Category: Merchandise

RiffTrax‘s first nationwide riffing, RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space, is now available on DVD. What is RiffTrax, you might ask?

RiffTrax is an innovative site featuring the hilarious DVD commentaries of Michael J. Nelson — star of the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000! At RiffTrax.com, you can download feature-length commentaries by Mike (plus other stars of MST3K and guest celebrities) and listen to these “RiffTrax” in sync with your favorite, and not so favorite DVDs. It’s like watching a movie with your funniest friends!

If you weren’t lucky enough to catch the live performance, this DVD is your ticket to what you missed. Geek fixture Veronica Belmont, host of Internet shows Tekzilla and Qore, emcees the event, presenting RiffTrax Live and the cast — not that the stars of RiffTrax really need an introduction. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett are long familiar to fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where Mike was the successor to host and show creator Joel Hodgson, and Kevin and Bill served as the second voices of robots Tom Servo and Crow. After taking to the stage and engaging in a bit of patter with the clearly excited audience, the trio launches into the pre-feature short film, Flying Stewardess, a 1940s-era training documentary that’s apparently shot in an alternate universe where travellers are treated to spacious seating, personally cooked meals, full beds and turn-down service on night flights, and breakfast in what appears to be an onflight bistro. As if that wasn’t enough material to mock, the film is also ripe with sexism and has a meandering narrator that the riffers really sink their teeth into. Airing after Flying Stewardess is Flour & Grain Expo, the first of the live show’s fake sponsor commercials created by Somethingawful.com’s Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka. This ad, and the later Berry Watch, spoof the low-budget ads common to public access television, and are arguably the weakest portion of the evening’s entertainment (along with a prize giveaway that could have easily been trimmed from the DVD), so luckily the next segment is a brilliant set from musical guest Jonathan Coulton. Choosing songs to fit the Plan 9 from Outer Space theme, Coulton sings “The Future Soon” and “Re: Your Brains”, inviting the audience to participate in the latter song’s refrain of “all we want to do is eat your brains” while Kevin Murphy does an increasingly amusing impersonation of a zombie to cue the audience to their line. At this point in the show, audience energy noticeably starts to pick up, with camera pans revealing attendees laughing out loud and singing along with big smiles on their faces. Jonathan Coulton then joins The Rifftones, the RiffTrax crew’s singing group, to perform “Plans One Thru Nine”, an introductory song to Plan 9 from Outerspace that leads neatly into the main feature.

RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space uses the newly colourized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space from Legend Films, which is a bit disappointing for fans of the original black-and-white film, especially since a track of the original, unriffed movie isn’t included on the disc like it was on RiffTrax‘s studio production of Plan 9 from Outer Space. As one person posted on Amazon, though, “If you want to be a purist just turn off your color bar and see it in the original GLORIOUS B&W version as originally released by Ed Wood to theaters in 1959.” The riffing on the film, however, is top-notch, as one would expect from veterans of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Granted, with Plan 9 from Outer Space, the masterpiece of B-movies, the jokes practically write themselves. Audience members giggle from time to time in spots where a riff hasn’t been made, because what is happening on the screen is still funny without any witty commentary. The riffers occasionally appear throughout the movie in three panels that pop up on the left side of the screen (ideally, being a live show, they would have been on-screen at all times), allowing viewers to see their expressions and gestures as they perform, which is fascinating for movie-riffing fans used to just seeing silhouettes or hearing disembodied voices. It’s particularly fun to see them crack each other up or run with a flubbed line. You’ll need to watch the film a couple of times to catch everything, because when the performers are visible, the tendency is to watch their antics instead of the film.

The DVD is very well-designed, with “Plans One Thru Nine” playing in the DVD’s main menu, and Jonathan Coulton’s songs enhancing the Scene Selection and Special Features sub-menus. The special features are uncut versions of the Flour & Grain and Berry Watch commercials, and a behind-the-scenes slideshow, which consists of captioned, still pictures taken during preparations for the show. As an extra bonus, a coupon for a free RiffTrax Download of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is tucked inside the DVD case, so you can try out one of the site’s regular riff offerings, if you haven’t already.

Hopefully RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space is the first in a series of RiffTrax Live DVDs, and December’s RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-stravaganza, a holiday collection of short films with special guest riffer “Weird Al” Yankovic, will soon follow. RiffTrax‘s fellow riffers, Cinematic Titanic, recently released their own live DVD to much success, so there’s obviously a market for this new style of riffing.

Pre-order at Amazon.com:
RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space

Or order directly through the RiffTrax website.

RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space is distributed by RiffTrax and Legend Films.