Download the commentary track here. Buy the movie here.
Conor writes:
Never heard of it? Check out our primer on the Blog.
The typical reaction to an encounter with The Room looks something like this: puzzlement, revulsion, laughter, amazement, hunger, affection, deep depression, inability to digest milk proteins, and ultimately, an unbreakable addiction. Yes, this is the film you’ve probably only heard rumors about, a truly jaw-droppingly weird melodrama written, starring, produced, financed, endlessly promoted by (most famously by a high profile billboard in Los Angeles for five years), and featuring the hideous naked backside of Tommy Wiseau, the world’s shaggiest and most mysterious auteur. The Room’s plot seems mundane: a banker looks forward to his marriage unaware that his fiancé is cheating on him with his best friend. But beneath this quotidian veneer lurk peculiar treasures that almost literally defy description. Quite simply, you must see this.
Though this film is hard to come by your efforts to secure it will be richly rewarded. Mike, Kevin and Bill are honored to be able to join you for your first viewing of The Room.
[Note: The Room is rated “R” for some badly done, gauzy sex scenes, (and a few strangely hilarious instances of profanity), which is something we try to steer clear of here at RiffTrax. Yet, given the film’s many other strengths we ultimately decided not to let that be a disqualifier and instead to give the viewers ample warning to look away. And when we strongly encourage you NOT to watch these scenes we are not just being coy. You were warned.]
In other news: Janet Varney and Cole Stratton, who did the terrific “Dirty Dancing” riff last year have just completed recording their next one, for the movie “Ghost.” It should be available later this month, and if it’s anywhere near as funny as their previous one, this should be a winner.
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I applauded when I read this. Since seeing the movie I knew this was one they should do, though I felt they never would (on account of, come on, who has that on DVD? Other than me…), but the movie’s absurdity alone is worth the price of admission. With Rifftrax? Well, I can only imagine it’ll be a more fulfilling experience.
…and they aren’t lying about the gratuitous sex scenes either. Unless you fantasize about cavemen in your spare time, cover your eyes ears and cower under a blanket until the saxaphone music dissipates.
Yeah, I just watched this last night. My soul died a little bit. It is deliriously awful, but hysterical.
Clips here: http://www.youtube.com/dvdont
What I don’t get is that they’ll do some movie I’ve never heard of and is hard to get and still haven’t touched the 90’s Gamera films. …seriously?…wth!
Gamera films? Didn’t MST3K already do like a dozen of those?
Where’d you hear about Ghost?
They mentioned at the end of Dirty Dancing that they might do Ghost. I didn’t imagine they would.
The Riffers mentioned that Ghost will be their next Rifftrax Presents and be released on 6/25 via Twitter
Adult Swim showed this (edited for TV) on April Fools Day. Yeah, it’s worse than they make it sound. Should be an interesting experience.
THIS MOVIE LOOKS AMAZING! I’m a lover of bad movies and this one has totally slipped underneath my radar. Thanks Rifftrax. I think these guys may finally be getting back to what I like to see riffed. (A good sequel to this riff would be one for Microwave Massacre. A classic of grade-z cinema.)
I’ve caught scraps of this masterpiece on YouTube. OhmidearJesus: I feel dirty all over from just those minor bits, but I could not stop laughing. When the Rifftrax comes out, I may have to bind my ribs to prevent them from shattering with giggles. VERY much looking forward to this!
This is excellent news.
Just watched all of those YouTube clips. Oh. My. God. Can you say “Vanity Project”? What a talentless cretin. “youknowicanttalkabouthathowsyoursexlife”. This could be the comedy event of the decade.
Professor – I’m not sure anyone should be exposed to Microwave Massacre. Just awful.
Not that any Adult Swim April Fool’s gag will ever live up to the ‘Perfect Hair Forever’ fan-sub-athon, but I had no idea they showed an edited version of this. I also had no idea that the flower shop scene was from an actual movie when I saw the Tommy Wiseau episode of ‘Tim and Eric’, but in hindsight I guess that shows he’s at least a good sport about allowing others to poke fun at him. Perhaps we’re seeing the beginning of an era in which Rifftrax thrives on more symbiotic relationships?
I also caught the beginning of this on Adult Swim, and not realizing it was April Fool’s and considering the credits listing Tommy Wiseau doing everything, the horrible acting, and the incomprehensible plot; I thought it was a fake movie and kept waiting for whichever show was supposed to be on to break out of the movie with the characters complaining about it.
It really does look like the kind of fake movie / soap opera that shows will put on when a character is sick in bed and can’t change the channel.
My god, Bolem. I love Perfect Hair Forever! I’ve never even met someone who’s even heard of that show. I still weep to this day over the fact that the show never found a cult following. I thought it was their best show since Space Ghost.
“Is it a magical bean?!”
“Does what have what?”
“How can i use this?”
“Uh, it’s a hamburger so, you know……snacking….”
Brilliant.
I don’t know about this one. The movie is incredibly funny all on it’s own, so I don’t know if any riffing could really make it all that much better, and I kind of have a feeling that it might actually wind up just getting in the way. Yes this is a truly awful movie that is absolutely crammed from beginning to end with some of the worst acting, writing, editing, and music ever, so you’d think it would be perfect for riffing, but it is an absolute joy to watch on it’s own. Even if it was unintentional it truly is a great comedy film, and I don’t know what a rifftrax could bring to it that would make it any more fun to watch than it already is. Still I might give it a try out of pure curiosity.
#11 Tim S. Turner: I watched this movie unriffed today. Vanity movie is correct. Especially when you see the ending. It’s so ridiculous. It’s like the director had this happen to him, and wrote the movie as some kind of revenge.
Bolem,
it wasn’t so much edited for time and/or content but rather the nudity was covered and the curse words were bleeped.
Read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Room_(film)
Tommy Wiseau needs to team up with Perry Carravello and make either Windy City Heat II or The Room Reloaded.
“What I don’t get is that they’ll do some movie I’ve never heard of and is hard to get and still haven’t touched the 90’s Gamera films. …seriously?…wth!”
Zombie,
If you want to see the 90’s Gamera films get riffed, check out the iRiffs that were made by Insert Coin(s) to Continue. He has already gone after the first two installments of the Gamera Heisei trilogy.
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
http://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs/insert-coins-continue/gamera-guardian-universe
Gamera: Attack of Legion
http://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs/insert-coins-continue/gamera-attack-legion
He has plans to riff the third one, but I don’t know when that will be released.
FordPrefect, I’ll do that. I watch the main page so much I sometimes forget to keep an eye on the iRiffs stuff.
Zombie,
After you mentioned it, I got interested in checking these out for myself. I think the main reason that official Rifftrax haven’t been made for the 90’s Gamera trilogy is that they aren’t widely available right now. I just got the box set off of ebay, but that was AFTER I did a lot of searching on the internet. I’ll download his riffs after the set comes in.
All right, I’ve placed my order, and can’t wait to share this one with friends. I’d seen Mr. Wiseau on Tim & Eric Awesome Show, and truly thought it was just some kind of joke. I’m sure I’ll get around to the Rifftrax version, but this one will be worth several viewings ala carte before that. I think I’ve watched the flower shop scene about a dozen times since yesterday. Jaw-dropping.
@Cabbage Patch Elvis #24
Yeah, the flower shop part is a perfect example of a scene that I don’t think could possibly be made any funnier no matter what riffing it had, and I think there are a lot of scenes like that in the movie. That’s why I’m thinking this film might not work all that well for a Rifftrax.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m VERY excited about the Rifftrax for The Room. I read somewhere (earlier in the thread or maybe on IMDB) of the comparison between Tommy Wiseau and Ed Wood, and if the rest of the film even remotely holds a candle to the flower shop scene I think the comparison is well-deserved. I started getting into Ed Wood’s films several years before MST3K, and got a lot of laugh mileage out of those vhs tapes prior to seeing any of the MST3K versions. I always found Sinister Urge to be incredibly funny on it’s own too. You get a different perspective from the riffing from MST3K (or Rifftrax) (OR CT). It just makes it fun in a different way. If nothing else, I’ve been turned on to a cinematic experience that should prove itself to have no equal, in whatever form that takes. Yay crap! MRYxL!
You’re tearing me apart, Rifftrax! I’m so glad that rifftrax is back to skin-peelingly awful movies (although I did enjoy Casablanca) like Battlefield Earth, The Phantom Menace, Transformers, and now The Room, which is quite easily the worst movie of all time.
If you click on the ‘new & used’ section at The Room’s Amazon page, you’ll see a ‘pretty scratched up’ copy available for $2,400.
Or you could get it new from Amazon for $9.
Perfect! I read about this “movie” in Entertainment Weekly a while back and I’m excited(is that the right word?)to see that Rifftrax is doing it.Can’t wait to see it.By the way,why don’t they do “Meet Dave” or “The Love Guru”????
@Gary – Those two movies are comedies. While they might be really bad comedies, I think they’re probably more successful than the original “Little Shop of Horrors” which is considered a comedy by most. (Kevin says it’s a comedy which “fails spectacularly” at being so.)
Despite some opinion to the contrary, The Room is not a comedy, which is what makes it perfect. I think the argument that it being unintentionally funny, and therefore hard to riff, is untrue. For me it’s very similar to Manos – a movie produced almost entirely by its lead actor, and completely incompetently at that. The movie is funny because of its ineptitude, while still being incredibly painful to watch. “The Room” is, for me, the 21st century Manos.
I’ve seen this one, thanks to a friend who has a copy, and it is terrific! Somewhere I read a review that compared Tommy Wiseau to Ed Wood, and this film to Glen or Glenda, in the so-bad-it’s-good sort of sordid peek into the auteur’s psyche.
For those who may be concerned about this being a comedy, I don’t buy the intentional humor spin that’s been put out there. He may be a good sport and show up to the monthly screenings, but it’s a little suspect that the initial press release referred to it as a dark, Tennessee Williams-esque drama, and once it became a cult classic it was all of a sudden a comedy.
Well, that’s the first time a Rifftrax sample has A: made me laugh and B: used a good scene from the movie. These guys have really been turning things around lately. Don’t even bother with another Rifftrax “Challenge”…just keep it rolling with VOD movies and stuff like this.
Oh hi Sattelite News.
Rifftrax doing “Meet Dave” would be meta-hilarious (I’m pretty sure that’s not a word). If they have to do an Eddie movie, perhaps they can wait for Imagine That to come out on DVD.
Just watched “The Room” with Rifftrax. (I’ve seen it maybe half a dozen times before… I love the heck outta that movie. :mrgreen: ) It is pretty hilarious – makes a great film-watching experience even greater! And Mike’s impression of Tommy W. is uncannily accurate. Oh hiii Rifftrax!
Didn’t Bill Corbett (co?)write Meet Dave? (IMBD confirms) If they really have ultimate fortitude (as their Casablanca riff claims), they should totally riff on a movie that one of them wrote.
My wife and I discovered this on the Adult Swim April Fools showing earlier this year. I had never heard of it and I kept waiting for the punchline, but it became apparent after a while that the whole film is an unintentional joke. After a while my wife fell asleep and I got bored watching it alone. After watching for about an hour total I realized nothing was going to happen and it was getting late so I hit the record button in case I wanted to watch the rest later and went to bed.
The next day I just watched the last few minutes of The Room to see how it ended and then deleted it. Then I looked at reviews of the movie on Amazon and had a bit of regret since it appeared I had missed a good bit of unintentional humor by missing the middle of the film. So, when I pre-ordered the MST3K Volume XV set I ordered a copy of The Room on DVD for less than $10 with it. I’m looking forward to watching this all the way through with my wife and having a good laugh at it.
But, be warned, The Room is unwatchable if you’re watching it alone with no one to share the joke with. It’s hilariously incompetent in acting, script, direction, everything, but like a lot of such films it is also desperately dull in many places.
Here’s an interview with the director. He calls The Room a black comedy so…hmmm…is this an “intentionaly” bad film or not? This guy is so weird I’m really not sure.
What do you guys think? Is it intentional camp or not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRN9FpMkUbU
p.s. I haven’t seen it yet myself, just the clips on youtube…
The conventional wisdom is that the movie was meant to be a straight-up drama, but when he found out people were laughing at it (or walking out), he began to claim it was all a black comedy with a few serious moments. Yeah, I don’t buy it either.
Watched the Rifftrax, and I wish they would have been a little more clear about the whole “ample warning” bit rather than just have a sketch about Disembaudio drag on. By the second time I caught on, but I was kind of excepting some amount of “Quick – go check and see if you left the iron on for 3 minutes” or something to that effect.
Nonetheless, that was astoundingly bad, and Mike’s Tommy impression was so on that I thought it really was him a few times. It’s not like the movie’s lines were any less inane.
I’m surprised at how many people are concerned that the movie is so awful that the riffing will distract from the comedy. Manos, Monster a Go Go and the Coleman Francis trilogy are all comedy gold on their own and augmented by riffing. They are different comedy experiences, but differently awesome. I guess I’ll find out when my copy comes in.
Bravo to Rifftrax for doing this! This is the first time I’ve ordered one of their non-VOD products, so they are expanding their market with this offering.
I agree with others that a real Rifftrax Challenge would be Meet Dave. It probably would not be a great Riff (comedies are tough), but it would be artistically interesting to riff one of their efforts.
Another potentially good one would be to see CT take on Bloodhook…
C’mon, if anyone’s going to riff ‘Meet Dave’ it should be Rick Sloane, surely? :wink:
There’s no way that this is “intentionally” funny. It’s a guy who realized that everyone who sees his movie laughs at it so he decides to market it as a “comedy”. God, that Rifftrax is one of their best jobs ever. “Oh, hi, movie theater!”
Disembaudio has been used as a distraction during sex scenes before. They did it with Road House and 300. They were just longer this time because there were so many sex scenes and they were so long.
I thought their introduction of all of Disembaudio’s friends and family was brilliant, though I can see how disorienting this would seem for someone not familar with Rifftrax.
#40:
Legend tells that Hal Warren at least considered doing the same (marketing it as a comedy) after the general hilarity at the “Manos” premiere.
After viewing the sample, I’m strongly considering ordering a copy of The Room myself. I wish I’d been able to see it on Adult Swim.
Watched this tonight at RiffTrax HQ. I think they achieved a pretty good balance of letting the movie’s hilarity shine through while still adding to the experience. I will never watch it unriffed again.
“Oh hi, gun barrel!”
I never thought I’d say this, but this Rifftrax actually looks like it will be really good!
Just watched the RiffTrax of The Room. I hadn’t seen the film before. Great stuff. The film was truely terrible and the riffs were excellent.
BTW, if this was supposed to be a dark comedy they failed at that too. The comedy had nothing to do with the story, just the acting.
I was totally underwhelmed by the Rifftrax for this film. I love the guys, but this was just a flop. It’s not even that the film is just so much more fun to watch on it’s own (which it is), the riffs just aren’t all that good. I am 100% certain that my friends and I watching the movie on our own made better jokes, and had much more fun than we would ever have watching it with this Rifftrax. And the worst thing of all are the long, drawn out, and highly annoying Disembaudio sketches during the love scenes that just drag the whole thing to a screeching halt. Yeah I understand why they did it, but it’s torture to watch. The love scenes in The Room are so repulsive that they are hard enough to watch as it is, and since I dislike the whole Disembaudio thing immensely anyway having to watch those scenes with extended, totally unrelated, and highly unfunny Disembaudio sketches happening at the same time was pure hell for me. After the second one started I just fast forward through the rest of the scene, and had to sync the track back up. Then I did the same thing again as soon as the third love scene started without even waiting to hear Disembaudio’s voice.
Yeah this Rifftrax goes on the little pile of stinkers. Watch The Room on it’s own with some friends and make fun of it yourself, or just laugh your butt off riffless style. If you want to have a good time watching some Rifftrax try The Happening or Twilight instead. Those are classics.
That’s what I love about this comedy thing. Some people love it, others don’t. And that’s okay :) Personally I thought it was great, but I can understand the issues you had with it. Also I think the divide seems to be more well-defined for people who already have a fondness for the movie on its own (especially the ones who like to riff on it, throw spoons at it, etc.)