Man, I’ve done all this pimping of RiffTrax.com
and now I just found out they have an affiliate program and I could have been making money. Anyway, after the live show debacle, I have a ten dollar gift certificate and was wondering if you guys have seen any and have any recommendations on what riffs to watch.
BTW, they are soon coming out with a riff of Casablanca which I think will be their first time to riff a classic move; quite a change from Manos, Hands of Fate. They have a clip up now and it looks like there is plenty of material just making fun of the era.
If I had more time, I’d try doing my own riff on a movie, but they don’t make it look easy.
X men had a good riff
You could try a joint, marital riff sitting on the couch watching a movie and commenting together. Come to think of it, that would be way funny with Keith Olberman on MSNBC and you two blasting away at him – or with one of Obama’s so called speeches. After that, you’d be competing with Zo and Crowder and have to sell all to PJTV or RiffTrax (to the highest bidder, of course – just be sure to retain IMAO rights!). (This is not intended as a frivolous idea, Frank. I bet the two of you could tip our chairs over. On the other hand, if it comes from a RONIN like me, it surely must suck.)
“I have a ten dollar gift certificate and was wondering if you guys have seen any and have any recommendations on what riffs to watch.”
Some of my favorites:
Jurassic Park – riffed by Mike and Weird Al Yankovic.
Raiders of the Lost Ark – Mike, Bill and Kevin.
Independence Day – Mike, Bill and Kevin.
Next – with Mike and his wife Bridget.
I’ve seen a lot of Rifftrax and almost every episode of MST3k. The biggest tip I can give is to pick a movie that isn’t boring. Good and bad movies are both just as funny. If the movie is boring, the Riff will get boring no matter how funny it is.
Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the LotR movies aren’t bad movies, but still funny Riffs. And because the movies aren’t boring, the Riff is still good. Even better than they would be with a B movie.
So yeah: Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, THE PHANTOM MENACE.
Point Break with Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves and Gary Busey is hilarious. If you haven’t seen Road House, it was one of the first Riffs (only Mike does it, so no interaction), in almost every Riff they have a callback to a Road House gag. Even though it’s only Mike, it’s still a good one. Over the Top is like Road House in that it’s a bad movie, but great Riff because the movie still isn’t boring.
Point Break and Predator both have some pretty good politician jokes (Arnie and Jesse Ventura).
The X-Men riffs were decent but they wouldn’t be my first recommendations. I remember both Top Gun and The Island of Dr. Moreau being good riffs. Top Gun getting a higher recommendation than Dr. M.
Battlefield Earth is one of the worst movies they have ever riffed. The movie isn’t that compelling, but it manages to be a great riff despite it being a boring movie. It’s one of the few exceptions that way.
I’d recommend against Memento. Funny, but the movie is just sooo boring. Batman and Robin starts strong but most of it isn’t worth watching.
I guess those are my tips and recommendations. Pick a movie you already have and enjoy.
But even if not now, you have to see Road House at some point. You will get more jokes in later Riffs if you have.
So, this, uh, costs money, right?
You should try to get in contact with Noah Antwiler from the Spoony Experiment.(spoonyexperiment.com) He’s had some experience with doing similar Riffing of movies. He’s done one before of The Thing (didn’t get posted), Punisher, StarShip Troopers, and other stuff. He’s really good at it, but I think he could use a partner of your calibur.
You may wonder why I’ve rarely posted here.
It’s actually quite simple: I wasn’t sure that Frank J was a sentient creature.
Sure, he’s an author, critic and blogger.
And yes, he has lampooned Gore, pointed and giggled at Obama, and mooned Pelosi.
But truthfully, vegetables and single cell organisms have been doing that for years.
The Democrats have their own web page, and no sentient I know of would concede any intelligent thought to be found there.
So exactly why would I take the time to reconsider Frank J as a rational creature?
RIFFTRAX.
Sure, it’s been proven under laboratory conditions that even celery snickers during the playing of Harry Potter riffs.
And yes, even circus chimps laugh uncontrollably at the intro to “Twilight” when then the boys debate sparkley thighs vs. sparkley butts.
But his request for MORE. More Rifftrax.
More Rifftrax?
This is the sign of true intelligence.
But testing is still in it’s early stages.
We’ll need to see whether this trend continues, or just a matter of random chance.
Time will tell. Time will tell…
Manos was my favorite all time MST3K!!
When Joel walked out with the Hang Ten, I nearly lost my TV from all the beer I spit on it!
Later I found out one of my dads friends edited the film.
6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon Eh??
Also, about riffing. I saw a behind the scenes segment on one of their DVDs and it seems they watch it and write jokes 2-3 times thru, before they start rolling cameras. Then if they mess up, they do edit it, so the hardest part is writing the actual jokes, and they arent “riffs” in the classic definition.
But its still the best show EVER!!
Some RiffTrax I reccomend:
Jurassic Park (with Weird Al!)
300
Transformers
X-Men
Twilight (only way I’ll watch that movie again is with RiffTrax… and the fiancee’s fine with that!)
Manos was my favorite all time MST3K!!
Seconded.
The show ended years ago and that one still stands out. It took it to an entirely different level.