Rifftrax Live! Anaconda Recap by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

 

Any longtime reader here will probably not be surprised to learn that I love Mystery Science Theater 3000- with its snarky remarks at bad movies, goofy skits, and freaking robots- what's not to love? Since the show's cancellation, the stars of it have branched this concept into various forms:

• The Film Crew, with the three core cast members of the last seasons of MST3K- Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, and Mike Nelson- is probably the most reminscent of it. Their characters have a boss that forces them to watch terrible movies, and they make a joke commentary over it. Before, after, and scattered inbetween are sketches.

• Cinematic Titanic, with original star, and other supporting characters from MST3K utilizes the silhouette format for the hosts, but has no skits.

• Rifftrax is downloadable commentary to most major theatrical releases, ridiculous shorts, and older bad horror flicks. 95% of the time, you download just their riffing track (thus their name), and must provide the film and synch the two up yourself. This has given the Film Crew guys (yes, the exact same fellows) a huge amount of freedom in not only what movies to riff, but also their jokes. This new found freedom has afforded Rifftrax a huge popularity, since really, who doesn't want to see some witty and funny guys take down Michael Bay's "Transformers" or the "Twilight Saga"?

 

Since Riffftrax has grown so large, they ocassionally will do a live performance of an indemand movie. This is exactly what they did on October 30, 2014. The movie being riffed? Why, none other than the first "Anaconda" film! This coincided with my "Anaconda Creature Feature Month" perfectly, and I knew just had to go! So, went I did.

 

Being hosted in the gorgeous Carolina Theater, located smack dab in the middle of downtown Durham, NC (home to the Escapist Expo!) the place was packed. They were filming, which was neat to see. The stage in front of the screen had been dressed up to appear like the boat in the film, which is the sort of fun detail that makes seeing this kind of event so cool.

 

Before the show proper started, there was a looping track of made up, super obvious, or very dumb 'Movie Quotes', 'Did You Know' trivia, and other spoof things of the stupid crap theaters usually have before a movie begins (actual movie trailers excluded). The awesome part is that each one was kept within the snake theme. My personal favorite was 'Anagrams' for the movie "SSSSSSSS". It's as funny as it sounds!

 

Our three hosts- Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, and Mike Nelson- were all quite clearly very happy and energized to be there. They made a few annoucements, before segueing into a pretty funny riff of a short film.

 

A few more annoucements, and the like, and then it was on with the show!

 

They were hilarious! I am surprised I didn't lose my voice from how hard I was laughing at times. Seeing how they move off script and react to the audience was a delight. Personally speaking, my attention was rather evenly divided amongst them and the movie. There were quite a few excellent lines, and some ongoing gags, based on the audiences reactions to certain things said. I am not going to give them away (it was filmed for the live broadcast, but there is a an encore showing of it November 4. Go if you can make it!), but Mr. Corbett had a super keen eye and noticed something so asinine and ridiculous that I don't know how I missed in it my review-

 

Near the end of the film, instead of shooting a new scene of the ship backing up, the filmmakers reserved an earlier shot. This practice in and of itself isn't an issue, as it's understandable thing that needs to happen. The scene in question though prominently features a waterfall (it's used as a pretty big setpiece), so by reserving said shot the water now flows up! THE WATER NOW FLOWS UP!

 

I don't know how I never noticed that! It was hilarious to see, and very expertly pointed out by our three funny men.

 

The event was tons of fun, and has given me more fodder to sling at those giant Amazonian snakes. So, it was completely worth it! If you get the chance to catch a Rifftrax Live event, I highly recommend it.