Rifftrax: Incredible Hulk: The Final Round

Movie:  (1978) On the run, David Banner helps people while he searches for a cure for his condition—turning into the Incredible Hulk!  In this (third) episode of the series, Banner befriends an aspiring boxer who unwittingly delivers drugs for the shady gym owner.  When the boxer is set up to be killed in the ring, the Hulk must rescue him.

First released: 05/12/2008 (VOD)

Availability: Download VOD from Rifftrax only.

Reminds me of:  Master Ninja, maybe a bit of The Indestructible Man.

Stray observations:

This was a lot of fun.  Looking at the list of Season 1 Hulk episodes is like looking at a list of every 70’s TV/movie cliché, and this one homages Rocky so strongly that the main character is nicknamed “Rocky”!  I still wonder why this particular episode was chosen—on other TV shows like Heroes or Gray’s Anatomy they used the first two episodes, and from the look of it they could riff this whole season.  Don’t I wish!

There are lots of riffs about Karate Kid, the original Rocky, how old the street gang is (“this was before street toughs had to be, you know, tough”), how dumb the main character is, and the subtle homoerotic quality of Rocky and David’s relationship.

Cast and crew roundup:  Bill Bixby had been on several TV shows already (“Magician… Eddie’s Father… nephew to a Martian”).  He moved from acting to directing and passed, relatively young, in 1993.  Martin Kove (Rocky) has had an amazingly long career, and still has several projects in pre-production today.  He was a frequent guest in 70’s Universal TV productions, from a one-shot on  Charlies’ Angels to a costarring role in Cagney and Lacey.  He is still best remembered as the evil dojo leader from Karate Kid.  John Witherspoon (Tom) and Al Ruscio (Mr. Sariego) have also been around forever; Fran Myers (Mary) went on to write for several soap operas.

Fave riff:  “Guy’s nuttier than squirrel poop.”  Honorable mention:  “He’s in severe danger of being called a ‘turkey’!”  

Next week:   Cinematic Titanic goes unplugged when “East meets Watts”!

Rifftrax: Little Shop of Horrors

Movie:  (1960) Classic Roger Corman film about a nebbishy flower-shop employee who accidently breeds a carnivorous plant to impress his lovely coworker.  As the plant blooms his good fortune grows, so when he discovers it feeds on blood he makes the best of a bad situation.

First released: 1/28/2009 (mp3 and VOD) 3/4/2009 (on DVD)

Availability: A little complicated!  Download mp3 from Rifftrax; DVD from Rifftrax, Amazon or Netflix. Not on Hulu; no VOD from Rifftrax.  Amazon instant version appears to be Mike solo riff.  (DVD watched for review.)

Reminds me of:  

Stray observations:

It sounds like it’s going to be worse than it is.  In fact it’s a pretty entertaining little movie on its own, with Jonathan Haze doing a Jerry Lewis-type routine.  It also includes a Dragnet running joke with a Joe Friday-like narrator.  Overall it really pushes into comedy over horror, and ends up feeling like an episode of the old Dobie Gillis show. “So far this thing is very light on ‘horror’ and very heavy on ‘little shop’.”   It is also famous for being filmed in only two days, which is pretty impressive from any angle.  (If you enjoyed this, I would recommend the similar Bucket of Blood.)

The riffing is just okay, but I really noticed the riffers talking over the dialogue at times. 

This is the second (Rifftrax) movie in a row that ended up being later turned into a stage musical!

Cast and crew roundup:  Haze was a presence in all the MST Corman films, before retiring fairly early (this was his last major role) and going behind the scenes.   Dick Miller (Fouch) is perhaps the most familiar, being a character actor working consistently for the last fifty years.  Jackie Joseph (Audrey) worked a lot over the years, including a number of voice-over credits such as one of the original Josie and the Pussycats!  Most interestingly, the Riffers point out the stick-up man was played by Charles B. Griffith, the screenwriter of this and most other Corman films.  He certainly didn’t try to give himself the glamour role. 

Credits watch: Since I watched the DVD there were some credits; in addition to Mike, Bill and Kevin was additional writing by Conor Lastowka, as well as production and other services by five others.  I don’t know the size of Rifftrax but this gives some idea of how much more streamlined an operation this was than Film Crew or MST.

Callback: The classic “I’m a Grimault warrior!”

Fave riff:  “Does everyone in this film have a ‘who’s on first’ routine?”  Honorable mention:  “Should I call you ‘Mr. Butts’?” 

Next week:   Cinematic Titanic finds the “Blood of the Vampires”!

Rifftrax: Reefer Madness

Movie:  (1936) A campy diatribe against the evils of marihuana use, whose only audience today is ironically pothead stoners.  Bill, Jack and Mary are wholesome teenagers who get recruited by a gang of drug dealers, which leads to hit-and-run, attempted rape, gunplay, murder, suicide, and madness. 

First released:  Jan 20, 2009 (Three-riffer edition), Dec. 3, 2007 (Mike solo edition)

Availability: Watch on Hulu; Download VOD from Rifftrax or Amazon instant; DVD from Rifftrax, Amazon and Netflix.

Reminds me of:  I Accuse My Parents and The Sinister Urge.  Note that those were made, respectively, about ten and twenty years later.

Stray observations:

For such a famously bad movie there isn’t actually that much to work with here.  The current audience enjoys the campy, over the top performances and the exceedingly melodramatic twists.  Much like Sinister Urge, the film describes real social problems but assigns all the blame to one cause, which in both cases are considered relatively harmless now. 

I think the movie actually serves as a greater warning about capital punishment, strangely enough.  The trial of Bill is based on fairly ambiguous evidence, but stony-faced Jury Foreman and Judge essentially railroad any doubts and sentence the boy to death.  Then, stony-faced Judge just sets aside the jury verdict on one witness’ testimony, who immediately kills herself.  Now, how reliable was that testimony?

I do enjoy how much classier everyone dressed back then, teenagers and drug dealers alike wearing suits or at least sportcoats. 

Cast and crew roundup:  Not much to say.  Dorothy Short (Mary) and Dave O’Brien (Ralph) were married in real life, and sadly she passed early in real life too.  Carleton Young (Jack) later married groundbreaking Asian exotic dancer Noel Toy.  According to Google Image Search, he was one lucky guy.

Callback: none?  Maybe Bill’s “And…  scene.  Brilliant!”

Fave riff:  “The fifth Marx Brother—‘Dope-o’.” Honorable mention:  “Is there a water shortage?  Dump the pitcher!”

Next week:   Cinematic Titanic bowdlerizes “Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks”!

Rifftrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space

Movie:  (1958) The “Citizen Kane of bad movies” as Mike puts it.   Aliens try to conquer earth by raising the dead to be an unstoppable killing force, to prevent humans from one day destroying the universe.  Unfortunately the aliens aren’t really any smarter than the humans are.

First released: First riffed by Mike solo (Jan 1 2006), then rereleased as a three-riffer version (Jan 22 2008 on VOD, Jan 29 on DVD) .  

Premise:  Not much!  Mike comes on and introduces himself, Kevin and Bill; then DisembAudio is introduced and explained, then they give a starting point and countdown.  When the movie starts the riffs are synced and start in right away.  There are no characters other than DisembAudio, and no pretense of a reason to riff other than that is what the audience is there for.

Availability: Watch on Hulu; Download VOD from Rifftrax or Amazon instant; DVD from Amazon and Netflix.

Reminds me of:  It’s the quintessential Ed Wood film, so most like Sinister Urge and Bride of the Monster; similar to other low-budget 50’s Sci-Fi like The Unearthly and maybe Teenagers from Outer Space.

Stray observations:

First off, admittedly this was not the first Rifftrax production.  Rifftrax started with Mike Nelson solo on mp3s, then Kevin and Bill joined in over the first few movies.  Some of the first ones were redone as three-riffer versions, then Streaming/VOD/DVD options came in, which allowed the ‘whole package’ to be delivered.   While the Audio Commentary tracks are often good, there are some difficulties with keeping the riff track in sync, and periodic adjustments after hearing DisembAudio repeat a line.  After a while you really notice how tightly they riff in sync with the movie.

Anyway, the whole movie is famously “bad”; albeit entertaining.  It looks a bit like a high school stage production, all shot on sound stages with dubious set dressing and rather wooden acting.

Cast and crew roundup:  Famous for Bela Lugosi’s death early in production, several of the actors are from Ed Wood’s regular players, particularly the policemen like Carl Anthony (Patrolman Larry/ Johnny Ride from Sinister Urge) and Duke Moore (Lt. Harper/Sgt. Randy Stone from same). Of them the most famous is probably Tor Johnson, in a truly iconic performance.

Callback: “Time for go to bed!”

Fave riff:  “Doctor Smith’s gayer brother.”

Next week:   Cinematic Titanic covers old ground in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”!  After that I will try to go back and cover what I should have covered this week—Rifftrax’s first production, “Reefer Madness”!

Note: I will have to look at the release schedule for Rifftrax and post a schedule for upcoming posts.