Filmic Friday 11

Riffed films aren't for everyone. I learned that the hard way by trying to watch riffed movies at home with my parents present and was quickly alerted that it was "annoying" and "distracted from the movie". That movie was Arizona Werewolf. My parents are nuts. Nothing can detract from Arizona Werewolf, especially the fine folks of MST3K.

We didn't watch Arizona Werewolf last week.

No, we were instead treated to a version of the marvelous RiffTrax crew (many of the same people from that run of MST3K) riffing on a late 1980s Science Fiction masterpiece we call Space Mutiny.

This movie... it's so mad!

Space Mutiny is a film that was made in 1988 in South Africa, which would explain why there is literally not one person of color in the film. Apartheid was a bad time, and these guys should feel bad that they were helping fund it. It casts a subtle pall over the film. Fortunately, the movie is 100% incompetent, so it probably didn't do too well... it's a 2.1/10 on IMDB, so, that's a pretty safe bet.

One of the first things you'll probably notice if you watch this movie, whether riffed or not, is that all of the special effects are... familiar.

I don't know if you can see those effects on the upper left, but...

That's because they're not just "from the team that brought you Star Wars", they're directly stolen from episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

So is the plot (such as it is).

Here goes: The Southern Sun is a "generation starship", just like in Battlestar Galactica, and they've been floating through space for about 13 generations. Evil McBadGuy plans to take over the ship so that he can force a landing in pirate territory on a planet because he's never been planetside in his life and neither has anyone else. Reb Brown (remember Captain America?) stops him with the help of his real-life wife, who is playing a surly scientist lady who we never see doing science.

Lovely. Very lovely.

Most of what people remember about the movie come from the riffs, to be honest.

And yes, all of these weird touches are references.

Most infamously is the list of new names for Reb Brown, which were invented in the MST3K, but everyone who knows the riffs joins in. My favorites are Crunch Buttsteak and Big McLargeHuge.

Let's see... what else is there to say about the movie itself?

Cameron Mitchell is Space Grandpa...

Guy's got more booze in him than your average liquor store...

There are a bunch of scantily clad women who dance around and play with those balls that have the electricity inside them a bunch and who basically just reiterate plot points we've already seen and still don't care about.

Bellerians? More like Valerian. If it weren't for the costuming, everyone would sleep through their scenes!

And of course, we mustn't forget the epic space buggy chase scenes...

I could walk faster than these things "speed" through the space-warehouse (look at the windows!)

But perhaps one of my favorite gaffes from this movie is the egregious moment that one of the few female characters is killed, but when we return to the deck, she's sitting in her seat and even giving lines! As they said in the MST3K riff, "it was very nice of you to give that dead woman another chance."

Lt. Lamont, ladies & gentlemen...

If you're wondering why I'm not talking about the Live Riff we were watching, there's a reason for that. When you have a group of friends as rowdy as mine, and they're watching a movie they've seen a million times like we have, and we all know the riffs, you're going to end up with a lot of riffing bleed-over. It's hard to hear the riffs with people Roll-Fizzlebeefing and Don't Play Sun City-ing all over the place!

Still, the song at the end alone is worth picking up a copy of the live riff. "Mutiny of Love" is fantastic, and they did a great job with it!

That about does it for me this week, guys!
Go Enjoy Something!
Or David Ryder here will get up in your business...

MY NAME IS NOT BOB JOHNSON!

FC



Where the pics are from:
Reb's screaming face
Live Riff Crew
Poster
VHS Cover
Reb's Wife (Still found on Google)
Space Grandpa and Space Witch Babe
Space Buggies & the Amazing Resurrection Woman