My apologies for creating confusion on various versions. Watch this RiffTrax with the Special Edition DVD.
Free sample:
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Now Available from RiffTrax…62 Replies to “Now Available from RiffTrax…”Commenting at Satellite News
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I wonder if they can top the Blame Society version. That was the best riff I’ve seen in a long time.
Well this is one way to get the Dark Knight fanboys off your back. Bravo Guys, can’t wait.
Did they ever fix the audio on this movie? I liked the cleaned up film and color but the back left and right surround channels i remember being reversed on the DVD. Which in turn basically gives it a mono sounding score. And that was beside the ducked score during key moments. Just wondering if later releases on DVD fixed these.
Fantastic.
Oh, and if anyone is looking for the definitive version of this film, I highly recommend Adywan’s version.
Adywan is just a guy in the UK who fixed the audio, color-corrected the whole film, made Han shoot first, added facial expressions to the masks in the Cantina scene, added music from “Empire,” “Jedi,” & the other films, fixed the color of Luke’s lightsaber, erased matte lines, fixed the Death Star graphic in R2’s stolen plans, and made the Death Star battle at the end abso-freakin’-fantastic.
Again, I highly recommend it, wherever you can find it.
It’s just a movie, you should really just relax.
Previous comment was directed at delirious fanboys in general, not necessarily ety3.
The only thing better than this would be 90’s Gamera. I wonder if they’re going to be as mean as they were to the new trilogy? I like the riffs more when they’re funny, but the SW1-3 were mostly just mean and hard to watch.
As for the mixed audio, just reverse them when you rejig the ripped dvd-rifftrax. No biggy.
Greedo shooting first was in the 1997 special edition. The 2004 update has Han and Greedo shooting at the same time.
Oh, and @zombie? I think the 90s Mothra flicks outdo the 90s Gamera ones any day. :smile:
So RT is gonna do ANH, no surprise (not just because of all the prequel RTs but I specifically remember Mike saying in an interview a few years ago that he just could never “get into” any of the SW films). I’m sure it’ll be funny but I doubt the riffs will be anywhere near as satisfying as their Ep 1 treatment (haven’t heard the II and III RTs)
Also, I LOVE Shusheke Kaneko’s 90s Gamera trilogy! They have excellent cinematography and surprisingly good special effects (a careful mix of superbly hand crafted models, suits and *just the right amount of CGI* the way hollywood oughta be doing it) considering they were all made on a virtual shoestring budget (as an example, Gamera 3 is full flashy set pieces but cost roughly only $3 million to make. A U.S. studio would waste at least ten times the amount of what it cost to budget Gamera vs Irys)
The crazy thing is, my very first experience with any Gamera movie as a brand new MST was with the 90s trilogy. I started as a MST when I rented the movie in ’97 and experienced the start of the sci fi era eps. About that time the only Japanese monster movies me and my brother watched were the Godzilla series until we watched a fan copy of Gamera Guardian of the universe (which we watched the same year we rented MST3K the movie, which again was our first MST experience) It wasn’t until a year after I watched Gamera III that I finally started getting more *ahem* non-Rhino season 1-5 eps on VHS off ebay (tapes almost seem like ancient tech now!) that I finally got my first hilariously horrific taste of the Sandy Frank sponsored Gamera flicks (first one I saw was when they skewered Gamera vs Barugon). Again, it sounds bizarro, but because I’d seen the 90s flicks which are so much more competently done, I couldn’t believe how bad the old Gamera movies were when I saw them for the first time on MST3K! But hey, at least I didn’t take my monster flicks so seriously that I didn’t mind if my first experience with many of them was with Joel and the gang tearing ’em apart, right? ;)
Seriously, though. 90s Gamera trilogy = well crafted, action packed, FUN kaiju movies with a dark apocalyptic feel sprinkled in (especially Legion and Irys). 90s Mothra trilogy, now THOSE are indeed the modern equivalent of Sandy Frank fare and were little more than toy commercials for TOHO. That said, I’d gladly pay for RTs for either 90s Gamera & Mothra but as Bill himself said, they’re focusing on big mainstream flicks so who knows if they’re even on the radar? And there’s no way TOHO or Studio Daei would sell the rights to Mothra or Gamera to CT (which they would be better suited for IMHO).
OK, crazed MST/kaiju fan rant off. ;)
#9 – Captain Cab
Insert Coin(s) to Continue has an iRiff for Gamera: Guardian of the Universe if you’re interested. There’s also an iRiff for Destroy All Planets by Riffer Phoenix.
There seems to be some discrepancy on the version of the movie this will riff. Satellite News is saying the 2004 edition but if you look on the Rifftrax website product page it states the 1997 edition. They are slightly different. Anybody know which is correct?
did anyone read what captain wrote, i can’t pay attention that long…and Merry Christnas everyone!!!
@Dan in WI – If you have the movie on DVD, you have the version that we riffed.
@zombie –
I don’t have any inside knowledge, but it’s hard to see why they would be as mean to this one as they were to the prequel movies.
The prequels were awful movies, and this is just a fun popcorn movie; I can’t imagine them being that nasty to it.
Did Lucas actually try and clean up Han Solo’s reputation with an edit, but he left in the stupid Ewoks? What a loser. Rich, but a loser.
Randy
Captain Cab- Right on! I LOVE the ’90s Gamera trilogy.
Sorry I got the version date wrong! The post is fixed!
Awesome, the star wars rifftraxices are of the best.
FordPrefect: Thanks for the tip, this may push me to finally try IRiffs.
magicvoice: Right on, indeed. :) I’d also like to add that 90s Gamera is not only neat and made of turtle meat, but a very unique movie monster and actually has a noble personality with a big ‘ol heart. I mean, TOHO would never have Godzilla do what the tenacious turtle did to (maybe) save the day at the end of Gamera vs Irys. That ending was very mature for a monster flick and seriously blew me away.
Boy, if I was trapped on the Satellite of Love and Dr. F said “todays film is Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope” I’d say “frak yeah!”. And then if he said “but it’s the Special Edition version!” I’d say “well that’s not quite as good because of a few idiotic changes, but for the most part I’m sticking with my original ‘frak yeah!’.” And then I’d gladly sit there quietly enjoying a great movie without feeling the need to utter any riffs because when it’s a good movie riffing is ANNOYING, and just gets in the way of enjoying the film.
So basically when Rifftrax does movies like this they really seem to miss the entire point of why you’d riff a movie to begin with. Because it’s BAD. And no matter how much we all don’t like the changes in it even this version of Star Wars is NOT a bad movie.
I gotta agree with what Uncle Bill said. Dr. F and Pearl would never beam up ANH to the SOL, I mean, c’mon. Only way that would happen is if it was a re-do of when Pearl was forced to let them choose their movie and we all know how Mike handled that. :p
#20 – “So basically when Rifftrax does movies like this they really seem to miss the entire point of why you’d riff a movie to begin with. Because it’s BAD. And no matter how much we all don’t like the changes in it even this version of Star Wars is NOT a bad movie.” – Uncle Bill
“At present the bigger titles — and the NEWER titles — sell way, way better than anything more obscure. This is true about certain movie genres, too. And I don’t mean a small difference, but 80% less revenue.” – Bill Corbett
“Unfortunately, The Happening is head and shoulders the least popular Riff of the past five movies we’ve done” – Conor from Rifftrax
I’m not going to try convincing people to watch the New Hope riff if they don’t want to. Just remember that Rifftrax is trying to focus on what most customers seem to want, based on what sells well. Cinematic Titanic continues in the tradition of MST3K by providing you with the movie, which causes them some headaches. However, Rifftrax doesn’t try getting tangled up with all the legal issues involved in riffing these movies. If it’s Public Domain – like the shorts – there’s no problem. However, it seems like most Rifftrax customers don’t want to go through the effort of finding “really awful old movies” on their own. So basically when fans complain about how Rifftrax does movies like this they really seem to miss the entire point of why most customers buy a Rifftrax to begin with. Because they think it’s FUNNY. No matter how many people like the film, it’s not above parody and they’re hardly the first or the last to make fun of it. This is Rifftrax, not MST3K. Nobody is being forced to watch these anymore.
Customer actions speak louder than words, so here’s my thoughts on what to do if you want more “really awful old movies”:
#1: Buy all the Rifftrax Shorts. Remind the guys how much you love to see them riff on old public domain stuff. The new Rifftrax Shorts DVD is a lot like a Film Crew DVD, minus the host segments with Bob Honcho. (It’s in the “Swag” section.) It seems to be selling well, so there’s hope for more Shorts DVDs. While you’re at it, get “Missile to the Moon”. It’s one of the most Film Crew-esqe movie choices they’ve offered, and yet the MP3 riff is one of the lowest selling titles. That doesn’t send a good message to the bean counters. I’ve heard the VOD version sells better, which just helps drive home the movie availability issue.
#2: Buy the Rifftrax Presents titles. This secondary line seems to allow for a bit more variety in movie choices. Don’t let some new riffers scare you away. Speaking of new people….
#3: Buy iRiffs titles for the kind of movies you’d like Rifftrax to tackle. If they become moderately good sellers, it could help prove that A) lots of customers have copies of the DVD or B) lots of customers are willing to buy a VOD of the PD title. This could help justify making an “official” riff for it.
If you know someone who is weary of downloading VOD stuff for some reason, Incognito Cinema Warriors XP has a DVD version of their Lady Frankenstein riff in the “Swag” section. I only bring this up because I noticed some people on mst3kinfo.com don’t like downloading stuff, but they’re more than happy to order the Rifftrax Shorts DVD.
I’m going to somewhat mirror #22 here. MST was devoted to bad old movies and Cinematic Titanic certainly carries on that legacy.
But RiffTrax is not MST. That gives Mike Nelson freedom to do things he’s always wanted to do which wouldn’t have fallen under the MST guidelines.
In the specific case of Star Wars, I’m a HUGE fan of the original trilogy but I’ve never felt it was so sacred it couldn’t be riffed on. I feel these are great movies so if enough people agree with me then that excludes them from the MST guidelines. But again RiffTrax is not MST. And just because something is good that doesn’t mean you can’t laugh at it as well. Think of it as a variation on the old theme “don’t take yourself so seriously you can’t laugh at yourself.”
So even though this is my second favorite movie of all time, I welcome this RiffTrax.
Which edition is it????
I’ve done some further digging on this issue. Based on Connor’s statement in #13 I’ve determined this to be the 2004 edition of A New Hope. The reason I say this, when Connor clarified that they riffed on the DVD edition, that ruled out the 1997 Special Edition as the 1997 Edition was NEVER released on DVD. (only VHS).
So Sampo, you had it right the first time when you posted the 2004 edition. Where your statement could be tweaked is that the 2004 edition is the one where Solo and Greedo shoot simulaneously.
To Dan in WI
Either version of the DVD, whether it was the Box set edition, or the limited edition version of ANH, you have the right version. The first disc on the limited edition version is identical to the Version of ANH that was in the box set. So Conor was right: If you have bought ANH in DVD format, you have the right version.
Though i can’t say that the Mandarin/Taiwainese bootleg DVD will work….. :wink:
Yes, you may want to clarify the post Sampo. I don’t think you need to post any date. But if you own a DVD of Star Wars, you either own JUST the Special Edition, or you own the special edition and the theatrical edition.
So just watch the DVD of the Special Edition.
Anyone remember on the 10.2 upgrade skit with TVs Frank saying that the replacement disc was a little film called Star Wars? Rifftrax has made it happen…from a certain point of view!
Conor–again, my apologies. This whole incident has revealed my criminal lack of true nerdness. :wink:
Personally I have no problem with them riffing a movie like A New Hope. I love the Classic Trilogy to death, but after seeing the movies 100 times, my friends and I started adding our OWN running commentary to the films. We’d make different jokes each time just to increase the replay value. I don’t see that as any different than what’s being done here.
No problem – do Star Wars and all those all day. I’ll buy them! But I love the shorts and the crap movies.
To which I should point out, I would love to see them riff some good ‘ol Japanese kaiju flicks. The 90s Gamera movies are actually really good movies, but they still could use the “treatment.” Double plus good on the newer Mothra movies. Best of all though, I’d like to see Godzilla Final Wars. Godzilla meets The Matrix does NOT make a good movie!!
Ditto for Godzilla Final Wars.
I do believe I shall be respectfully skipping this one.
I am just glad to see a step back 30 odd years. Hope its a trend for Rifftrax. I love ANH- just need to have it on dvd now :cool:
Actually, I have the original trilogy and the 1997 editions on laserdisc, the 1997 ones even were in 5.1 surround. Boy, Jabba looked lame in Ep 4, though!! Other differences include no Hayden at the end of ROTJ and Ian McD is not playing the Emperor in ESB, although the many changes like the new Wampa scene and Jabba musical are there.
So the 1997 versions are the ones probably seen (and remembered) by the fewest number of people.
Double ditto to Bigzilla on Godzilla Final Wars. I was so excited when they announced all the returning Ishiro Honda era monsters like Angilas and Gigan. The previews made it look like it a modern Destroy All Monsters, but nooo, let’s focus on long scenes featuring dorky aliens with bad martial arts skills, oh and let’s give Godzilla Dragonball Z style finishing moves so we can keep the monster fights as short as possible?! And the LOL ending with Minya, they might as well have put Yoshi in that scene too, haha. Only two things that made it bearable was suit Zilla killing Devlin&Emmerich zilla and conversely, the clever editing making it look as though the suit actor was running/sliding proved that ID4-‘zilla DIDN’T need to be iguana shaped in order to look agile. All that CGI and no imagination. “Durrr, why would we use our sooper computers to make an anthropomophic monster. Let’s give the MTV kids a gecko with a Jay Leno chin instead!”
:oops: Please pardon the typo on anthropomorphic.
But yeah, if there’s an IRiff for Final Wars I will get that too.
I just watched this last night. It’s not bad. I have some complaints, but overall, it’s a good one. They seem to be getting more immature as time goes on. Gay jokes galore in this and it does wear a bit thin.
The riffing is fun in a lot of places, but towards the end it feels that they ran out of things to riff on, so they made fun of how crappy the movie was. That may be an ok route to take if you’re riffing The Happening, but this is Star Wars. It’s a well-made movie, you can’t riff on how poorly made the movie is.
It *was* nice to hear Kevin refer to the “Greedo shoots first” scene as “cinematic abortion.” And just giggles at the “Tashi Station” whine were great.
If you already have the DVD (or can borrow it from a friend like I did), drop the $4 and have an enjoyable two hours.
@ Bigzilla #30
Ha, fat chance seeing them do any Rifftrax for movies like that. Since the main determining factor of what films Rifftrax now does seems only to be the amount of DVDs it has sold, or will most likely sell, I doubt they will have much interest in doing any for such a niche thing like kaiju movies, no matter how funny it might be. From now on it’s most likely just whatever hit movie comes out, or whatever hit movie they haven’t gotten around to. You can probably count on them finishing off the remaining Harry Potter films, and doing Empire and Jedi as well. And if there are any big hit films coming out on DVD soon you can be sure to see those as well whether they were good movies or not. Sad to say it but by buying things like this Star Wars Rifftrax you are helping to eliminate any chances that they would do anything weird or niche ever again.
@ Little Black Star #37
What you describe is exactly what I expected based on my past experiences with Rifftrax of movies I actually like, and exactly why I would never even want to see this one, or any other Rifftrax for a good movie. When the movie is good there isn’t anything to riff on, so it typically devolves into immature and not very clever riffs, like the focus on gay jokes that you describe, or they just pick out one tiny flaw and harp on it over and over (like Batman’s voice in The Dark Knight). Having them act as if the film is actually really bad just so they can make fun of it is pointless as well. And I don’t really need to hear someone else comment on Greedo shooting first to know that it ruins a great part of the film, and cheapens the character development of Han Solo over the trilogy. I felt that the very first time I saw it. All around it sounds like my $5 will be much better spent elsewhere, or even just sitting in my wallet.
Well said, Uncle Bill. My biggest problem with Rifftrax is that they treat every movie as if it’s as bad as a film like Manos, which really ruins the fun for me. Acting like decent flicks like Batman and Star Wars are trash only serves to make them seem like jerks. What IS a good movie to these people?! Maybe they should change their tagline from “Some movies have it coming” to “ALL movies have it coming”.
I still have much love for Mike, Bill and Kevin and it truly makes me sad that i can’t laugh along with them nowadays. :cry:
Little Black Star, can you quote/para-quote a few examples of the riffs from the latter part where they act like the movie is poorly made?
#30 – Bigzilla
Like I was telling Captain Cab earlier, you would probably like the iRiffs for Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and Destroy All Planets. There’s also a Quiptrack for the 1998 Godzilla movie.
#38/39 – Uncle Bill
Anything with “Star Wars” in the title has been a huge seller at Rifftrax, and this got a LOT of requests, so it was only a matter of time before New Hope got the Rifftrax treatment. It would make sense if we lived in an alternate reality where Rifftrax were a large business in a great economy, so you can imagine how much sense it makes for a small business in this economy.
Unfortunately it seems like the people who say they’d like them take on old/obscure/cheesy/bad movies are a vocal minority out of the various customers that actually buy titles from Rifftrax. It’s difficult to argue that even a recent “bad” movie would sell well, since The Happening didn’t. It’s not that they necessarily want to avoid cheesy stuff and focus entirely on new/popular releases, but they have to keep the business going long enough so they can occasionally afford to take more chances with titles that the vocal minority claims they want, but probably won’t sell with most customers. They have enough variety at the site now with the primary Rifftrax product line, Rifftrax Presents, Shorts, VOD movies, and iRiffs that nobody is really being forced to buy New Hope.
“Sad to say it but by buying things like this Star Wars Rifftrax you are helping to eliminate any chances that they would do anything weird or niche ever again.”
I wouldn’t go that far. However, I would recommend that those who feel that negatively about this choice should explore the site and go after all the other stuff that they’re more interested in BEFORE they buy New Hope, if they even want to buy it at all. All the other riffs on the site that you haven’t bought yet are still there when they add something new, even if it isn’t a big seller.
#40 – The Professor
At this point, I’d like to think that fans don’t seriously believe that the riffers spend the entire run of a film saying how lousy they think every aspect of it is or that every film is equal to Manos. Many times they have said that they got some enjoyment out of many of the ones they’ve screened, but that doesn’t inherently make them unriffable. My friends and I make fun of each other all the time, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop spending time with each other.
“Maybe they should change their tagline from ‘Some movies have it coming’ to ‘ALL movies have it coming’.”
Actually, they have started changing their tagline. Most of the ads for Rifftrax now say, “We don’t make movies, we make them funny!”
Since “The Dark Knight” has been brought back into this discussion, I might as well post a link to the Rifftrax Blog where Bill discusses the film: http://blog.rifftrax.com/2008/12/10/dark-knight-knotes/
“When the movie is good there isn’t anything to riff on,”
But in the case of this movie, the riffable elements in it are the very reason it is good to me and why I will always stop to watch it when it is on. (Almost anything Luke says is funny) I don’t consider the cheesy elements flaws but endearing and fun minus a couple little additions that stick out like the screw ups around the trench run.
Actually, considering most of the Commando Cody and Rocky Jones kind of serial stuff was all done in the Joel years, Cinematic Titanic doing Star Wars would be the Sh!t.
I think when Kevin makes the riff at the scene between Greedo and Han Solo, he exclaims “There you have it, the most grievous cinematic abortion in history.”, and he’s being sarcastic. I think they did a gag about the nitpicky fanboys in either Firewall or Raiders of the Lost Ark.
And I believe the guys have said it before, but just because a movie is riffed doesn’t mean they think it sucks. It means they think it can be funny. Riffing is not necessarily a variant on “this movie sucks” (except when they did The Phantom Menace), it’s about adding comedic levity to serious situations.
And they did decent movies back in the MST3K days too. This aint a new habit.
Bobo reminds me, re: Commando Cody. I remember when supporting characters for Ep. 3 were being revealed and I first saw clone general Commander Cody’s name, I geeked out remembering the Cmdr. Cody shorts. But it felt obvious too since everyone knows Lucas loved those serials as a kid and took a lot of inspiration from them. If only some of the more serious fanboys knew that their beloved ultra cool Boba and Jango Fett that they go on and on about in theforce.net forums were probably conjured in ‘lil Georgie’s mind as he thrilled to the cornball, buckethead “adventures” of Commando Cody in a small suburban northern CA theater many years ago. haha
@ Captain Cab
They start in on it mostly at the end. I think it started with some “I miss Maverick and Iceman” jokes during the dog fight at the death star.
What I was talking mostly about was Bill saying, “Ok, so that THING we just watched… was THE Star Wars… the world-shaping Star Wars I heard so much about? Nobody sneaked into the vaults of 20th Century Fox and replaced a film that deserves a Star Wars like reputation with the thing we just witnessed?”
Maybe it’s just kind of lame to pretend that Bill had never seen Star Wars before.
I’m not saying that they shouldn’t riff on “good” movies, just don’t pretend that they’re bad movies.
My two other complaints is that they missed riffs on Darth Vader’s “fem” stance and the stormtrooper hitting his head. Shame!
However, Kevin did a fun little song and there *were* many fun riffs.
^^^^
Thanks for the added info, LBS. I’ll end up seeing it regardless at one of our next rifftrax parties that my best friend and brother organize. Last time we watched Wicker Man (my fave so far and the movie itself is right up there with Manos’ levels of insanity), Top Gun and Willy Wonka.
And back on topic, the only SW RT I’ve seen so far was for Ep I. I agree the guys seem a bit mean spirited, but except for the duel, that flick deserved every mili-drop of venom they directed at it. Despite the awful romance and complete lack of human chemistry between Hayden and Natalie, the rest of Ep.2 is a big improvement in just being fun and action packef. I have mixed feelings though about the Ep 3 RT. I really think Lucas finally got all the themes and threads near perfect and the characters really cared about each other. Revenge of the Sith ranks right behind Empire and ANH for me. But I’m sure someone will post a funny line from it and I’ll be persuaded to listen. :p
The one RT choice I can’t understand is Memento, regardless of what you think of it, it’s a serious movie and even has a rape scene. That should have folks scratching their heads far more than any SW or Batman RT. But if anyone here has listened to the Memento RT, please enlighten me.
I really liked Memento (the movie), I’m tempted to get the Rifftrax of it, but I’m sure I’d get sick of the “what the hell is going on now” jokes. I’m just assuming that’s the bulk of the jokes. I hope I’m wrong. I should get it and see. But yeah, the rape scene… how do you do that?
Anyway their Ep 1 was great. The movie deserved it. Ep 2 does too (though I didn’t see it).
I’m going to download Memento and try it out tonight.
@Forprefect #42
Thanks for redundanly stating the obvious facts about why they make the financial decisions they do. I know it’s shocking to hear this but the best financial decisions don’t always equal the best CREATIVE decisions. And I’ve only ever been talking about the questionable CREATIVE decision of riffing good movies like The Dark Knight or Star Wars.
And I think many people misunderstand the situation behind exactly why some Rifftrax sell better than others. It isn’t because there is this huge majority of people out there who would much rather see them riff a good movie like Star Wars or The Dark Knight than a bad movie like The Happening. It’s because there is this huge group of people who already own the DVDs of good movies like Star Wars and The Dark Knight because they actually like the movies, and they would rather only pay $4 more for the Rifftrax of those movies than pay $24 for both a DVD of The Happening that they don’t actually want to own, and also the Rifftrax for it. All the high sales of Rifftrax for popular good movies like Star Wars and The Dark Knight proves is that when it comes to shelling out money for Rifftrax people aren’t prepared to go beyond their own personal DVD collections. It definitely doesn’t prove that given an equal choice most people would prefer watching good movies riffed over bad ones.
So yes I fully understand the financial reasons for them doing riffs of good movies, and it seems I understand better than you exactly why that situation has arisen, but none of that has anything to do with any of my concerns. I’m not even complaining about all the newer films they do, or even all of the films they’ve done that I personally like. I never complained about them doing the Harry Potter films (which I actually like quite a bit) because it is believable that they, and other people might genuinely not like them. I can accept them doing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which I also liked at least as much as Temple of Doom) because it has some serious flaws, and again I can believe that they, and many people actually don’t like the film. The same goes for the Star Wars prequels. And I actually think it’s good that they did The Matrix movies, because even though I can understand how some people actually like them I personally think they are awful pieces of trash, and I know there is a large ammount of people who agree with me. I just have a hard time believing that Mike Kevin and Bill, or even much of the general public actually dislike movies like the original Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or The Dark Knight enough for the riffing to come off as anything but the odd genuinely clever joke padded out by hollow and fake criticism of what are actually at the absolute very least respectable pieces of film making, and widely believed to be very impressive ones. So some of the newer, and even some of what I would personally call “good” films they’ve done are fine with me, but recently with films like The Dark Knight, and now Star Wars, they have stepped over a line where the whole idea of riffing the films simply loses credibility.
And it is sad that they are caught in a bit of a trap where being as financially successful as possible costs them the freedom to be as creative as possible, but I think that there could be a better balance than what there has been lately. And some films just shouldn’t be riffed no matter how many DVDs they’ve sold.
Ok, just watched Memento. I was wrong – there were only one or two riffs about the chronology of the movie. Thank god. However, it just wasn’t all that entertaining (for me). They made some great riffs, but mostly it wasn’t a movie that I’d consider riffable.
The rape/murder scene doesn’t actually show the rape/murder, so Mike, etc didn’t really cross lines and it was tastefully done, so no problem there.
But sadly, just wasn’t all that great. Too bad.