RiffTrax: MST3K 2010

We loved Mystery Science Theater 3000.  It was the perfect marriage of bad science fiction and horror and syspense movies with the smart-assedness that got us into so much trouble all the way through high school.  And it was a sad, sad day when MST3K left the telewaves some time back.

But there's good news on the intertubes.  Mike Nelson,Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy --  Mike, Crow, and Servo from the affectionaltely remembered Satellie of Love -- are back doing damage in RiffTrax, a growing bunch of cool "commentary" MP3's that are, basically, MS3K in a can.  They regularly riff on everything from Halloween to Aliens; they've also brought in a bunch of guest riffers, from Weird Al Yankovich to Neil Patrick Harris and beyond.  And best of all the Riffs themselves are cheap -- like $3.99.  If you don't own the movie being riffed, you can Netflix it for pennies and enjoy the experience for mere centavos her giggle.

A small sample: here's The Boys speculating on a young John Carpenter coming home from a hard day of making the original Halloween ... illustrated, of course, by a scene straight out of Halloween.  

It's fun, it's inexpensive, and it makes everything old new again -- and even better.  Rifftrax rules.

.

 

Snake Plissken Lives! (And Leave Him Alone!)

To put it simply: it's a bad idea. With a couple of notable exception -- the Kurtzman/Orci Star Trek and the Nolan Batmans -- reboots and remakes always seems to end badly. Consider Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch, Halloween, Superman, Bewitched, Psycho, and on and on. And to steal a phrase from the military, when it comes to future projects, like the upcoming A-Team reboot ... confidence is not high.

But once in a while, once in a while you can see a glimmer of hope.  And if Claude Brodesser-Akner's article over at the New York Magazine web site is even half right, there seem to be a slim possibility that  the remake/reboot of John Carpenter's thriller / science fiction / post-apocalypse / action/adventure classic, Escape from New York will not totally suck.  As Claude reports:

"We learned that in order to land the rights, New Line had to sign a contract with John Carpenter stipulating, among other things, that Plissken "must be called 'Snake'"; "must wear an eye patch"; and that he would — and we're not making this up — "always be a 'bad-ass.'"; So, if you ever catch the new Snake watching Grey’s Anatomy or complaining that the senator isn't "emotionally available," just know that somewhere, some poor development exec is about to be carted off to jail."

You can read the details of the reboot here, and buy the original here. And hey, turn that anticipatory frown upside down, lovers of Snake Plisskin! It might turn out okay!

Credit Where Credit is Due Department: First word of the New York column came to us by way of columnist/blogger Sarah Weinman's terrific Twitterfeed and Blog, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.  Well worth bookmarking, following, feeding, and caring for.