Patti’s Blog

I’ve always been a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie and the television series. My favorite host is Joel and my favorite bot is Tom Servo. My favorite episodes are “Manos: Hands of Fate” (”What about the Valley Lodge?!?”) and “I Accuse My Parents.” (”He says he’s not here.”)

Now since the MST3K series got canceled, the boys have still been continuing the tradition through projects like “Film Crew” which is basically MST3K without the robots/space/scifi angle. (Already watched their riff of “Hollywood After Dark” and it was HILARIOUS, my friend.)

Recently I decided to give Mike Nelson’s “Rifftrax” a try. The concept is quite ingenious: whereas before the guys had to get rights to the horrible movies they were riffing, this time they found a way so that they could riff any movie regardless of paying studios for permission to use them etc. They are selling MP3 files that you sync up with movies you have already bought or rented on DVD.

Now, that means that they can make fun of any movie that’s been released on DVD! That opens up infinite possibilities!

So far the site has quite a few “rifftrax” to major movies such as Independence Day, Lord of the Rings, (practically all of) the Star Wars saga, Aeon Flux, Transformers. The list is limited, but if successful enough I’m sure their library will grow in no time.

My husband and I had been thinking about trying out “Rifftrax” and last night we finally did. And the movie we chose: “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

There were things I liked and things I didn’t like about the experience.

LIKES:

–The guys are still funny. I had a couple of belly/extended laughs during the movie. (”No, the other Ten Commandments!”)

–MST3K episodes used to be “hit or miss” because sometimes the movie they were riffing was so awful/boring that even the jokes couldn’t come fast enough to entertain. With watching a movie that’s good on its own, I didn’t get bored between the jokes.

–The syncing methods. I was skeptical at first, but they have made syncing the DVD with the MP3 easy. I only had to adjust it about 3 times. What they do is you start the MP3 first and then Mike will say “I’m going to ask you to pause this track and start it again. The Paramount logo will disappear from the screen, and when it is completely gone press play on the track.” Throughout the movie, there is an audio cue to tell you whether you’re still synced or not. A robot voice will occasionally say a line in the movie–if the robot and the character match up, you’re still in sync. And if it’s a little off, all you have to do is pause which ever one is ahead briefly and start it back up again. No prob.

–The selection in the library is not limited to tracks with the three main guys. There are tracks with Mike and the lady who played Pearl and the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory track has Neil Patrick Harris on it! Talk about random.

–I like how the website is written in the style of the riffing. Example. It reminds me of the way Monty Python merchandise is packaged.

DISLIKES:

–Since you have to sync things up, this makes it difficult to go to the bathroom or get up and get some popcorn during the movie. It can be done, but it could be a pain.

–I wish the site was easier to navigate. The main page is uber-crowded and the user/member functions could use some work.

–Actually, that’s about it…. the price is reasonable considering that a 3-4 minute song on iTunes costs about 99 cents. You get a 1.5 hour or more MP3 from Rifftrax for $2-5.

I would definitely recommend Rifftrax to established fans of MST3K and Film Crew. I would advise those who have no prior experience with those series to try out some old episodes of those before trying Rifftrax.