It has been awhile since I attended a RiffTrax Live show, and tonight, I was able to go to the latest film being riffed by the three gentlemen. That film is the 1986 BMX bike film, Rad.
RiffTrax includes Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett who watch the movie with an audience (this time with the actual star of the film, Bill Allen, who played Cru, was in attendance in the audience-no pressure guys) and the three comedians take turns cracking jokes about the film.
The last couple of RiffTrax events were okay, but did not reach the level of some of the classics such as Manos: The Hands of Fate, Birdemic: Shock and Terror or The Room.
Rad, however, was very funny and I found this one to be well worth the time. To be clear, the RiffTrax Live show is never bad. Just some are funnier than others. Rad presented the guys with a plethora of humor.
Plus, Rad had some “big” names in the cast including Rocky’s Talia Shore (which had one of the best riff line of the film: as she looked down on screen, ‘I was in the Godfather.’), Olympic medalist Bart Conner, and Lori Laughlin (who received a ton of riffs with the scandal about paying to get her kids into college).
I will admit that some of their jokes tend toward being out of date, but since their jokes feature allusions that fall right in to my generation, I catch more than I miss.
Fathom Events presented this night once again from a theater in Tennessee. I have always wondered if the show was truly live, but it seems as if everywhere I looked indicated that it was live and streamed across the nation.
They warmed up the audience with two short films, both featuring Gumby and Pokey animated films. Neither of the Gumby shorts were great, but it served its purpose.
I look forward to the next time they get together to riff a film.