Have fun at the expense of ‘Krull’ tonight, Saturday

Most directors have at least one — or maybe two — movies on their resume that they'd rather forget. Alfred Hitchcock had "Family Plot." Stanley Kubrick had "Eyes Wide Shut." Steven Spielberg has "Hook."

Peter Yates doesn't belong in the ranks of top-tier directors. Still, he made a few good films. "Bullit" (1968), for example. Also, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (1973) and "Breaking Away" (1979).

But in 1983, Yates gave us the sci-fi clunker "Krull," a film that Janet Maslin of The New York Times called "a gentle, pensive sci-fi adventure film that winds up a little too moody and melancholy for the 'Star Wars' set, though that must be the audience at which it is aimed."

And that was Maslin being kind. David Ansen of Newsweek was more brutal: "Under the tone-deaf direction of Peter Yates, Krull manages to be both lavishly overdone and bizarrely half-baked."

A far more entertaining assessment of "Krull" will be on display at 8 p.m. tonight and at 12:55 p.m. Saturday at two Regal Cinemas locations, Northtown Mall and Coeur d'Alene's Riverstone Stadium. The event: RiffTrax Live! "Krull."

If you aren't familiar with the RiffTrax events, they feature a film screening with three comedians making snarky comments.

Director Yates died in 2011 at age 81. But even he might have appreciated how funny RiffTrax can be.