Space Mutiny (Rifftrax Live)

Film Year:  1988
Genre:  Science Fiction
Director:  David Winters
Starring:  Reb Brown, John Phillip Law, Cisse Cameron, Cameron Mitchell
Rifftrax Year:  2018
Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett
Featured Short:  "The Magic Shop"

The Short

Based on an H.G. Wells short story, The Magic Shop is about...well guess.  A father and a son walk into a magic shop and the magician behind the counter puts on some pedestrian magic tricks that slowly escalate into something more magical.

I had never heard of this story and if I were to believe IMDB it looks like it was only adapted to film twice, once seen here and the other as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  I have yet to see that episode of Hitchcock, though this short is pretty okay.  It has a simple and straightforward story and it never really aims too high or two low.  It just accomplishes its mission, which is to just put on ten minutes of whimsy.

If I were to nitpick I guess the short tends to get a bit noisy and incoherent at times.  But it does feel like it's in the structural nature of what is going on, to just get crazier.  Crazy it is, but the short is just fine.

The Movie

Shamelessly stealing it’s spaceship footage from the far superior Battlestar Galactica, Space Mutiny also tells the tale of a group of refugees from a dead planet looking for a new home.  Though it’s more in tune with Lost in Space than Battlestar Galactica.  And by Lost in Space, I mean the nutso Goth punk Matt LeBlanc movie.  Only much cheaper.  Cheaper than the original Lost in Space, in fact.

Damn.  I really want to watch either Battlestar Galactica or Lost in Space now.  And I can’t figure out which.

Anyway, a group of people on our spacecraft succumbs to…SPACE!  MADNESS!

…And revolts against the Captain Santa Claus and his faithful underlings.  The events send former Diabolik John Phillip Law and former TV movie Captain America Reb Brown on a collision course!

What can be said about Space Mutiny that isn’t plainly obvious?  The only reason it’s not the worst movie ever made is because it’s too damn unintentionally funny!  Whether it’s the sets, the actors, or our macho hero screaming like a girl, this flick is sure to get a laugh out of you.  That’s the difficulty of reviewing a film that pretty much speaks for itself, because there’s nowhere to start because everything is so haywire that you can’t find a starting point.

But honestly, if there were ever a movie to watch outside the show for a Mystery Science Theater home experience, this is the film to do it on.  It’s painless, funny, and kind of fun to watch.  That doesn’t redeem its worse aspects, but it’s better than nothing!

The Live Show

Our Live Show experience is enhanced straight away as Kevin makes a dramatic entrance in cosplay.  Based on Cameron Mitchell's character from the film Kev marches out with a fuller beard and a flashy blue muumuu-type number that he totally rocks.  This costume was done as a promise to the Kickstarter backers and I believe it is worth every penny.

Kicking off our show, Mike, Kevin, and Bill riff upon The Magic Shop short film, which appears to have been selected because it may or may not have some nostalgic echos to another MST episode (which I guess is welcome in a reriff Live Show like this) Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders.  There's even toy monkeys with symbols, inspiring the fan service callback riff of "Rock'n'roll Martian!"  The short for the most part delights in spurts, though never becomes outright hilarious.  Still it's a pleasant start to the show.

Up next we're given a riffed preview of the next Live Show, Krull.  This segment will most likely be edited out of the DVD, so if anybody who is viewing this at home doesn't know what I'm talking about, there you go.  The segment is mostly okay, with a shout-out to a young Liam Neeson in the film probably highlighting.  I have not seen Krull so I didn't really understand what was going on in the clip, but it looks like it will be good fodder.

Next we're off into the main event, and the answer is yes, they do finally address the Battlestar Galactica footage in this riff of the film, but only in one line.  Mike just lets loose something I'm sure he's been dying to say for twenty years:  "Yes we know it's the ship from Battlestar Galactica, you nerds."  After that they let it slide, but what a glorious in-joke it was.

But for the next twenty minutes I began to fear that Space Mutiny was degrading into another Time Chasers style disaster of a Live Show.  New jokes weren't provoking a reaction (especially a really lame interchange about chicken fajitas which the guys do for a full minute) and the audience was laughing at empty space, recalling riffs from the MST version.  I started to settle back and say "Oh well.  At least we finally got a BSG riff."  And there was even a riff on Reb Brown's failed Captain America pilot, so that made me happy.

However as the movie ramps up, the more jazzed about it our trio get.  Riffs progressively become more fun, even though there are a few times they pretty much do a new version of a riff that was in the MST version (the "dead crew member resurrection" scene and "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" pretty much provoke the same response, just phrased differently).  In the end I didn't really mind the rehashed material.  It just became a nostalgic experience mixed with new laughs.

And the answer is yes, we get a whole slew of new Dave Rider beefcake names.  I don't think many are as memorable as the original group, but it's good to have them back.  The Gorilla Gram from the Starship Troopers Live Show is also back, revamped a tad to help cover up some naughty bits.

Overall I'm not convinced it was worthwhile seeing Space Mutiny riffed again.  If anything one of the major things I got from this experience was seeing Space Mutiny on the big screen really emphasized how cheap it is as a movie.  There's a point in this film that I've never noticed where Reb Brown and Cissy Cameron walk past the end of the set and you can see a good portion of the back of the set while they're continuing the scene.  It helped me appreciate what an amusing clusterfuck this movie was if nothing else.  The new riffing starts a bit meh but grows into something better as it goes on.  This isn't the best Rifftrax Live by any means, maybe middle of the pack to lower tier, but it's a solid one to check out.

Good