• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban–Maybe it’s just because the memory is freshest, but I laughed my wand off.
• The Dark Knight–Fanboy dismay notwithstanding, this riff is proof, once again, that a “good” movie (though, frankly I don’t really understand the “greatest movie of all time” talk; it’s just a Batman movie…a GOOD Batman movie, granted, and Heath Ledger’s performance is gripping, granted … but it’s still just a Batman movie) can be riffed with hilarious results.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers–I’m not ranking these, but I think if I were, this one would top the list. Tears were literally streaming down my face, I was laughing so hard. Sheer brilliance.
• Cloverfield–The dopiest monster movie in recent memory, featuring a millennial cast you immediately hope will be eaten, provides great fodder.
• Spiderman 3–The mellifluous voice of pop culture vulture James Lileks adds a different dimension to this riff. Great fun.
• Jurassic Park–This terrific riff, featuring the fabulous but “weird” Al Yankovic, was one of the most talked about RiffTrax of the year, and brought a whole new audience to RiffTrax.
• Rifftrax On Youtube–In the heat of the primary season, the RiffTrax guys released a series of hilarious political ads. Great stuff.
• Spiderman 2–In this “RiffTrax Presents” offering, Kevinand Bill were joined by Josh Fruhlinger, aka “the Comics Curmudgeon.” I’m not into comics, so I admit I had not heard of Josh before this, but I’m a fan now.
• Dirty Dancing–Another “RiffTrax Presents” feature with a difference: “SF Sketchfest” founders Cole Stratton and Janet Varney brought their own distinctive style and brand of humor to this riff. I cannot recommend this one enough.
• One Got Fat–One of the most surreal shorts ever forms the basis for one of the most talked-about riffs of the year.
Honorable mention: Coffeehouse Rendezvous–The oh-so-pretentious comments of nerdiest nerds ever are the target of this memorable short.
Your picks?
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The Day After Tomorrow was the hardest I have ever laughed at a Rifftrax. Loved it.
My favorites movie riffs of 2008:
Jurassic Park
Saw
The Day After Tomorrow
X2
My favorite shorts riffs of 2008:
A Visit to Santa
Harm Hides at Home
Drugs Are Like That
Down and Out
Buying Food
Good Health Practices
ICWXP Lady Frankenstein
I mainly stuck with the shorts, because I’m a sucker for them. I would say that “Drugs Are Like That” and “Safety: Harm Hides At Home” were spot on, striking the right balance of weird shorts and sharp commentary. By far, those two really showed what Rifftrax could do. Honorable mention goes to “One Got Fat” (I loved the Edward Everett Horton narration before it got riffed, but the riffing does a a little bit to this loopy short) and “Kitty Cleans Up” (painful short gets a well-deserved trashing).
The Happening. Worst movie of 2008 + Rifftrax = gold covered in more gold.
got the Best Of DVD Shorts. Drugs are like that is unbelieveable. “That’s what she said”, “Who”, “What?”, “Who said?”, “That Lady”, “About What”, I swear those kids had an early case of severe ADD. Shake Hands With Danger seemed pretty gruesome too. “they left his corpse there?”
“The Happening” and “Memento” were my two favorite this year. “Spider-Man 3” was pretty damn funny too.
For some reason, the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings ones never make me laugh.
“Buying Food” and “Down and Out” are my favorite two shorts of the year.
“The Happening” Rifftrax made my awful week a lot better. “Jurassic Park” and “Matrix Reloaded” were instant classics, and “Saw” had some side-splitters (“It’s dark and it smells like poopie!”). In terms of shorts… “One Got Fat”, “Drugs are Like That”, “Safety – Harm Hides at Home”, “Good Eating Habits”, and “Good Health Practices.”
I haven’t gotten any of the movies yet. They don’t look as funny as I want them to be by the samples. (Maybe that’s not fair, but I don’t know how else to judge them – I don’t really want to take a chance – maybe some day I will, on a DVD I already have).
The Happening DID look pretty funny by the sample, but, hell, I ain’t buying that.
As for the shorts, I only have the DVD collection. “Down and Out” was very funny. :lol: “Buying Food” and “Drugs are Like That” had some chuckles. :smile:
I’m a shorts fan, too, and I’ll side with Wilford on “Safety” and “Drugs”. “Safety: Harm Hides at Home”, in particular, I think was overlooked by most people. To me, it’s about the funniest short in any riffing project.
(Mild spoiler info follows – has been revealed in numerous reviews)
I didn’t thing “The Happening” was nearly as bad as most people did, but then I never accepted the premise that the characters in the movie knew what they were talking about. If you deny the possibility that the trees really are responsible, the movie becomes a lot more interesting. After all, no one in the movie gives any evidence that they know what’s going on – it’s all just speculation. And how do the characters in the movie that are helpful, sincere. and exercise critical thinking fare vs. the ones that are a**holes, or that are overly paranoid or gullible?
Jurassic Park, really enjoyed Weird Al’s riffing with Mike.
Only have the shorts; the beloved shorts. “Good Eating Habits” reduced me to genuine tears, and “Buying Food” nearly resulted in hospitalization for two members of my family. “Each Child is Different” (oh Ruthie! Good heavens), “One Got Fat,” and “Good Health Practices” are next, with props to both Christmas shorts for utterly destroying all remaining holiday spirit Christmas evening. Well met, my friends. Oh, and “Coffeehouse Rendezvous” is horrifyingly long for a short, and deserves an honorable mention, for filling me with hate. I think I’ll go vandalize a warehouse now.
The Day After Tomorrow has to be in the top 5.
Jurassic Park
All Harry Potter riffs
All Spiderman riffs
Fellowship of the Ring
Sorry if the list is not exclusively 2008.
I don’t know if this counts, but I really liked Missle to the Moon with Mike and Fred Willard. It’s a keeper.
:mrgreen: Maybe if Rifftrax would have done the other Batman movies,then it would have been a lot better!!! I’d like to see what RT would’ve done with Jim Carrey’s performance,as well as Tommy Lee Jones’s..Why not the Star Wars prequels?? Pretty lame crap,don’t you think??? How come RT hasn’t done THE HAPPENING,THE WOMEN,W.,INDIANA JONES 4(big stinker,if ever there was one!!);among others…Hey Mike,keep doing those shorts dvd’s–killer stuff!
I thought the entire shorts DVD they just put out a while ago was awesome. Shake Hands with Danger was my favorite with Down and Out coming in at a close second. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at those shorts.
Buying Food. That one put me on the floor.
Randy
Okay, One Got Fat is weirder than Buying Food, but not as condescending. I mean, its FOOD for land sakes. It’s as if they were instructing fiddler crabs how to shop, not humans or monkeys on bikes.
Randy
@Gary Bowden
Did you look at a bizarro version of our website? We have done all of the Star Wars Prequels, Batman & Robin, The Happening AND Indiana Jones 4. Do check it out some time.
All my favorite RTs are the shorts, including Drugs Are Like That, Coffeehouse Rendezvous, and Each Child Is Different, which is probably the darkest, most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. That RT could make that funny says a lot.
Bottom line, guys, do more shorts, please!
Cloverfield was my absolute favorite riff, but my wife prefers the Iron Man riff. We watch both of those just as much as we watch old MST episodes. As fans of MST/CT/RT, we just soak up the goodness all around.
Also, I’m partial to the ‘World Enough and Time” Rifftrax Presents.
The shorts are all too awesome to try and single one out. Truly a great year to be a RT fan. Can’t wait for ’09!
The short films are the BEST. I hope they find tons more to do.
This year we did the Star Wars prequels, which were a hoot; Cloverfield, which made an entertaining movie even better, and of course the Shorts DVD, which was everything I could have hoped for. (Everyone has let the disc sit at the menus for a bit to enjoy the songs at the different menu screens, right? “And his bowels are packed with dynamite, and his ears are gold, and they’re water-tight, and his kneecaps were forged by dwarves who live underground.”)
The best of the shorts was “Drugs Are Like That” for me, seeming to have the best of that inspired lunacy that infuses all the top-tier riffing (“So drugs are like injecting yourself…with drugs?”) but they’re pretty much all great.
The Two Towers
Harry Potter 2 (and 1, but mostly 2)
The first episode of Lost!
The Dark Knight
These things are awesome!
Hard to pick which were the best movies. I enjoyed quite a bit of them. Momento and the Happening stick out in my mind for some reason, possibly because I watched those two for the first time as Rifftrax. I watched Cloverfield that way too now that I think of it.
As far as shorts it’s Down and Out hands down. Cracks me up just thinking about it. That short is such a great find.
The Rifftrax of the Happening was the hardest I laughed in my living room all year. Classic, classic stuff.
I would like to give more praise to the Rifftrax of The Happening. Definitely the funniest Rifftrax I’ve heard thusfar, and that’s really saying something.
I haven’t bought too many of them, but I must first go with #1…Roadhouse! I had actually never seen Roadhouse, so I first watched it sans Rifftrax. It was gloriously ridiculous, and the Rifftrax itself was spot on.
I also loved the one for the pilot for Lost. Really funny stuff.
Number One Short: Drugs Are Like That Too
I can watch that one over and over and still be gasping for breath!
Number One RiffTrax: VERY hard choice. The one that really stands out for me is The Happening. An ironically titled movie where NOTHING HAPPENS.
My daughter and I still mumble “Hawht Dawhgz” to each other across the dinner table.
Best 2008 full-length Rifftra>: Batman and Robin. Riffs written by fans = lots of MST3k refs = yay.
Best 2008 short Rifftra>: “Why Doesn’t Cathy Eat Breakfast?”
“Quentin Tarantino hand-picks soundtracks for all dairy shorts.”
“Was Cathy Keyser Soze?”
All this talk of shorts that weren’t on the DVD makes me eager for a Volume Two. You hear, Rifftrax? I know you guys read these comments sections. More DVDs of Rifftrax shorts, please. I’ll spend the money if you release them. (Oh, and no need for the funky CGI avatars. The eight shorts that didn’t have them worked just fine.)
I’m pretty far behind on Rifftrax, but from the ones I’ve seen Two Towers and Jurassic Park are my favorites of 2008.
John Seavey, #31, I have to admit that I really liked the funky CGI avatars. (Admittedly I was on painkillers the first time I watched Shake Hands with Danger, which gave the avatars a great hallucinogenic quality.) But either way, I’d buy another DVD of the Rifftrax shorts any time.
It’s funny how the lame “fanboy” label gets tossed around by the people with an unflinching loyalty to Rifftrax who can’t accept other people not adoring everything with that name slapped on it. That sounds more like the actions of a fanboy than anything I’ve seen from the people who simply don’t enjoy Rifftrax riffing on good movies.
I’ve only seen the shorts DVD and I have to say it’s totally hilarious. But an honorable mention MUST go out to the songs by the Rifftones on the dvd menus. Who would write a song honoring the invention of the ball point pen? Who would call the moon a dick? Well, they would and it’s funny as hell.
So, how was the riffing for The Dark Knight? Please tell me that there are frequent mentions about how Gotham City looks a lot like Chicago.
I think it’s interesting that Sampo says that these “prove” that good movies can be riffed with hilarious results. My own take is just the opposite — these riffs merely bore and annoy me in the same way that folks sitting in the theater annoy me when I want to pay attention to a film.
I so don’t agree with the premise that any movie should be riffed I won’t comment further except to say that there are so many movies that DESERVE to be riffed I really think Mike and Co. are wasting their valuable talents doing work that appeals to a minority of fans when they could be doing something that works for us all.
However — the shorts are priceless, and my choice is “Drugs are Like That” as the best of the best.
“Drugs Are Like That” is a good short. It was nice to see instructional films from the ’70s. There must be some from the ’80s that could be riffed as well. I remember this video that we watched in school once. It was about good study habits. I vividly remember the kid in the short saying, “Hey, what about my music?” He says that as the host of the short shuts off his stereo.
“World Enough and Time” was the funniest Riff I’ve seen yet. And the movie’s pretty darn cool on its own, too.
I agree with Uncle Bill and ‘ex-genius’ without reservation.
I’ve been busy watching the real thing anyway…Cinematic Titanic !
I’m unaware of the personal dynamics involved but I’d really like to see Kevin come back to the fold…..ya know ?
I do like Cinema Titanic, and have bought all their stuff, but truth be told I think Mike is a better writer than almost any combination of all the rest. Those folks in the “Joel” camp should always remember that for most of Joel’s years Mike was the head writer.
I just wish RT would do some older stuff — I understand *exactly* why they’ve chosen the path they have, but it’s just something that will never appeal to me. And their brilliant work as The Film Crew only makes me sad for a Series That Might Have Been (any one of the four Film Crew shows can stand up to the best of MST3K, and certainly is better than anything CT has done so far).
That said, I will continue to buy all the RT shorts they make (and I’m happy to have them). Sometimes I can just be greedy (given all the wonderful riffing we have available — but I want MORE, damnit!)
I like cloverfield, Jurassic Park, and ergon.
Were dis sang to the song at end made laug so hard I cried.
I guess i’m in the minority but i absolutely hated jurassic park i thought it was unwatchable, its even made me wary of all the other rifftrax, but ive since learned that every single one of them is much much better