What if they do “Romeo + Juliet” (that one where they put it in then modern times)?
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There’s a distinct difference between “should never be riffed” and “should never be riffed by the MST3K gang”.
The '90s “erotic thriller” genre is a gold mine of bad cinema, e.g., but, yeah, not really appropriate for MST3K.
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Perhaps you forget all the erotic thriller names they came up with during the end of Outlaw? Seems they might be very knowledgeable of such things (The USA Network was basic-cable Skinemax of the 90s).
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It’s one thing to reference them, it’s another to base the show on a film which is 30% nekkid by weight and/or volume.
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I’ve never really given a lot of thought to movies that shouldn’t be riffed, although I can think of a few things that would make a movie difficult to riff (apart from the usual areas like rape, extremes of violence, etc.).
Comedies are always going to be tricky, since the commentary has to be funnier than the movie. Not impossible, as Catalina Caper showed, but I wouldn’t relish the writers’ jobs if they decided to have a go at It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World or Airplane! – or, for that matter, Mystery Science Theater: The Movie (metametacommentary, anyone?).
When a movie tumbles into either (or both) of the twin abysses of pompousness or self-importance, there are going to be plenty of hooks to get some meaty riffs into. But an artistic movie that actually succeeds at being artistic is going to be troublesome to make fun of – it’s like dismissing a Van Gogh because he didn’t sell it during his lifetime, it completely misses the point.
A movie has to give opportunities for riffing, too. Take 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are long stretches without dialog (the first actual word isn’t spoken until more than half an hour into it), and what do you do with the ‘Journey to the Infinite’ sequence? There’s really only a finite number of “Pick up the pace, people!” jokes that can be made before those start getting old. I could be wrong, but I just can’t think of many hooks for hanging jokes off of.
Riff-proof directors? Outside of the super-artsy stuff that’s never grounded long enough to get a good grip on, I suspect the trickiest to riff would be the Coen brothers.
On the flip side, I think a successful riffing of Citizen Kane could be done, because so much of that movie has become familiar – most of the movies made over the decade after it incorporated the visual language Welles introduced. It’s unquestionably a great movie, but its features are familiar to everyone, so yeah, have at it.
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I’m not sure there’s a movie so heat it shouldn’t be riffed
There might be incompatible ones - comedies etc - but that’s not the same thing.
I don’t feel it’s a case of bad movies getting what they deserve (Tho some do) it’s more a recreation of a night watching movies with friends. So nothing is off limits
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lol. Just thinking now about how they coped with brief, isolated nudity, going back to City Limits and the opening umbrella. I would not want to be the assistant tasked with having multiple logos and umbrellas splashed across the screen every other scene. o_0
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Pulling a Devilfish might not work.
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This suggests some kind of invention exchange which would automatically clothe the performers for you. So every movie was safe to watch with one’s Mom after church on Sunday.
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Or having the bots move around strategically.
It’s not just nudity, though, there are plenty of fully clothed scenes that are unsuitable.
Excessive gore is similarly. Scanners might be a fun riff but the ending could be…challenging.
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Probably The Happytime Murders, but I do think it would be fun to fill a room with people who know nothing about the movie and record them watching it for the first time just to capture their reactions. Release it like one of the Cinematic Titanic episodes with various audience members in little boxes around the main movie.
Probably all the religious based blockbuster movies that were big in the 1950’s and 1960’s – movies like The Robe, Ben-Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Ten Commandments and The Bible. There is too great a risk of crossing the fine line – in some viewers’ eyes-- between making fun of the movie and making fun of the religion. Maybe some other folks could riff those kind of films successfully if they just didn’t care about offending some people, but I’m guessing the MST3K gang would never touch them.
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I like it (!) - I dunno…
even though i understand what your saying, and just don’t agree with it, as they should do ‘Ben-Hur,’ if they haven’t already. but there is one that they shouldn’t do along those lines: ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ that would literally be brutal for me to watch them riff. I’d like to see them do ‘Noah’ though, too. You’re right though, they have enough sensibility to try to play it safe with that stuff.
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also i’d add I probably wouldn’t watch them do ‘Space Jam’ or the 90’s ‘Batman’ movies without seriously cringing. but i’m sure i’d make it through. the riffers are that funny.
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Now I’m reminded of the churchy song they did as the giant Gila was about to nom an entire train of innocent people while the drunk guy watched. Can’t. Stop. Giggling.
Koyaanisqatsi. Or indeed any of the Qatsi trilogy.
Rifftrax could probably do it though, seeing as half their riffs now are just describing what’s on screen.
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Comedies, mostly.
Actually, I loved the Hamlet episode. Honestly, the riffing on the “to be or not to be” speech was basically explaining what it meant and if I was teaching high school, I would totally show it and kids would get a kick out of it.
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