Phil attends the MST3K Live! 30th Anniversary Tour Featuring Deathstalker II at the City National Civic - November 7, 2018

Hello to all of you in cyberspace! So for those who may not know this, but one of my favorite television shows from the 90's was Mystery Science Theater 3000. Created by comedian Joel Hodgson, the show takes place in the not-too-distant future where Joel Robinson (Hodgson) is held captive by Dr. Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) and TV's Frank (Frank Conniff), and forced to watch B-Grade movies on the Satellite of Love with the help of his robot friends: Cambot, Gypsy (Jim Mallon), Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Crow T. Robot (Beaulieu). During the duration of the show's existence, the cast went through a series of hosts (Michael J. Nelson replaced Hodgson in the middle of season 5 and Bill Corbett replaced Beaulieu as the voice of Crow from season 8) and villains (Corbett, Murphy, and Mary Jo Pehl took over when Beaulieu and Conniff left), even moving to different channels (the show was originally on Comedy Central, then moved to the Sci-Fi Channel). After ten seasons, the show was cancelled, and the lights on the Satellite of Love went dark. Then in 2016 Joel resurrected the show, thanks in large part to a very highly successful Kickstarter campaign, and the show was made and picked up by Netflix. Now 30 years later, right before the launch of Season 12, Joel, the bots, and new host Jonah Ray went on tour to bring the magic of MST3K to the masses, and my girlfriend Stephanie and I got to attend the show here in Downtown San Jose!

The event was held at the historic City National Civic, which was built in 1934 and has held numerous concerts and musicals since. The show was sold out and the excitement level was at an all-time high. MST3K fans came from all around the Bay Area, some in costumes and some brought some awesome looking homemade puppets of Tom Servo. I had miss the tour here back in 2016, but I knew there was no way I'd miss them this time around. Having been a fan for decades, this was a dream come true. And when the lights finally dimmed at 7:30pm, the fun was about to begin!

Beginning with the show's theme song, Jonah Ray, Crow and Tom Servo came out to great the San Jose crowd, with Joel Hodgson joining them on-stage shortly after them. The gang was back together again, and for tonight's film, they chose to riff the 1987 Roger Corman produced cult classic DEATHSTALKER II!

Original Theatrical Poster (1987)

The film's official synopsis: Deathstalker (John Terlesky) has a mission: to save the kingdom from the wicked grip of the immoral wizard Jerak and his queen Sultana. Together they have ruled the land by creating a controllable evil twin of the lovely Princess Evie (Monique Gabrielle). Capturing the real Princess Evie, Deathstalker must now return her to her rightful place of power — but the swordsman’s battle has just begun.

As stated previously, the film was produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman for his company Concorde/New Horizons. The film's star John Terlesky has appeared in numerous other projects like CHOPPING MALL, VALET GIRLS and THE ALLNIGHTER as well as TV series like Guns of Paradise, The Last Frontier and TV movies Battling for Baby, Bad Girls, and Voice from the Grave. He's gone to have a second career as a director, directing several TV episodes of The Blacklist,
Castle, Criminal Minds, Revenge, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Actress Monique Gabrielle was one of the most beautiful and popular Scream Queens from this era. Her resume includes several cult classics like AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, EMMANUELLE 5, NOT OF THIS EARTH, THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING, HARD TO DIE and EVIL TOONS to name a few. Another B-movie actress appearing in the movie was the great Toni Naples as the female antagonist Sultana. Naples acted in other noteworthy cult films like CHOPPING MALL, TRANSYLVANIA TWIST, SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II, HARD TO DIE, DINOSAUR ISLAND and SORCERESS.

The movie was directed by Jim Wynorski, who's made a name for himself as one of the kings of the low-budget, B-movie scene. He's directed over 110 films alone, and include some of my all-time favorites like CHOPPING MALL, BIG BAD MAMA II, NOT OF THIS EARTH, SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II, HARD TO DIE, DINOSAUR ISLAND, MUNCHIE, and VAMPIRELLA, which were all produced by Roger Corman. In fact, many of his films were with Corman, who helped launch his filmmaking career. He also made a series of erotica thrillers that are still popular to this day. These titles include POINT OF SEDUCTION: BODY CHEMISTRY III, SINS OF DESIRE, VICTIM OF DESIRE, and BODY CHEMISTRY 4: FULL EXPOSURE.

Also known as DEATHSTALKER II: DUEL OF THE TITANS, the movie was released on home video on November 11, 1987 by New Horizons Home Video. This wasn't to be the last of the series, as Corman produced to more sequels, but they didn't have the magic, lunacy, and charm as the second installment.

This was such a fun date night for my girlfriend and I! And it's something I can finally check off my bucket list! To see a live MST3K show was a dream come true and you can all bet that I'll see it again if they go back on tour! As I am writing this, the new season has just dropped on Netflix. So if you are not familiar with the show, do yourself a favor and watch it now and prepare to have your funny bone tickled immensely!

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return is currently available to watch now on Netflix. To start your subscription, visit www.netflix.com. They also have a selection of episodes from past seasons as well. Select episodes are also available on DVD and boxsets from Shout! Factory. To purchase copies for yourself, visit their website at www.shoutfactory.com. And make sure you also the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 website at www.mst3k.com.

Thanks for reading, and keep circulating the URL!

Phil attends the RiffTrax Live! Broadcast of SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTINS at the CineArts Theater-December 5, 2013

Happy Holidays everybody!! It's starting to get bit colder outside, days are shorter, and folks are busy shopping at the mall. What a better time to check out the latest RiffTrax Live! show over at the CineArts Theater over in Santana Row here in San Jose! To celebrate this festive season, they were riffing the sci-fi, holiday stink bomb SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTINS . Now it was originally riffed on the old MST3K show back in the early 1990s, but this was an all-new riff! Accompanying me to the screening was my good friend (and longtime MST3K fan) Alison. After picking up some refreshments, we made our way to our seats and waited for the show to begin!

For those you don't know what a RiffTrax is, let me clue you in. According to their website, "RiffTrax are hilarious commentaries that you play along with a DVD, or are merged with movies and classic shorts that you can watch on-demand or on DVD. Written and performed by the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax features the unique humor of Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot)! We riff on Blockbuster Movies, Educational Short Films, and feature- length Cheesy B-Movies that you can watch instantly. It's like watching movies with your funniest friends!"

They guys broadcast the event from the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee to hundreds of movie theaters across the country courtesy of the folks at Fathom Events. After some funny intros, they guys got down with doing what they do best!

Theatrical Movie Poster (1964)

The film SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTINS is just awful. Just really, really, really awful. Now I've seen the film several times but seeing it with the RiffTrax crew made the pain more bearable. The plot goes something like this: Two lethargic martin kids (one of them is ten-year old Pia Zadora) are watching Earth television about the exploits of Santa Claus. This causes their parental units to be very concerned. Their father (and martin leader) Lomas takes a small crew to Earth to capture Santa. However, they also capture a couple of kids who spotted them: siblings Billy (Victor Stiles) and Betty (Donna Conforti). Soon they and Santa (John Call) are captured and are taken back to Mars. Eventually the martins all fall in love with Santa, that is all but the evil, grumpy martin Voldar, who plans to take out Santa and the kids! But in the end, Voldar is defeated, the martin children are full of Christmas spirit, and Santa, Billy, and Betty return to home just in time for Christmas Eve.

Ok so where do I begin with this film? Well for starters, I can't believe this was even made!! And people actually made money to see this!! It ranks slightly below Ed Wood's masterpiece PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE as the worst movie ever made! The sets are just atrocious, the acting barely believable, and that annoying theme song "Hooray for Santa Claus"  will get stuck in your head! Thankfully, Michael, Bill, and Kevin were there to make the film funny!

The RiffTrax crew had no problem tearing this film a new one. Like I stated earlier, the film was made fun on Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in the early 90's. When that episode originally aired, Kevin was on the show as Tom Servo. Michael was the head writer and Bill wasn't even on the show till Season 8. So this was an amazing and hilarious all- new riff with brand new jokes and Alison and I laughed so hard during the show!

This was such an awesome RiffTrax Live! event! And guess what? You too can experience the awesomeness of the guys of RiffTrax! To purchase RiffTrax downloads of audio commentaries, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, visit their website at www.rifftrax.com. To learn more about Mystery Science Theater 3000, visit their website at www.mst3k.com. To learn about upcoming Fathom Events coming to your town, visit their website at www.fathomevents.com.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!

Phil attends the RiffTrax Live! Broadcast of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD at the Century 20 Oakridge Mall-October 25, 2013

Hello again everybody! So this past Thursday night, I headed on over to the Cinemark Century 20 Theaters in Oakridge mall in south San Jose to attended the RiffTrax Live! broadcast of the 1968 George A. Romero horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. To actually riff such a landmark film in the horror genre takes a lot of guts (pun intended), but remember these guys are professionals! If anybody could riff on the grandfather of zombie films, it would be the RiffTrax guys!

So if you don't know what a Rifftrax is, let me give you all a quick definition. According to their official website, Rifftrax "are comedic MP3 tracks that you play in-sync with your favorite movies. Written and performed by the stars of the award-winning TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax brings the unique humor of "Satellite of Love" partners Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett to Hollywood's hit movies."

They guys broadcast the event from the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee to hundreds of movie theaters across the country courtesy of the folks at Fathom Events. After some funny intros, they guys got down with doing what they do best!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of the most revered and one of the most important horror films of the 20th Century. The movie is found in the Top Five most influential horror films and is considered the alpha and omega of the zombie genre. Directed by horror icon George Romero, the film spawned five sequels, numerous remakes, re-imagines, and parodies and homages.

Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, & Michael J. Nelson

Kevin, Bill, and Michael had no problem pointing out the faults of the film and riffing the hell outta them. It's funny, because of the film's legacy and how it's so beloved by horror fans, we fail to see some of the faults to be found within its frames. Luckily, the guys had the audience in stitches! Yes, the RiffTrax crew pulled no punches on the film, and had the us eating out of the palm of their hands! Making fun on a classic is by no means an easy task, but the guys managed to pull off the impossible, and made Halloween a little less scary in the process.

This was such an awesome RiffTrax Live! event! Now just in case you missed it, you're in luck! The gang will be back just in time for Christmas as the riff that awful holiday classic film SANTA CLAUS VS. THE MARTIANS! Tickets are now available for that event, which will take place on Thursday, December 5th at 7:30pm, so make that date on your calender!

To purchase RiffTrax downloads of audio commentaries, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, visit their website at www.rifftrax.com. To learn more about Mystery Science Theater 3000, visit their website at www.mst3k.com. To learn about upcoming Fathom Events coming to your town, visit their website at www.fathomevents.com.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!

Phil attends the Rifftrax Live! Broadcast of STARSHIP TROOPERS at the Century 20 Oakridge-August 15, 2013

Hello again everybody! So this past Thursday night, my sister Stephanie and I attended the live RiffTrax broadcast of STARSHIP TROOPERS, a true sci-fi cult classic from the 1990's! So the both of us couldn't wait to see this show!

So if you don't know what a Rifftrax is, let me give you all a quick definition. Rifftrax "are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling (or riffing) films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax commentaries are sold online and delivered by digital download," according to the website Wikipedia. But all this is just a fancy way of saying, "it's funny as hell!" Now Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett do the occasional live shows from one venue that is broadcast to hundreds of theaters all across the country, courtesy of teaming up with NCM Fathom Events. The closest theater that was participating in the live broadcast was the Century 20 Theaters in Oakridge Mall. So all of us headed over there to catch this awesome cinematic event!

Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, & Michael J. Nelson

After making their introductions, the guys began riffing on the sci-fi classic STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997). The film stars Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico), Denise Richards (Carmen Ibanez), Dina Meyer (Dizzy Flores), Neil Patrick Harris (Carl Jenkins), Jake Busey (Ace Levy), and Michael Ironside (Jean Rasczak). The film's about the human race trying to survive from eradication from an invasion of giant, mutant insects. With the plot sounds like a AIP B-Movie flick from the 1950's, there's more going on here than meets the eye. Director Paul Verhoeven has helmed other classics such as ROBOCOP (1987), TOTAL RECALL (1990), and BASIC INSTINCT (1992), but with this film, Verhoeven satires on war, patriotism, propaganda, and perverted idealism of the Utopian American dream.

Of course, Mike, Bill, and Kevin made the impossible possible as they just tore through this Hollywood creation! With jokes like, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles" when the gigantic bugs come walking on screen, to taking shots at Jake Busey's big teeth and Denise Richards as "the worst Bond Girl ever!"

This was an awesome RiffTrax event! Now just in case you missed it, there will be an encore screening of the event on Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 7:30pm! To purchase RiffTrax downloads of audio commentaries, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, visit their website at www.rifftrax.com. To learn more about Mystery Science Theater 3000, visit their website at www.mst3k.com. To learn about upcoming Fathom Events coming to your town, visit their website at www.fathomevents.com.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!

Phil attends the RiffTrax Live Broadcast of MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE at the Century 20 Oakridge-August 16, 2012

Hello again everybody! So this past Thursday night, my sister Stephanie, my brother Thomas and his fiancee Sharon and I attended the live RiffTrax broadcast of MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, one of the WORST movies ever made! So we all couldn't wait to see this show!

So if you don't know what a Rifftrax is, let me give you all a quick definition. Rifftrax "are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling (or riffing) films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax are sold online and delivered by digital download," according to the website Wikipedia. But all this is just a fancy way of saying, "it's funny as hell!" Now Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett do the occasional live shows from one venue that is broadcast to hundreds of theaters all across the country, courtesy of teaming up with NCM Fathom Events. The closest theater that was participating in the live broadcast was the Century 20 Theaters in Oakridge Mall. So all of us headed over there to catch this awesome cinematic event!

Before the show, the RiffTrax broadcast had some hilarious jokes put up on the screen to get the audience primed and ready. Then at 8pm, the show began! Coming to us live from a theater in Nashville, the night started off with a couple of side-splitting shorts. The first short entitled WELCOME BACK, NORMAN was about a traveling salesman named Norman who flies back to his hometown airport and all the hilarious shenanigans that happens to him and his car. Now what I would like to know is this: exactly what kind of film was this supposed to be anyway? Was it a comedy? A documentary? An educational short about the plight of the American salesman? Whatever the point of making this film was, thanks to the RiffTrax crew, I was laughing hysterically, especially when they popularized Norman's catch phrase of "Ugh!" The whole audience was quoting this throughout the rest of the show!

The second short was an educational short that was just really creepy! AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: CYLINDERS showed the young children of America in the 1970's how much fun it is to make things out of cylinders. Arts and crafts were never this funny, as the guys tore this short a new one!

Newspaper ad for premiere in El Paso. 11/15/66

After the shorts, Mike had to make way for our "sponsor" for this evening's show. He then proceeded to show us an old Sixties commercial of a man drinking prune juice. Now if that wasn't scary enough, the man had a SECOND glass of prune juice! Yup, every man, woman, and child squirmed in their seats during this one! 

Then it was time for the main event of the evening! Now the film was featured in the final episode of season four of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) on January 30, 1993 (#424 to be exact) and it immediately became the show's most popular episode! The film was written, directed, produced, and starred Harold P. Warren, who at the time was a Texas fertilizer salesman (which explains way the film sticks like poo)! The films about a vacationing family who get lost and stumble upon a Satanic Inn run by a lackey named Torgo who, "takes care of the place while The Master is away." While watching this, I did have flashback jokes from the old MST3K episode, but it was only fleeting.  That night, Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett unveiled an all new riff and jokes that made the audience laugh so hard that I thought I saw people passing out! The jokes were right on, creative, and just flat out hilarious! I think their riff was better than the original! As Mike said, "It's the worst film ever made that's not a TRANSFORMERS movie." Also, during the show's credits, Torgo sings his version of the classic Eagles song "Take It Easy," with the lyrics telling the film from his point of view! The video showed clips of the upcoming MANOS sequel!! The film was written, produced, and directed by Rupert Tailbot Munch (who plays Torgo in the sequel) and looks to have some of the cast of the original film to make appearances!

From the workprint discovered in 2011.

Now a quick sidebar for you cinephiles!  According to Wikipedia, "In 2011, the original 16mm Ektachrome camera workprint of MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE was discovered in a collection of 16mm films by Ben Solovey, a Florida State film school grad. Solovey announced his intention to preserve and restore MANOS for a High Definition Blu-ray release. The DVD release is a digital copy created from a 35mm print magnified from a 16mm workprint. Solovey financed the restoration via crowd funding website Kickstarter, raising $48,000 (nearly five times the initial goal). The restored print will be released on Blu-ray in the fall of 2012." How unbelievable is this bit of news? Yes folks, pretty soon you can watch the worst film ever made in glorious High Definition in the very near future! What a wonderful age we live in!!

Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, & Michael J. Nelson

This was a great RiffTrax event! I really hope these guys will release this show on Blu-Ray and DVD soon because I want a copy of this so I can watch it over and over again just like my MST3K DVD!! Now for all you folks out there who missed out on all this laughter, don't worry because you'll be getting a second chance to see these guys again real soon! On October 25, 2012, there will be another RiffTrax live event, and this time they will be riffing on the modern cult classic BIRDEMIC, which was filmed in Sunnyvale, the next city over from San Jose! And just in case you have never seen this film....well.....let's just say that you have never experienced pain like this before! If you thought MANOS was bad, what until you see this cinematic piece of crap! So mark this date on your calender and be sure to check out RiffTrax Live!!

To purchase RiffTrax downloads of audio commentaries, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, visit their website at www.rifftrax.com. To learn more about Mystery Science Theater 3000, visit their website at www.mst3k.com. To learn about upcoming Fathom Events coming to your town, visit their website at www.fathomevents.com.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!