Ever heard of Rifftrax? No? Then you’ve been missing out on some of the best geek humor around. It has a basic set up: A group of comedians watch a terrible movie and make jokes about it for the audience’s amusement. If you are familiar with a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, then you should know the crew behind it are the creators of Rifftrax. Their website is full of plenty of hilarious audio commentary to play with some of the more popular films in recent cinema history including Transformers 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Every few months, the group has special screens on one night only (with an Encore the following week) where they watch a film live and rip into it. The movie they choose this month was Miami Connection, an 80’s music laced, ninja filled, action movie, with a cast who learned most of their karate in the week of lessons they got back in the 6th grade. The setup involves an evil group of Miami based ninjas who want to distribute cocaine through the clubs, thanks to one of their members named Jeff (because Jeff is a perfect ninja name). Jeff is creepily jealous that his sister Jane is involved with a band named Dragon Sound, the film’s heroes. The band juggle going to college, practicing martial arts, and singing about integrity and honesty in a way which makes the songs from My Little Pony sound metal in comparison and all while remaining shirtless for a good portion of the film. The film follows the band as they fight against Jeff who wants them to stop playing their terrible music.
If this premise sounds terrible, it should be, and this is what makes the movie so enjoyable. The jokes the crew were able to make about the cheesy acting, Jeff’s prominent beard, and the terrible songs that the band played were hilarious. If you watch a Rifftrax showing and don’t laugh you should really question your humor.
The film also came with the short Superman knockoff called “Measuring Man” who taught a young boy all about units. You can already see the comedy possibilities that were present. The jokes made about these poorly outdated informational videos are some of the best material the comedians feature.
Rifftrax are always a joy and this one was no exception. Come December you need to be on the lookout as the team will have one last screening with film known as Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny. It looks truly horrify and thereby amazing to watch.
