Star Trek V Rocks!
I never thought I'd say this, but I just saw Star Trek V, and loved it. But there was a trick to it. Which didn't involve alcohol of any kind (at least, not that I know of).

I first saw it nearly twenty years ago, shortly after it's release (I avoided seeing it in the theater, thankfully), thinking, "How badly can they screw it up? It's Star Trek." Just like that American Godzilla movie, I was both amazed and appalled by the fact that yes, they COULD screw it up that bad.

When I discovered "Mystery Science Theater 3000," I always wanted them to "do" Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but I knew they could never afford the license to Paramount's baby. But years after the demise of both Star Trek (for now) and MST-3K (forever, probably), Mike Nelson created a new company called "RiffTrax," which basically continues the MST-3K joke of "riffing" on a movie. The riffs are sold as separate audio commentaries that you have to sync up to the movies. And play it on a separate MP3 - playing device.

Yeah, it's kind of a pain to set up. But once set up, it worked like a charm.

We invited a bunch of friends, called it a party, brought food, and figured that even if it sucked, we'd have a good time together, and play some multiplayer Guitar Hero afterwards. So it was a win / win. I downloaded the commentary onto the laptop, hooked it up to some speakers, and went through the synching-up process, and then let it rip to a living room of about fifteen adults.
It did not dissapoint.

I don't know if all the RiffTrax commentaries are this funny, but this one had some of us were falling out of our chairs by the end of the evening. While it didn't have the intermissions with the dumb skits or the "mads" or anything, it still felt a lot like good ol' MST-3K. The commentaries got a little bit edgier, but seemed more in the PG or PG-13 range. If you don't mind some jokes about Spock & Kirk's possible... relationship... you won't be offended.

The experiment was enough of a success that we unanimously decided to try it again, soon. I'd be hesitant to try a commentary with just Mike Nelson... so much of the humor worked because Mike & Kevin played off of each other so well.

Anyway, if you were ever an MST-3K fan, I recommend giving them a try, and let me know how it goes. I recommend a larger group of like-minded nuts, if you can swing it. If you hated MST-3K --- Well, this really is more of the same, so don't bother.

But now Star Trek V has been transformed in my memory as something associated with happy thoughts instead of pain. That, to me, is pretty dang impressive.

Labels: Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:03 AM (Permalink)