What are you watching?
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UKMikey
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I made a funny on the Forza thread using a shot from this movie and realised I'd never actually watched it as a kid so I checked it out on Disney Plus. Boy, am I glad I missed out. The animation is good but the direction is kinda bland.
The original animator wanted to set in the Deep South which would at least have made a change since all the characters are American except the villains and title character (unlike other Robin Hoods, he can speak with an English accent). But director Woolie Reitherman decided to set it in a weird American version of Nottingham instead and removed all but one of the Merry Men because he wanted a buddy movie.
Those villains are expertly voice acted by Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas but the scripting doesn't allow them to be hateable enough to make the audience root against them. The Disney Renaissance couldn't come quickly enough although it'd turn out to be another decade and a half until The Little Mermaid.
UKMikey
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I missed out on Red Dwarf in the eighties and nineties so I tried out the pilot and got hooked. Currently on series 3 episode 3 "Polymorph". Let's see whether I can stick with the programme much longer than writer Rob Grant did as the show becomes less quirky and the production values rise and become less smeggy. I'd like to keep going at least until the end of series six.
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UKMikey
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Just finished series five of Red Dwarf. I like them all so far and although some of the episodes end abruptly due to the half hour format I haven't found them a chore to watch. Holoship in series five got a real slating in the Smegazine poll but I found it a solid episode.
A lot of fans online seem to find Back To Reality with Duane Dibbley the best episode ever but while it was pretty solid for me the hype made it hard for me to appreciate it fully. However, I can't remember any of the episodes standing out as being particularly bad although Meltdown was slightly disappointing in places with how horrible Rimmer was. Conversely Queeg, Marooned, White Hole and Inquisitor stood out for me as being good examples of having a mixture of interesting plots and funny routines. I also can't get that Tongue Tied song from Parallel Universe out of my head.
Looking forward to series six as the last solid one for a while. Just started Psirens and it seems fine so far. I remember seeing Gunmen Of The Apocalypse a long time ago and enjoying it. No wonder that Heineken ad ripped it off so blatantly. The redditors I've read so far dislike the removal of the ship but from what I remember most of the Red Dwarf-set shows not set in Lister's bedroom or off ship seem to consist of them running through a dark cargo hold dodging monsters of the week in repurposed Manchester warehouses packed with crates.
I'm preparing for the gutpunch of series seven, eight and nine/Back To Earth before the show bottoms out and starts to improve but'll reserve judgment until I've seen them. I hope Krytie TV isn't as unwatchable as I'm fearing it'll be.
A lot of fans online seem to find Back To Reality with Duane Dibbley the best episode ever but while it was pretty solid for me the hype made it hard for me to appreciate it fully. However, I can't remember any of the episodes standing out as being particularly bad although Meltdown was slightly disappointing in places with how horrible Rimmer was. Conversely Queeg, Marooned, White Hole and Inquisitor stood out for me as being good examples of having a mixture of interesting plots and funny routines. I also can't get that Tongue Tied song from Parallel Universe out of my head.
Looking forward to series six as the last solid one for a while. Just started Psirens and it seems fine so far. I remember seeing Gunmen Of The Apocalypse a long time ago and enjoying it. No wonder that Heineken ad ripped it off so blatantly. The redditors I've read so far dislike the removal of the ship but from what I remember most of the Red Dwarf-set shows not set in Lister's bedroom or off ship seem to consist of them running through a dark cargo hold dodging monsters of the week in repurposed Manchester warehouses packed with crates.
I'm preparing for the gutpunch of series seven, eight and nine/Back To Earth before the show bottoms out and starts to improve but'll reserve judgment until I've seen them. I hope Krytie TV isn't as unwatchable as I'm fearing it'll be.
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I watched it a lot in the '90s. My friends and I would tape it off our local PBS station broadcasts. I didn't realize there were so many seasons. I've only watched up through season 4. I just learned that Patrick Stewart was a fan. He was working in the US on Star Trek: The Next Generation, so he didn't know this show was airing in England. One day when he was back in England, he was surfing the channels when it came up. He was outraged! He felt they were making fun of Next Gen. He had his hand on the phone to call someone and complain about it when a line in the show made him laugh. So he watched a bit more and kept laughing. He finally got it that it wasn't making fun of Star Trek specifically, but having a laugh at all science-fiction tropes in general. He became a huge fan, even doing the Rimmer salute in the video where he talks about it.
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Just watched the latest livestream, She Shoulda Said No! from The Mads, Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu. It’s a 1949 “marihuana” exploitation film in the same vein as the infamous Reefer Madness! Another hilarious riff, and a fun Q&A with Rachel Lichtman after the movie.
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UKMikey
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Red Dwarf series seven wasn't quite the travesty the disgruntled redditors online had led me to believe it was. It wasn't as good as the previous series but it was at least watchable. I think my expectations being on the floor and the fact I hadn't waited three or four years for the show to return offset at least a few of the gripes fans had about it. Let's see what happens with series eight, the last BBC show before the ten year gap.
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UKMikey
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Eight was... variable in quality. Cassandra was good, Krytie TV as poor as I'd been led to believe. Pete is reportedly even worse so I'm taking a break for now.
I've never been able to sit through a Wes Anderson movie before so I'll try this forty minute one on Netflix.
I've never been able to sit through a Wes Anderson movie before so I'll try this forty minute one on Netflix.
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I’ve never consumed any part of the TMNT franchise. Never read a comic, or watched a cartoon. Not out of any aversion to it. I just never got around to it. But I loved Jeff Rowe’s previous movie The Mitchells vs. the Machines, so it was an easy yes to watching this. And I’m glad I did. It was great fun with some brilliant vocal performances. Loved Jackie Chan as Splinter. (And what a great casting decision.)
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UKMikey
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I'm watching the legendarily bad episode of Red Dwarf entitled "Pete Part Two".
Doug Naylor and Phil Alexander ought to be made to watch the "See you in ten minutes" joke on repeat for a week just for writing this garbage.
At least now I know I've got over the hum and nothing the show throws at me is ever going to be as bad as this ever, ever again.
Coming up soon: Back To Earth
Doug Naylor and Phil Alexander ought to be made to watch the "See you in ten minutes" joke on repeat for a week just for writing this garbage.
At least now I know I've got over the hum and nothing the show throws at me is ever going to be as bad as this ever, ever again.
Coming up soon: Back To Earth
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31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween Day 1: RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Last year I watched one Halloween-themed movie each night during October. This year I’m doing something similar: one film from the RiffTrax Halloween collection. I’m starting with the Ed Wood classic, Plan 9 From Outer Space, riffed live in 2009. Guests included Jonathan Coulton and Rich “Low Tax” Kyanka. A short about stewardesses from about 1950 precedes the movie, a classic of bad cinema.
Last year I watched one Halloween-themed movie each night during October. This year I’m doing something similar: one film from the RiffTrax Halloween collection. I’m starting with the Ed Wood classic, Plan 9 From Outer Space, riffed live in 2009. Guests included Jonathan Coulton and Rich “Low Tax” Kyanka. A short about stewardesses from about 1950 precedes the movie, a classic of bad cinema.
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31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween Day 3: RiffTrax Live! House on Haunted Hill. The movie is a Vincent Price vehicle that does a great job of telling you how scary it is without bothering with any actual scariness. Paul F. Tompkins is the guest for this one. This is the first of many appearances by Tompkins with them, even co-hosting a live show alongside Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett when Michael J. Nelson wasn’t available.
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Getting back up to speed, here are days 5, 6, and 7 of my 31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween marathon. The Devil’s Hand is a late ‘50s b/w story of a man who joins a cult run by a doll-maker. Ghosthouse is an early ‘80s gore fest about a house haunted by a young girl and her horrifying doll, and finally, breaking the doll-themed movies is Frankenstein Island, an early ‘80s movie about balloonists landing on an island run by mad scientists and a bunch of bikini babes. No, it doesn’t make sense. They’re only watchable because of the brilliant riffing of Kevin, Mike, and Bill.
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Day 8 of my 31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween. Today was Mesa of Lost Women. A mad scientist (Jackie Coogan, more famous for playing Uncle Fester on the Addams Family TV show) turns spiders into hot Mexican women. Because science, that’s why.
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Day 10 of my 31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween is Brainiac. Sorry, DC comics fans. Wrong Brainiac. This is a 1961 b/w Mexican crapfest. It involves a burning at the stake 300 years ago, a comet, a monster with a nose like Gonzo the Great, astronomers, and polite cocktail parties. Today’s cool car: a Mercedes-Benz 190 SL.
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Day 11 of my 31 Days of RiffTrax Halloween is Bloody Pit of Horror. A publisher of cheap novels and his crew of writers, photographers, and models for the lurid covers go to a castle and end up tortured to death by its insane owner. It’s as depressing as it sounds. There’s a cool Alfa Romeo Spider in it, though.
