Rich Kyanka's short films were surprisingly funny, though both Rich and Jonathan seemed to belong to another show perhaps. The iPod giveaway must have played great in one town in New York.
In conclusion:
All you of Earth are idiots! With your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
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Post by Pierre Trudeau on Aug 21, 2009 17:53:42 GMT -5
It was great! I saw it here in Pittsburgh. I really didn't think it would be full- me, bf and friend went to see it. We went to eat and got into the theatre about 10 minutes before the movie started. And it was packed full. We ended up having to split up so my bf and I sat together and my friend sat across the theatre.
But it was great. Same technical difficulties. There was a huge storm outside but it didn't affect the movie, luckily.
My bf, who isn't the biggest riff fan but does enjoy the classics, he had a ton of fun. We all did, audience was so into it! The only bad thing was I got really sick during it from my dinner and missed all of Jonathan Colton (Coltron?) and half of the 2nd commercial thing.
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Post by Bix Dugan on Aug 21, 2009 18:08:10 GMT -5
When the alien turned green- That's on the colorized Legend release as well.
I never even heard of Jonathan Coltrain, but the audience in Charlotte sang along as well as could be expected.
And Doctor Z...?
(whispering) between you and me...it wasn't funny at all...you didn't miss a thing...CRICKETS, I tell you, I could hear crickets after every "joke".
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Post by lisalovelace on Aug 21, 2009 18:45:29 GMT -5
My kids and I were at a theater in Michigan City. I have never seen the movie Planet 9 riffed or otherwise. It was a treat and although I knew it would be funny I didn't know it would be so good all the way thru. Added bonus, my kids and I dressed up as characters from MST3K. My son was Teen Torgo, my daughter Punkie Pearl and I was Li'l Pearl Forster, complete with pigtails and demonic doll. We had a great time, even though we were the only ones I seen dressed up. The theater was about 80% filled. Dudley Manlove rocks!
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Post by Skyroniter on Aug 21, 2009 18:57:00 GMT -5
I was dressed up too. Only one in our theater with a Rifftrax tee.
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Post by lisalovelace on Aug 21, 2009 19:01:38 GMT -5
Did it have the name Dudley Manlove on it? If so I have got to have one. Dudley Manlove rocks!
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Post by Blue Raja on Aug 21, 2009 19:06:46 GMT -5
Surely somewhere there's a notable MST3K character who was notorious for wearing a polo shirt with jeans....right? If so, I was dressed as them.
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Post by Crowjunkie™ on Aug 21, 2009 21:34:28 GMT -5
I made a reproduction of my "Crowjunkie That's me" shirt I had signed by Trace at the CT show last year.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 21, 2009 23:49:57 GMT -5
A few more thoughts:
* Apparently y'all need to move to the Beautiful Pacific Northwest, it seems Mrs. Phyllis and I were the only ones without glitches?
* I don't mind others joining the Rifftrax crew on stage, but they need to get someone more talented than Coulton. Lordee I can't stand that guy.
* I wouldn't want the little boxes on the side throughout. I found them a bit distracting as I'd look at them, then miss what they were riffing on (more during the short. Plan 9 I was familiar enough with it that I could dart back and forth). They were fine here and there but I wouldn't them on all through the show.
* As mentioned by someone else, I too had an annoying wannabe riffer behind me. I turned around and told him the guys were doing just fine without his help, thank you. That shut him up.
If Rifftrax does this again they need to address that before the show. People, you are not funny, so please, SHUT THE &^%$#@ UP and let the pros do their work.
* And yes, if possible release this on DVD - For the new riffs alone I'd buy it. As a keepsake of the evening, most definitely.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Aug 22, 2009 0:00:36 GMT -5
I went, theater was half-full. The audience REALLY got into it, but there were one or two people that would constantly laugh disproprtionate to what a joke was and just SCREAM almost with laughter and go and go for a fw seconds too long.
Fun, though.
And I'm not a big fan of Jonathan Coultan.
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Post by hugo on Aug 22, 2009 0:46:42 GMT -5
A few more thoughts: * Apparently y'all need to move to the Beautiful Pacific Northwest, it seems Mrs. Phyllis and I were the only ones without glitches? * I don't mind others joining the Rifftrax crew on stage, but they need to get someone more talented than Coulton. Lordee I can't stand that guy. * I wouldn't want the little boxes on the side throughout. I found them a bit distracting as I'd look at them, then miss what they were riffing on (more during the short. Plan 9 I was familiar enough with it that I could dart back and forth). They were fine here and there but I wouldn't them on all through the show. * As mentioned by someone else, I too had an annoying wannabe riffer behind me. I turned around and told him the guys were doing just fine without his help, thank you. That shut him up. If Rifftrax does this again they need to address that before the show. People, you are not funny, so please, SHUT THE &^%$#@ UP and let the pros do their work. * And yes, if possible release this on DVD - For the new riffs alone I'd buy it. As a keepsake of the evening, most definitely. Personal opinion: you're cranky.
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Post by solgroupie on Aug 22, 2009 0:59:10 GMT -5
indeed!
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