gammer's take: Our first release for the new 'RiffTrax Presents', and it’s a doosey! Today class, we have a new, fan-made episode of the original Star Trek series. Yes, this episode is available from the Trekkie fans on the New Voyages website.
Edit: Looks like Trekkie's didn't like RiffTrax offering their video on the RiffTrax site. So they asked RiffTrax to remove it. Therefore the VOD is no longer available; only the mp3 is still available for download.
At first I didn't know what to make of a RiffTrax without Mike present, let alone a RiffTrax of a fan made Star Trek episode with George Takei as a guest actor. But, after a few mins of viewing, I was pleasantly surprised. My yin-yang observation: I couldn't believe how well the fan made episode was done and yet on the other hand, I couldn't believe how bad it was. This was more than perfect Riffing fodder. And just so you know, the fans that made this Star Trek episode had mixed feelings towards this RiffTrax: The co-producer wrote RiffTrax in support, and others banned RiffTrax from advertising on their forum or posting anything about RiffTrax, for that matter. What a great way to start things off with the new 'RiffTrax Presents'.
So needless to say, this was a glorious RiffTrax. Even with only Kevin and Bill, this was an out loud laughing experience! It only took me a few mins to settle in, and *wham*, I was laughing. It was a nice treat and I loved theriffing on George Takei. Can we ever get enough jokes about Takai? I think not.
I highly recommend trying out this RiffTrax. And its also offered as a Video On Demand (video and rifftrax pre-mixed) so you don't have to hunt down the source video.
Wee, I feel so fresh...Like I'm in a douche commercial!
4.5/5
gammer's take: Dark Water is another one of those Japanese Horror remakes like the Grudge. I thought it was a pretty bland movie, that had many scenes that 'asked questions', but didn't get answered. Although, I did find John C. Riley's character quite amusing, and the scene where he was showing the apartment was quite funny and probably the most entertaining part of the movie...and the RiffTrax.
Matthew J. Elliot is our solo riffer for this RiffTrax. He is from Britain and is a writer/performer. I thought that he attacked the movie too much. His style was more of blaming the movie rather than making fun of the events that were happening on screen. I also thought that there were some pauses that could have had some riffing and on the flip side he riffed overtop of some key dialog that really annoyed me. Not to say that other riffers don't do the same thing, but I really found myself saying "shut up, I want to hear what is being said". I guess if the riffing had been funnier, I wouldn't have cared.
I think Matt's first attempt was valiant. But, it was lacking in the funny dept. I look forward to seeing his next RiffTrax: House of Wax. I'm curious to see if his riffing style changes as he gains more experience.
2/5
gammer's take: Ah Cary Elwes, is there any character you can't play? From the Dreaded Pirate Roberts, to a Man in Tights, to an FBI assistant, and now a middle aged, whinny man, chained up in a lunatic’s bathroom. You really do have a diversified resume, Mr. Elwes.
SAW is what I like to call an 'Extreme Horror' movie. No longer is Hollywood satisfied with cheap slasher flicks. No, now they need to actually have a budget, have a plot, have them somewhat interesting, and have them realistically gory. I think it all started with Brad Pitts thriller, Se7ven from back in 1995. From then on, we've seen several incarnations of this new breed of horrors...which I could list off, but you can probably already list 'em yourself.
I'm normally not a fan of riffing horror movies. I think this is because my curiosity gets the best of me and my attention gets turned away from the riffing and focuses on the gory, suspenseful stuff. This movie was not exception to that. I actually turned off the riffing in my head to focus on the tense moments.
Now with that being said, I found this RiffTrax to be very solid and there were several funny moments. I guess this would be the best RiffTrax of a horror movie to date (please see my reviews for Halloween and The Grudge). Even though Kevin and Bill turned changed the tone of this to something light hearted, I still feel that horror genres aren't the best choice to riff on.
So, I'd rate this one a very solid 3.5/5
gammer's take: Our Second installment of the fan made Star Trek TV show and this
time we have special guest Walter Koenig in the episode! Yeah, Chekov agreed to appear in the fan Trek show,
just like his buddy George Takei did in World Enough and Time.
I thought this RiffTrax was pretty good. It wasn't quite as good as WEaT, but pretty damn funny. I like
the jokes about Spock being like Frankenstein...and man, his eyebrows did protrude quite a bit. And I don't
think we can get enough good ribbing on Chekov's accent.
A decent rifftrax and I think its time we left the Trekkies alone for a while.
4/5
gammer's take: We have our second RiffTrax from Bitish entertainer, Matt Elliot. It's House of Wax, starring the infamous Paris Hilton.
What a stinker of a remake. A modern day, teen thrasher flick that fails horribly. I actually cheered and applauded when Paris gets killed in it. Ooops, sorry for the spoiler, but yeah, Paris is not the one that survives...thank goodness.
I had my wife watch this RiffTrax with me, as I knew she would love to see Paris get riffed. I thought this RiffTrax was slightly better then Matthew's previous RiffTrax. I (we) actually laughed out loud in several spots and I was glad that Matt didn't attack the movie itself this time (he riffed on what was actually happening a bit more). In fact I even thought it was good enough to use a riff stinger for my review...
You know, if this were an in flight movie, I'd still walk out...
2.5/5
gammer's take: I've been waiting since RiffTrax Day 1 for the X-Files movie to be riffed. I'm a HUGE X-Files fan, and as soon as I saw Mike and The Bots riff on a bit of this in the "Annual Summer Blockbuster Review", I dreamed of the day that this movie would get riffed.
So was I a little disappointed that this wasn't a 'full feature' RiffTrax?...yes. Am I going to complain?...no.
An interesting thing to note: our very own fans helped write this RiffTrax: Josh Way, from That's Great For You and Courtney Enlow, from Outside of the In-Crowd were the contributing fan writers.
Well, well, well...here we go!
Lets get the 'bad' out of the way first. I think some of the jokes were over done. For example, the David Duchovny - Handsome jokes wore thin with me pretty quick and was done too many times. As was the 'North Texas' jokes, every time a location was identified on the screen.
It seemed at times that Bill and Mary Jo weren't comfortable and I noted a couple of instances where the reading of the lines didn't seem natural; it sounded like they were being read.
The Good: I think the 'Peeing in the alley' jokes were the best (please see my free preview and stinger quote). When I was watching this RiffTrax there would be several minutes where I wouldn't crack a smile at one of the jokes...and then WHAM! I'd hear one that would make me laugh out loud - large size. This truly was a unique experience that I haven't had yet with a RiffTrax. So let me put it this way, there were enough good jokes to keep this RiffTrax afloat. I'd recommend watching it.
Hurry, or all the good peeing spots will be gone!
3.5/5
gammer's take: I wasn't sure if Kevin and Bill could pull this one off as a funny RiffTrax. I mean, there is allot of dead air in the movie Alien. But wow, what a great job of filling it with unique, entertaining and funny riffing. For this fan to watch a RiffTrax twice means it was good, but I think I've watched the Alien RiffTrax at least three or four times now. So needless to say, the Alien RiffTrax is my favorite Kevin and Bill one to date.
Well done lads, I hope the rest of your RiffTrax Presents are this good.
She's new to cursing, isn't she?
4.5/5
gammer's take: Ah...we finally wrap the Spidy trilogy, and we have a new guest riffer:
Josh Fruhlinger. Who?...well RiffTrax has dubbed him as "The Comics Curmudgeon". That's nice...but is he a funny
riffer?
In my opinion, Josh didn't have the right chemistry for this RiffTrax. He was very quiet and monotone; not allot
of emotion. Which sounded out of place up against the riffing from Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. Maybe it would
have worked if it was just one veteran riffer and Josh. But to have two good riffers and one not good, made it sound
lob sided to me.
Another observation...and maybe its just me being analytical...but I noticed Kevin and Bill laughing a little
more and a little harder then normal at some of Josh's jokes. Almost trying to convince the listener that: "yes, Josh
IS funny".
Spidy 2 RiffTrax only brought a handful of out loud laughs from me. Overall, I would have to classify it as
average.
On a positive note, I did like the Aunt May jokes. They were the few that got laughs from me.
3.5/5
gammer's take: Once again, RiffTrax proves that Kevin and Bill are excellent as a riffing duo. This was an excellent choice of movie to riff and the riffers were on top of their game.
I never grew tired of the Jake Gyllenhaal/I can't quit you jokes. And I was glad they made a Dennis Quaid - Harrison Ford connection. There really wasn't much that was wrong with this RiffTrax. It was funny and entertaining throughout.
Now let’s get back to this movie which Al Gore actually had injected into his cerebellum, for quick access at all times
4.5/5
gammer's take: At last we have a classic Swayze movie, that Mike promised us he would riff, and...its not Mike or crew riffing it...huh?
Yeah, I was let down, because today class, we have Janet Varney and Cole Stratton riffing Dirty Dancing. Who? Well, that’s the name of the game with 'RiffTrax Presents', right?...Any combination of riffers?
Honestly though, I thought Cole and Janet were ~ok~ and the RiffTrax could have been better. Would it have been better if Mike (and gang) riffed it? You know it would. Yes there were some funny moments, but it would be hard not to get laughs riffing this fodder. I'll be honest, I didn't like the "Baby like..." riffs.
I welcome more riffs from Cole and Janet and I'm sure they'll get better with more riffing experience.
2.5/5