Evel Knievel was a 70s icon most known for the “stunt” of flying across the country to beat his former promoter, an executive at 20th Century Fox, outside the studio commissary with an aluminum baseball bat, shattering the man’s arm while shouting “I’m going to kill you!” Okay, that’s not what he’s most known for, but it’s what he should be most known for. I mean, did you know that? We didn’t know that. But it just might come up once or twice in our new Rifftrax of Viva Knievel!
The cast of this movie is basically a list of names designed to make you go “whoa, all those people are in this movie?” Screen legend Gene Kelly! Red Buttons! Lauren Hutton! Frank Gifford! Space Mutiny’s Cameron Mitchell! Dabney Coleman! The inexplicably-named Marjoe Gortner! And, perhaps best of all, the diabolical druglord villain played by none other than Leslie Nielsen! If you’ve seen him in The Naked Gun or Airplane! every line he says will sound like a joke to you, and trust us friends, that is a very good thing.
From Evel waking up orphans late at night to give them his own shoddy action figure merchandise, to, oh right, the occasional motorcycle jump, there’s almost too much to like about this one. So grab your baseball bat and join Mike, Kevin, and Bill as they spectacularly fail to jump Snake River Canyon and see Viva Knievel!
Breaker Breaker – New RiffTrax VOD!
Breaker breaker good buddy! We got a bear in the air on 95 going north, a bear in the grass on route 50, with Brother and Sister Berenstain Bear running a checkpoint for icons in the bear community over by the bear shop, so buckle your bearbelt, step on the bear pedal and get ready to haul some bears. We don’t know much about trucker slang here at RiffTrax, but we gather that roughly 98% of it is bear based.
In Breaker! Breaker!, Chuck Norris, star of the jokes from 2007 that your lamest uncle is just now finding out about and preparing to forward to you, stars as a trucker who is also a champion arm wrestler. It’s like Over The Top only with slightly less confusion about the hero’s last name.
Chuck’s brother is making his first ever trucking delivery, and his cargo is several hundred frozen TV dinners. His routine haul goes awry when his truck is attacked by lonely men in search of cheap, barely edible food-like substances. Actually, he’s captured by the citizens of a rogue town of drunken hicks led by the delightfully Kelsey Grammer-esque Judge Trimmings.
Chuck must go in search of his missing mustache, and also his brother. To rescue him, he’ll need to very slowly kick some butt, due to the lack of mobility afforded by his denim jacket/pants combo. Fortunately, he’s got an ace up his sleeve: all his trucker pals who are apparently willing to kill dozens of people and destroy an entire town based on one CB radio message from an anonymous source reporting that a guy who they’ve seen arm wrestle once or twice is apparently in some sort of trouble.
It’s a tale full of moonshine, hillbillies and sweet airbrushed eagles on the sides of vans. Mike, Kevin and Bill 86 the tuna, get the six top seated and give the blue plate special wings (trucker slang) in one of Chuck Norris’ finest mustache-less films, Breaker! Breaker!
Any sales pitch that attacks Chuck Norris jokes is a sales pitch I can get behind.
Rifftrax news stuff – Kickstarter, Cool As Ice, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
RiffTrax launched a Kickstarter to get enough money to deliver a comically large check to Summit Entertainment in order to get the rights to riff Twilight in theaters during one of their RiffTrax Live events. They’ve already zoomed past their goal but extra money means more money they can wave in front of Summit and Lionsgate. Fallback is to get something almost as awesome. Disclaimer: I will probably donate to this Kickstarter to get a bunch of the digital goodies.
Speaking of RiffTrax and Twilight, the RiffTrax for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has appeared! Praise the Volturi! The Twilight RiffTrax are among the most funniest they do, and I’m looking forward to this one!
“You see, son, sometimes, when a shirtless teenage werewolf and a newborn love each other, very, very much…” Baby girlfriends! International squads of vampires with a host of mutant superpowers that should be blood in the water to Marvel’s legal department! A final, epic showdown between the forces of vampire “evil” and vampire “meh, whatever”! All that sounds amazing, right! It’s what we’ve been building to for four movies, right??? Like, something’s finally gonna happen! RIGHT??????
Ah ha ha haaaa, remarkable. Believing this series would pay off in any way… to paraphrase Twilight: New Moon songstress Lykke Li, “There’s no posssibilityyyyyy.” This movie is mostly about an extended vampire family gathering to show support for Bella, its newest, most insipid and simpering member. Because that’s why people love vampires — to see them form coalitions of understanding, and talk out their differences.
But there’s hope, in the form of effete ancient men in red – that’s right, more Volturi than ever before! And the great Michael Sheen offering a cackle of delight so extraordinary that the petition to make it part of his eventual Oscar death reel should begin NOW.
Join Mike, Kevin, and Bill as they hide in the mustache of Mustache Dad for one last journey into the land of vampire sensitivity, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2!
If you prefer your riffs presynched and starring white rappers from the 90s, does RiffTrax have a deal for you, as their latest VOD film is Cool As Ice!
Vanilla Ice’s album To The Extreme sold fifteen million copies. It is important to keep this in mind while you watch Cool As Ice, because at some point in time, you will inevitably shriek at the TV, “Who thought this was a good idea? How did this happen? Are they really trying to make ‘yep yep’ his catchphrase? Why???” And the answer to most of those questions is: Vanilla Ice’s album To The Extreme sold fifteen million copies.
Vanilla Ice (That’s My Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze) stars as a troubled French missionary volunteering at a refugee camp in the Sudan we’re just kidding he plays a white rapper. The only stretch he gives his acting abilities is playing a character named “Johnny” instead of his real name. At this moment, we will point out for the record that his hilarious real name is Robert Van Winkle.
The sleepy little town that Vanilla rides his motorcycle through is not prepared for his chillaxed baditude and funky fresh fashions. Or perhaps they are just stunned that in a movie whose entire reason for existence is the star had a wildly popular album, none of the songs from said wildly popular album make an appearance. No Ice Ice Baby. No Play That Funky Music. Not even Havin’ A Roni. In fact, there is not even the vaguest hint that there was even a Roni anywhere to be Had on the set of Cool As Ice.
Despite the lack of Ronis, Cool As Ice is still one of the finest looking bad movies of all time. This is because the director of photography went on to do the cinematography for films such as Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln. That’s right, a mere three years after Janusz Kaminski made sure that Vanilla Ice’s Stussy shirt was properly lit during the construction site frolicking scene, he was finding the right lens to shoot Liam Neeson’s “I could have got more” speech in Schindler’s List.
It is perhaps the only movie that is more 90s than the entirety of VH1s I Love The 90s series. Stop, collaborate and listen as Mike, Kevin and Bill team up to riff Cool As Ice.
When a Stranger Calls Back – New RiffTrax VOD!
When a Stranger Calls Back RiffTrax VOD link!
Contains scenes of nudity. (Fortunately, not Charles Durning.)
The sequel is coming from inside the house! That’s right, one of the tiredest pop culture tropes of all time finally gets a sequel! And you’ll never believe where the calls are coming from this time (because it’s a really, really stupid reveal. We’re talking the end of Signs level stupid.)
Julia is a babysitter, whose motto was evidently “Charisma free child care or your money back!” Her plan to put the kids to bed and then spend an evening quietly enjoying a glass of water is disrupted when a stranger comes to her door. He has a chilling request: he needs her to call the auto club because his car is broken down. Julia responds as anyone would: by lapsing into a hysterical panic attack while the poor guy trudges four miles to a gas station and misses his kid’s birthday party. We’re just kidding of course, he actually is a maniac and he kidnaps both the kids and they’re never seen again.
Traumatized by the incident, Julia responds by growing a Joe Dirt level mullet and enrolling in a small liberal arts college. (Experts strongly recommend you do neither of these things, but if you must choose just one, they tentatively recommend the mullet.) Everything is going just fine until one day she notices that small objects in her apartment are not where she left them. Cue hysterical panic attack. She’s really a charmer, this Julia.
Fortunately, she’s got Charles Durning and Carol Kane to help her. Durning appears to have gotten over Doc Hopper’s failure to sign Kermit The Frog as spokesperson by eating the Electric Mayhem Band and Kane looks appropriately traumatized for someone who had to play the wife of both Billy Crystal AND Andy Kaufman. At one point, in one of the most terrifying and disturbing scenes ever filmed, Charles Durning goes to a strip club to watch a ventriloquist act.
With Mike, Kevin and Bill there to riff, When A Stranger Calls Back will have you holding the line…for hilarity! (The writer of the previous sentence has been fired and is currently working as a strip club ventriloquist.)
Note: This RiffTrax was already underway before Mr. Durning passed away. As Mike wrote back in 2008, we here at RiffTrax stand in awe of his service.
McBain – New RiffTrax VOD film!
WARNING! Contains naughty language and Christopher Walken impressions!
Let’s get this out of the way: Yes, this movie is called McBain. No, it has nothing to do with what you’re thinking: it’s not a biopic of Diane McBain, star of the 1960 TV series Surfside 6. Oh, or that Simpsons character either.
No, there’s no Mendoza for McBain to take out in this one. That’s just in the silly movie series The Simpsons came up with. Probably only took them a couple minutes too. Mendoza…Ha! This McBain is much more legitimate and creative. Its drug dealer is named Escobar.
Christopher Walken (Mousehunt, Joe Dirt, The Country Bears, Gigli, Kangaroo Jack) stars as the titular McBain. When the man who rescued him from a POW camp is executed by a Colombian dictator, it’s time for McBain to put together a ragtag group to avenge their friend. He rounds up a smooth talking technology expert, a black guy who is afraid of flying, and a guy who repeatedly asks him if it’s really a good idea to rip off The A-Team so blatantly.
Finally, they’re ready to take out the dictator and what follows is possibly the most incoherent mess of an action film there ever was. The body count soars, plot threads are introduced and discarded at a moment’s notice and a WrestleMania hat is given prominent screentime. Evidently, nobody ever told the producers of McBain that 80s action flicks were out of style, or that it’s not very badass to make your supposed action hero a welder (McBain is a professional welder, we forgot to mention that until now. Also, his first name is Bobby. Both of these things are true.)
McBain is the movie that will have you saying, “Seriously? Christopher Walken did this only three years before Pulp Fiction?” Join Mike, Kevin, Bill and Rainier Wolfcastle for McBain: Let’s Get Silly.
RiffTrax Presents Night of the Shorts IV: Riffizens on Patrol – RiffTrax Trip Report
As usual for a Night of the Shorts spot, we got a collection of “educational” films, of which the educational value is suspect at best, and non-existent for most. Several of the shorts are available for purchase off the RiffTrax site, though at least two are not available in any form yet. Seeing the live riffs adds an extra sense of enjoyment, as you are in a crowded theater full of energy (the wonderful Castro Theater) and the energy feeds the performers, who give it their all. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett were joined by several guest riffers, though they did brave two of the shorts on their lonesome. So let’s dig in…
Welcome Home Norman – People will remember this short from the Manos RiffTrax Live (which was also replaying in theaters nationwide that day!), as Norman is a guy who can’t understand parking, parking lots, or putting suitcases in the trunk. What he can understand is giving a sigh that emotes the complete destroying of all happiness in the world.
Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! (w/ Guest Riffers Cole Stratton and Janet Varney) – A confusing short about teaching children body movement or something, by having them imitate random household appliances. And various different kinds of lawn sprinklers. The scenes of the children “moving” have a weird interpretive dance feel, and it’s obvious that most of this film’s budget when to whatever drugs the director was on.
Choking: To Save a Life (w/ Guest Riffer Kevin McDonald) – A very overly-explaining film about choking, complete with long demonstrations of man on man Heimlich and back-slapping. And then man on boy. Very, very long. Almost as if there was a different, hidden message for this short. Highlight was the Orson Welles character who stopped eating due to the narrator continually talking about how dangerous choking is.
More Dangerous Than Dynamite (w/ Guest Riffer Adam Savage) – When I first saw this short at the Reefer Madness Live Show, I couldn’t believe that people once used gasoline to clean clothes at home. But it happened enough the dry cleaning industry teamed up with the government of California to make propaganda films to scare people into knocking it off. It’s even more surreal seeing it again on the big screen, with Mythbusters and explosives expert Adam Savage also incredibly confused that gas was used in such a way.
Cooking Terms – Women, don’t know nothing about words, even words from fancy books like recipe books. Cooking Terms will teach those women the important words like “boil” and “brown” so they can get back to what they do best, making cake for lunch.
A clown makeup short that I can’t remember the name of (w/ Guest Riffer Kristen Schaal) – Who wants to watch a short where a talking mirror convinces a sad mime and some ICP acolytes that being a clown isn’t what’s down in modern America? Well, too bad, because that’s what this is! If you enjoy children in freaking clown makeup acting like hooligans, then you will love whatever the name of this short was. As it doesn’t seem to be for sale, perhaps we are all saved from the clown invasion.
At Your Fingertips: Cylinders (w/ Guest Riffer Paul F. Tompkins) – At Your Fingertips is the greatest series of films that were ever made, so it’s fitting that we watch as children construct garbage from old oatmeal canisters and toilet paper tubes. Worth watching for the ridiculous zebra and the robot torture.
Another fun year with some fun shorts, in a packed house. Mike’s return after a two year absence was also welcome. I am looking forward to next year already.