Today I popped in one of my birthday presents, Cinematic Titanic: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It's somewhat important to me and my ilk because it's the first time some of the group from MST3k reriffed a previous show. So while there are no real skits or songs (The MST ep of the movie gave us A Patrick Swayze Christmas to jumpstart a holiday tradition), all of the jokes are new and some of the movie that was edited to fit into the 90 minute slot has been left in and riffed for the first time.
The movie is awful with terrible acting, cardboard sets and a meandering story, so it's appropriate that I have it twice riffed. To be honest, a RiffTrax of this movie would still be welcome in my collection, so here's hoping. Hard to summarize what the whole thing is about, but Martian children are depressed so some of the adults kidnap Santa. Things happen without anything really happening and then Santa goes back. Oh yeah, and earth kids get kidnapped and returned with him.
But I've never watched this movie for its own sake, but to be torn apart by a group of silhouettes and they completely deliver. Though they may have gotten a little more snarky over the years, the material is still funny, even making reference that some of the CT crew have seen the movie before. My favorite part is when they're showing all of the missiles getting prepared to fire and Frank exclaims, "That reminds me of a giant penis!" and Josh answers, "Uh Frank, we're going to need you to try a little harder." Instead of making a joke, they make a joke about how they're out of appropriate jokes there. Love it.
This is definitely a Christmas show. The whole thing is about Santa and even the little conversation the riffers have before the movie starts is about RSVPing to their mandatory Christmas party. Funny enough for every day viewing, but seasonal enough to leave on while eating your Christmas goose.
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