Movie: (1974, aka
Stud Brown and/or The Dynamite Brothers) A kung-fu expert
comes to America searching for his brother, and ends up handcuffed to an
ex-con. Escaping together, they make
their way to LA where they confront the Chinese heroin smuggling ring taking
over the ghetto in a Kung-fu-meets-Blaxploitation extravaganza.
First released: 12/16/2009
(DVD, download)
Premise: They are simply performers putting on a show
which involves riffing a movie that is being shown.
Opening: Joel introduces the riffers as they enter the
stage and take their seats. They are
placed approximately as on the shadow-rama releases, but more vertically so
that they are on the sides of the screen, rather than the bottom. If you ever wondered how to correctly
pronounce “Beaulieu”, this is your chance.
Skit: Well, they
take a break for water and Trace does an awesome spit-take at the N-word. Later they turn down the lights for a moment
and Trace tries to escape. Does that
count? No, I guess not.
End: The show
ends, the performers take a bow.
Extra: No extras.
Availability: on
Hulu and from Amazon (DVD, no streaming).
Reminds me of: Strangely neither genre was really covered by
MST originally, but maybe Angels’ Revenge.
Joel, Frank and Mary
Jo’s Take: here.
Stray observations:
This really felt more like a home movie done by amateurs
(particularly the stunts) even though this was a professional cast and
crew. The idea of
“Kung-fu-meets-Blaxploitation” is great but execution is sorely lacking, as is
a budget (“Seriously, you couldn’t afford even one
extra?”). It also does not
pass the Bechdel test—one of the female characters is literally mute! The twist at the end is set up well enough
that the overall story at least has a decent arc.
No gore to speak of (no bullet holes in bodies even) but it
looks like they also cut some nudity (again).
According to Mr Skin, the bad cop’s girlfriend has a longer scene coming
out of the swimming pool.
Overall the new format isn’t as bad as I expected. It was indeed just like watching a live show;
the audience reactions don’t interfere with hearing the riffs (good sound
editing/mixing), and the visual presence of the riffers is not a
distraction. The riffers flub lines and
crack each other up a lot, along with some affectionate interplay ("Oh, Mary Jo!" "Why?").
By the way, Hulu is not a great way to watch. One show contains eight commercial breaks
(every 10 minutes) with as many as four commercials per break. Perhaps I’ve just been spoiled watching so
many MST-related things on DVD now.
Cast and crew roundup: Director Al Adamson was also the director of The Oozing Skull (Brain of Blood). Alan Tang (Larry
Chin) had a long and successful career in Hong Kong and Taiwan; he appears to
speak English well enough in the film (some kung-fu actors only spoke English phonetically). Timothy Brown (Stud) had been an NFL player
for almost a decade before turning to acting.
James Hong (Wei Chin) is a legend of the screen, playing every Asian
character imaginable for many decades.
(I once got his autograph at a comic book convention.) Aldo Ray (Burke) had been in more impressive
work before this. Susan McIver (Burke’s
girlfriend Laura) had been one of Dean Martin’s Golddiggers and a Ding-a-ling Girl, both of which I’ve only heard of via MST riffs! Eric Cord (Bigot) was a stuntman who also
appeared in Sidehackers (Five the Hard Way).
Credits watch: By my
count there are the five riffers, two directors, and seven other credited
assistants/producers/sound crew/stage hands, for a total of 14. The non-silhouette version of CT thus
apparently took only 2/3 the manpower and one would imagine is that much more
cost-effective.
Callback: “Hey Trace, watch out for snakes, okay.” “Hey
Joel, rock climbing.”
Fave riff: “This is
how people get laws named after them.”
Honorable mention: “Aww, it’s copywritten! Forget it.” ,“You know he’s out of his element when Chinatown seems foreign
to him.”
Next week: I will
post an update this week if time allows.
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