Tripping the Rift: The Movie

Year 2, Day 140 - 5/20/10 - Movie #507

BEFORE: "Tripping the Rift" was sort of Sci-Fi Channel's answer to "Futurama", with the irreverancy of "South Park" thrown in. Unfortunately, it was never as popular as "Futurama" or as irreverent as South Park. But like "Futurama", a movie was released on DVD after the series ended.

THE PLOT: What begins for Chode and crew as a routine mission to protect a pissed-off princess becomes a saga of dismembered royalty, indestructible clown assassins and desperately horny housewives.

AFTER: Well, at first I just thought this was 3 leftover ideas that didn't make the cut for the third season of the show. But then I found out this movie was just three episodes from the 3rd season, stitched together to form a "movie". Now I'm ticked off, because I also bought the 3rd season box set. So not only was I tricked into buying material I already owned, I wasted time watching a movie that wasn't anything special!

OK, so technically the third season episodes didn't air in the U.S. That doesn't make this a movie, or excuse the shady distribution method. I'll make plans to watch the box set later, thank you very much.

The first episode is a "Bride of Frankenstein" spoof that finds the main characters on a planet that resembles Eastern Europe (I'm not sure exactly how everything on the planet could be in black and white).

The second bit is something of a spoof on "The Terminator", with an angry clown robot being sent back from the future to kill Chode, before he can impregnate a girl at his own birthday party.

And the third segment is a parody of "Desperate Housewives", with the crew hiding out on "Hysteria Lane" (nice...) with a number of horny CGI female aliens (?) but unfortunately there's no payoff. The movie claims to be "uncensored", but aside from hearing some salty language, which I admit is refreshing, there's no blatant sex or nudity...

I never really understood the show's obsession with clowns. Yes, they're evil clowns, and "Darth Bobo" is a funny name. But once you make the pun on "clown troopers" instead of "clone troopers" a few times, where can you go with it? Nowhere.

Starring the voices of Stephen Root, Jenny McCarthy (replacing Carmen Electra and Gina Gershon, who voiced Six of Nine in seasons 1+2) and "Stuttering" John Melendez as BOB, the ship's computer.

At least these movies are short, and I'm now two movies ahead of where I need to be, so I can take a few days off on Memorial Day weekend, and not affect my schedule.

RATING: 3 out of 10 porno mags