Just in time for the holidays, RiffTrax presents our take on A Visit to Santa, a Christmas short of unknown origin that most probably was the result of Santa’s short-lived collaboration with the producing team of Screwtape and Wormwood. Rather than being a right jolly old elf, Santa here is depicted as the Dark Prince of a vast slave empire made up entirely of children under 10 – it’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with less dignified clothing. Or put another way it’s Manos: The Hands of Fate without the elephantiasis.Mike, Kevin and Bill fall on it like a Christmas goose in a brand new downloadable video!
It works like this: You buy it here and they will email you a link to the “.tix” file, which you download, and then open with the Divx player (you DID install the player and set up an account with Divx, right?) and then you download the actual .divx file (it’s about 128 mgs).
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The Rifftrax people have went and put “cinematic titanic” in the keywords for all their videos on youtube. How lame is that. :evil:
I’m glad to see them doing some shorts. And this one is really atrocious, the short that is, not the riffing. The riffing is pretty solid, although it doesn’t entirely let you soak in just how awful the film is – to do that check out the raw version at archive.org.
I’d also toot my own horn (sort of) by pointing out that a few years ago I sold cafepress cards with a grab from the movie’s limo scene, making a very similar joke to the one they ended up using for it. Though one of the things that made me feel ok about selling such a tacky card was that the image almost demanded the joke, so I’m not too proud of ‘predicting’ the riff.
And now, I’ll really toot my own horn by pointing out that screen grabs from the movie will be available for riffing at my site between 1PM (eastern) and 1:20 or so on X-mas day.
I downloaded the “raw” version of that one years ago and showed it to my daughter, and we both began riffing it left and right.
We both thought that it’d be ripe for MST-ing (if the show had still been around), so I’m VERY pleased that it’s finally getting the proper “treatment”.
And this “on-demand” thing is pretty cool! Too bad you can’t burn the stuff to DVD after you’ve purchased it… :sad:
I am extremely happy they are expanding to shorts now as well. I have been wanting this for years. I hope when they get a few of these out there they put them on a DVD to purchase though.
Arrrg!!! I REALLY want to buy these things from RiffTrax, but I REFUSE to do the DIVX cr@pola! :evil: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE release these as a collection on REAL DVDs for those of us who simply like to pop in a disc and enjoy a show! :cry:
(call me a luddite, I don’t care)
Another one…??
You know, this might just be me. I mean paying 1 dollor for a short sounds good. But the fact that you can only play it on that crappy divx player and you always have to be online to play it. Sound more like a rip off to me.
Well, after enough prodding by the message board members, they added an mp3 in addition to the Divx file.
http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,6629.0.html
Rifftrax sucks. I agree with spamseeer that the “Rifftrax people” putting “cinematic titanic” in their keywords is lame and pathetic. But hey, they’ll do anything (and I do mean anything) to cash in. $$$
As someone else already said before, they seem to have lost sight of the fact that “bad movies” were the ones that deserved riffing – not EVERYTHING that might be coming out on DVD the very next Tuesday. They are in it for the money. Period.
Their roster of upcoming riffs is decided almost entirely on “What Coming Out On Tuesday.”
I mean, c’mon, they riffed movies like Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Bourne Identity, Predator, Casino Royale, Lord Of The Rings, The Matrix, Top Gun, and X-Men to name MORE than a few. While these movies may not be to everyones particular liking – No one would argue that any of them are of the caliber of Roger Corman or the like. In fact most of these movies have received very positive critical acclaim etc.
The point is that if you are going to riff – riff something WORTH riffing. Especially if your slogan is “we don’t make bad movies – we make fun of them.” If you riff good movies, well, you lose all credibility with the masses. Either you don’t know what the hell constitutes a “good” or “bad” movie or you just don’t care because you would rather just riff anything that is available on DVD Tuesday.
If the Rifftrax guys were really serious, they would riff all those old and really bad movies, but alas there are just too many good movies coming out on DVD Tuesday. $$$
And trying to lure away folks looking for “cinematic titanic” on YouTube is truly pathetic. You see, the “Cinematic Titanic” folks are riffing on those really old and really bad B movies – not like the money grubbing rifftrax guys. :evil: :evil: :evil:
Of course, this is all a matter of opinion but….
I mean, c’mon, they riffed movies like Indiana Jones
…fun but, c’mon, a very silly and riffable movie
Harry Potter,
…terrible movie
The Bourne Identity,
…terrible movie
Predator,
…fun, but, c’mon, a very silly and riffable movie
Casino Royale,
…terrible movie
Lord Of The Rings,
Have you HEARD this riff? It’s marvelous. They riff with love. The movie takes itself VERY seriously and that’s the key to riffability.
The Matrix,
…fun but, c’mon, very silly and riffable movie
Top Gun
…terrible movie
and X-Men,
…AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL movie
to name MORE than a few. While these movies may not be to everyones particular liking – No one would argue that any of them are of the caliber of Roger Corman or the like.
I would. The chief difference between Corman movies and most of the movies in your list is the size of the budget.
In fact most of these movies have received very positive critical acclaim etc.
Yeah, yeah, the emperor’s clothes are beautiful!
If you riff good movies, well, you lose all credibility with the masses.
On the contrary, if you show you are not afraid to say the emperor has no clothes, you GAIN credibility.
IMO of course. Your mileage may vary.
Jenson, what are you….The Comic Book Guy?
I can’t believe anyone who claims to be a MST3K fan would bash Rifftrax. You’ve got to be kidding me. Mike, Kevin and Bill have given you hours and hours of entertainment. That’s the reason you’re even on this site. And you’re bashing them? For making a living doing the very thing that entertained us all for years? Again, that’s Comic Book Guy-sad.
I applaud Mike for developing a truly creative method to continue the MST3K tradition. It pre-dates Cinematic Titanic (which I’m also beyond excited for, by the way) and should be cheered, not derided. Particularly here.
The bottom line is that every fan of MST3K should be thrilled that there’s new content from Mike, Joel, Kevin, Trace, Frank, Bill and the rest of the gang. I guess given my excitement over all this incredible content from my favorite performers of all time…I’m just very disappointed to read a post like yours.
But, I guess in the early 70’s, some Comic Book Guy Beatles fan must have criticized Lennon for Imagine. “What a cop-out, man!”
Does anybody else find it ironic that someone would choose to complain about the Rifftrax crew doing popular movies in an announcement thread for a MST3K-like short? I think that some people’s ideas of what’s ok to make fun of and what isn’t are pretty narrow and/or vague sometimes. If anything, I think it makes Rifftrax more rebellious for going after popular movies and not bothering to ask for permission to riff them.
They’ve done 1 day and date “new release” but apparently that’s “almost entirely” to Jenson.
I’m sure CT has absolutely nothing to do with money, that’s why they are giving the DVDrs away… oh right….
See this is the side of fandom I hate, and we’re just going to see more and more of it unfortunately. It’s “I like this group, so therefore I am required to piss on the other group, no matter how nonsensical what I say may be.” Examples just in the last day, “Mary Jo looks great, the RiffTrax crew have really let themselves go” WTH? “Oh RiffTrax compare stuff to food too often!” Seriously people WTF? You can like both! Or if you don’t like one that doesn’t mean you have to make up BS about it!
Im going with Jenson on this one. There far worst movies out there that could be done that are not in the public domain. But for some reason all we get Harry Potter and Spider-man. Give me a break. While i wouldnt say these movies are great. But they dont hit the bottom of the bucket of badness. Plus im not a very cynical person. I dont have to find something to hate about every movie. For this reason and the fact that they make you pay $4.00 for a rifftrax. Is pretty much why i have giving up Rifftrax. Overall i have enjoyed the original MST3k episode, Film Crew DVD & probably Cinematic Titanic far more then almost all the rifftrax (except Roadhouse and Crossroads).
I don’t think I’ve ever written or said aloud the following sentence, but…
Thank you, BathTub.
I completely agree with you. It really would be like complaining that John Lennon had the audacity to make solo albums after the Beatles broke up. Now, McCartney on the other hand…
To Droppo –
Yes, I DO claim to be a MST3K fan AND a fan that can be IMPARTIAL at that (like Wow!). Yes, I do appreciate what Mike, Kevin, and Bill have given me and others over the years, but that does not mean that I have to kiss their collective @ss’ from here to eternity. If there doing something that in itself deserves riffing or complaining about then its fair game for all of us that are not so obsessed with being fan boys. You see, some of us can still remember the POINT of what MST3K, and more importantly, RIFFING was all about.
I also encourage them to make as much $$ as they can! Go capitalism! –BUT that encouragement will ONLY come from me IF they stay true to what brought them their fame and subsequent opportunities. Stay TRUE to what riffing IS and SHOULD BE. In short, riff really bad movies – not just anything and everything that comes your way. If you do the latter, you lose all credibility.
To Sampo –
It would appear that no movie to you is unworthy of riffing. The differences between the movies named and Roger Corman movies is NOT just a budget. Argue all you want, but those movies just simply do not sink to the abysmal level of any Roger Corman movie. Sorry, they just don’t. Perhaps you feel like you have to “support” MST3K alumni any time a less than positive remark is made (disclosure: you co-run Satellite News and have ties to MST3K alumni), but frankly, you are not exactly as impartial as the rest of us on this one.
Yes. Any movie can be riffed. That was not the point. The point was that far too often, it would appear that Rifftrax chooses titles based on what is “easily and widely available to the masses” rather than on what actually deserves riffing. To choose titles primarily for that reason means that you are going to be selecting a number of movies that really don’t represent the TRUE SPIRIT of riffing.
As a case in point: Cinematic Titanic actually appears to be staying true to the spirit of MST3K and riffing with their first selection of “The Oozing Skull.”
Who here would argue that this is not a title that would fit perfectly and instantly into the MST3K canon.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking – Why didn’t they choose “Superbad” or “Transformers?”
Well, for those of you thinking that, you missed the point completely…and I cannot help you. (sad really.)
– But hey, head on over to Rifftrax for a who’s who list of riffed titles that looks just like Amazon.com’s newest list of released movie titles. (No kidding. Go to Amazon and look at the recently released titles and then match it up to Rifftrax. Coincidence? Hmmmm…)
Well, I hope that stance makes you happy, Jenson.
It doesn’t sound like much fun. It’s actually much happier over here.
As Gypsy would say…OH, WELL!!!!!
But CT and Rifftrax ARENT Mst3K. And I never really thought the “True Spirit” of Riffing or MST3K was Bad movies in the first place. With MST3K, it was “Cheesy” movies, if i remember the theme correctly. ;) They were usually bad however because they were usually low budget, but that is relative. I wouldnt say EVERY movie used in MST3K is bad. I happen to like a few of them. Case in point – Danger: Diabolik.