spatch

The films that MST3K had the most success with were the dull films with long bits of silence in between dialogue or what have you (and some, like Manos, had longer bits of nothing than others.) That way they could get the riffs in. Something as loud and chaotic as Battlefield Earth just doesn't lend itself well to ongoing heckling unless you turn the sound way down. But at that point you're not going to be able to riff on the dialogue, but mostly on the visuals.

I was one of the foolhardy who championed for Battlefield Earth at the 2000 Sci-Fi Marathon because I knew if ever there was a crowd who could rip apart such a piece of crap, it'd be the audience who routinely chants "That film sucked! That film sucked!" at the end of a stinker (or, after watching a particularly horrible Eastern European film, stood up and sang "God Bless America".)

However, when the film screened, it was so loud and boomy and stuff that you couldn't get a good line in if you wanted to -- and before it, we watched both Barbarella and Galaxina (yowsa) so we were all sorts of exhausted from the hooting and whatnot.

So yeah. Quieter films equals more gooder for the riffing.