Anybody else have plans to go tonight? I love these events, and I’m pretty excited because I’ve never actually seen the movie, despite having it “recommended” to me many times.
Also, I’m curious if this happens in other theaters–typically, our local place sells out in advance. We tend to arrive unnecessarily early so as to get good seats (stadium theater, and I’m too short to sit on the floor without getting an extremely painful crick in the neck). Before both Starship Troopers and Night of the Living Dead this year, we got into the theater about 7:10 (Eastern time) and discovered that they were running “test footage” of previous Rifftrax events. Before NotLD we saw part of Starship Troopers, and before ST we saw about half an hour of something involving pirates and a princess and some truly ugly witches with bad special effects. It’s like an extra half-hour of movie for free!
Ah, when I was a wee lad (okay, I was 10) my sisters and I were dropped off at the theater to watch this little gem. Normally, my Dad went with us, but he skipped out on this one. At 10 I was bored. My younger sister (then 8) was also bored. My older sister slept through it. Rifftrax is it’s only salvation. [Well, that and it’s theme song: Sloppy Seconds (!) performing Hooray for Santa Claus!]
The Knig/Zappa clan is going! 3 of the 4 of us saw Starship Troopers, and RiffTrax was the only way to make that movie good. FTR, RiffTrax made it great! I hadn’t laughed that hard in years. I am at a disadvantage tonight, I’ve never seen Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - despite seeing ads for it every year on local TV while I was a lad.
Alas, I will be missing this one.
They only show it in one theater around here and it mostly sells out. We always get there early for good seats and to see the warm-up.
I’ll missing it too. NOTLD was hilarious, and I want to see Starship Troopers based on the footage played before NOTLD.
They made a bad movie funny. I know that’s “what they do”, but they do it well. I honestly laughed every minute. The cards and songs before the movie were great, too. We had fun! I don’t think there was a “hit it out of the park” line like they had for Starship Troopers, but they did bring the funny. I’m looking forward to the next one, whatever it is.
The “hit it out of the park” line from Starship Troopers:
Lt. Jean Rasczak: I need a corporal. You’re it, until you’re dead or I find someone better.
Riffers: Those were my wedding vows! 
Well, how did you all like it? I enjoyed it, but not as much as the original MST episode. I found the “original” riffs funnier and missed hearing them every time I expected to hear an especially funny one.
The short was strange and funny too, but not their best.
I’ve never seen the original episode, but I did feel like it was a lot of second-string material–maybe it’s because they were trying not to repeat themselves. It was still funny and I’m glad I went, but I felt I’ve seen better.
I can’t remember if it was the credits for the movie or the short, but I swear to Og there was a guy credited named “Dick Pitsticker.” And I cannot for the life of me figure out why nobody said anything.
After having to miss Night of the Living Dead, I made sure to get to this one. Loved it! Thought it stood up to the original MST version very well - laughed too hard when they pointed out how silly it was that the Martians were confused by multiple people wearing the same outfit…
Yeah! my friend and I wondered about that too.