Off-My-Shelf: Rifftrax Presents "Samurai Cop" (2017)
I suppose this needs a bit of background. "Rifftrax" is the comedy project of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett (all three of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame). If you know Mystery Science Theater 3000, then you can probably guess what Rifftrax is -- a website featuring these three guys doing comedy commentaries over bad movies. (Or even not-so-bad movies; you can find their audio-only commentaries to play over most of the big Hollywood releases).
Occasionally, though, these guys broadcast a "live" riffing event to various movie theaters across the country through Fathom Events. I've been to a few, but not for several years... So I came to last week's live broadcast of Samurai Cop (1991) with relatively fresh eyes to the experience. (For comparison, I've seen four out of their first six shows... and now there have been twenty something. There's clearly been water under the bridge since I first went, as it feels like a more polished experience.)
Samurai Cop itself is a hilariously bad movie, so I had no doubts about that part of the experience.
The most famous moment from Samurai Cop. If it lookslike a fake movie... it kind of is.
The evening opened with a Rifftrax standard; rather than having to suffer through the normal, interminable movie theatre "pre-show" commercials and uninventive trivia, Rifftrax beams in a lineup of goofy, made-up "movie facts and trivia" to a soundtrack of Rifftrax-produced (or approved) music that plays for about twenty minutes prior. (So, definitely arrive early).
Their opening "credits sequence" has upgraded a bit from the last time I experienced it; they now have a whole cartoon intro that explains exactly what Rifftrax is (for the uninitiated. For you more experienced folks, it's similar to the CGI-animated opening they created for the "Shake Hands with Danger" short a couple years back, but doesn't go as deep into the uncanny valley).
Behind Mike -- CGI "Balloon Animal" Bill and "Popcorn" Kevin.
Unsettling, to say the least. I think it's their dead eyes.Then, Mike, Kevin and Bill gave a short introductory monologue, followed by riffing over an educational short about how not to be rude at school. (Quite funny). This was followed by the only part of the show that I somewhat disliked -- they forced us to watch the trailer for the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 series. I've been rather disappointed by what I've seen of that, and didn't particularly appreciate being forced to watch it; especially because it wasn't like this was an exclusive, never-before-seen trailer or anything -- it was just the same old trailer that's been floating around the internet for a couple weeks. It felt a bit forced.
In protest, I'm not putting a link to the MST3k-revival trailer. I refuse.However, that was the one sour note during the show -- after that, they immediately launched into the main event, the showing of Samurai Cop. As I said previously, this is a hilariously bad movie anyway. As far as a "Can I take my kids to this?" goes -- with Rifftrax, it seems like the rating of the commentary usually matches whatever the rating of the film would have been. This film is unrated, but I'm guessing would have been a hard PG-13, for violence, minor nudity (boobies) and some rather graphic language. It's a fairly typical 1980's action movie in that respect (clearly trying to be a Lethal Weapon-type experience). This is another movie that feels like it was written by non-Native-English speakers (because it was) -- so be prepared for some rather nonsensical dialogue with nonsensical cursing.
And nonsensical fight scenes.Rifftrax did an admirable job adding to the already-funny experience of watching this movie. My only other complaint is that the show felt like it ended very abruptly after the film ended. Granted, they're not obligated to do a closing set, especially not after talking through an entire two-hour movie plus short subject -- but it just feels like they should have some ending remarks there, outside of "Thanks for coming -- goodnight, folks!" ...even if they were just briefly plugging their next show. (Might have been a better place, too, to cram in the MST3k-revival commercial). Granted, over the credits they played the delightful "Samurai Cop Rockin' Action Theme" (as sung by Kevin Murphy) -- which was pretty darn hilarious.
How does this compare to other Rifftrax Live shows? Well, like I said, I've seen four of the their other 20-or-so live shows, and this one was slightly less funny than the funniest one I've seen ( Jack the Giant Killer ) and much funnier than the least funny one I've seen ( House on Haunted Hill , which I thought suffered from having been a recycled solo-Mike riff from the early days of Rifftrax).
I definitely don't think that you need to have seen other Rifftrax shows in order to enjoy this, or other Rifftrax live broadcasts. It might be helpful to already be a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but if you go into this having only having the barest understanding of that show, I think you would still enjoy yourself.
All and all, then, the Rifftrax version of Samurai Cop was an enjoyable evening out with a lot of laughs. It was solidly hilarious, with only the most minor of stumbles. Now, obviously, you won't be able to see this particular event live again, but you can buy a recording of the non-live version from the Rifftrax website. And, as this seems to be the standard quality of their shows, I can safely recommend future Rifftrax Live events.
RECOMMENDED
Occasionally, though, these guys broadcast a "live" riffing event to various movie theaters across the country through Fathom Events. I've been to a few, but not for several years... So I came to last week's live broadcast of Samurai Cop (1991) with relatively fresh eyes to the experience. (For comparison, I've seen four out of their first six shows... and now there have been twenty something. There's clearly been water under the bridge since I first went, as it feels like a more polished experience.)
Samurai Cop itself is a hilariously bad movie, so I had no doubts about that part of the experience.
The most famous moment from Samurai Cop. If it lookslike a fake movie... it kind of is.
The evening opened with a Rifftrax standard; rather than having to suffer through the normal, interminable movie theatre "pre-show" commercials and uninventive trivia, Rifftrax beams in a lineup of goofy, made-up "movie facts and trivia" to a soundtrack of Rifftrax-produced (or approved) music that plays for about twenty minutes prior. (So, definitely arrive early).
Their opening "credits sequence" has upgraded a bit from the last time I experienced it; they now have a whole cartoon intro that explains exactly what Rifftrax is (for the uninitiated. For you more experienced folks, it's similar to the CGI-animated opening they created for the "Shake Hands with Danger" short a couple years back, but doesn't go as deep into the uncanny valley).
Behind Mike -- CGI "Balloon Animal" Bill and "Popcorn" Kevin.Unsettling, to say the least. I think it's their dead eyes.Then, Mike, Kevin and Bill gave a short introductory monologue, followed by riffing over an educational short about how not to be rude at school. (Quite funny). This was followed by the only part of the show that I somewhat disliked -- they forced us to watch the trailer for the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 series. I've been rather disappointed by what I've seen of that, and didn't particularly appreciate being forced to watch it; especially because it wasn't like this was an exclusive, never-before-seen trailer or anything -- it was just the same old trailer that's been floating around the internet for a couple weeks. It felt a bit forced.
In protest, I'm not putting a link to the MST3k-revival trailer. I refuse.However, that was the one sour note during the show -- after that, they immediately launched into the main event, the showing of Samurai Cop. As I said previously, this is a hilariously bad movie anyway. As far as a "Can I take my kids to this?" goes -- with Rifftrax, it seems like the rating of the commentary usually matches whatever the rating of the film would have been. This film is unrated, but I'm guessing would have been a hard PG-13, for violence, minor nudity (boobies) and some rather graphic language. It's a fairly typical 1980's action movie in that respect (clearly trying to be a Lethal Weapon-type experience). This is another movie that feels like it was written by non-Native-English speakers (because it was) -- so be prepared for some rather nonsensical dialogue with nonsensical cursing.
And nonsensical fight scenes.Rifftrax did an admirable job adding to the already-funny experience of watching this movie. My only other complaint is that the show felt like it ended very abruptly after the film ended. Granted, they're not obligated to do a closing set, especially not after talking through an entire two-hour movie plus short subject -- but it just feels like they should have some ending remarks there, outside of "Thanks for coming -- goodnight, folks!" ...even if they were just briefly plugging their next show. (Might have been a better place, too, to cram in the MST3k-revival commercial). Granted, over the credits they played the delightful "Samurai Cop Rockin' Action Theme" (as sung by Kevin Murphy) -- which was pretty darn hilarious.
How does this compare to other Rifftrax Live shows? Well, like I said, I've seen four of the their other 20-or-so live shows, and this one was slightly less funny than the funniest one I've seen ( Jack the Giant Killer ) and much funnier than the least funny one I've seen ( House on Haunted Hill , which I thought suffered from having been a recycled solo-Mike riff from the early days of Rifftrax).
I definitely don't think that you need to have seen other Rifftrax shows in order to enjoy this, or other Rifftrax live broadcasts. It might be helpful to already be a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but if you go into this having only having the barest understanding of that show, I think you would still enjoy yourself.
All and all, then, the Rifftrax version of Samurai Cop was an enjoyable evening out with a lot of laughs. It was solidly hilarious, with only the most minor of stumbles. Now, obviously, you won't be able to see this particular event live again, but you can buy a recording of the non-live version from the Rifftrax website. And, as this seems to be the standard quality of their shows, I can safely recommend future Rifftrax Live events.
RECOMMENDED
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