Conor writes:
One of the things we like to do here at RiffTrax (during those rare moments when we’re not absorbed by our frequent, mandatory company-wide Schnappi sing-alongs) is to challenge ourselves. Sure, it’s easy enough to make hay out of a bear-suited Nicholas Cage, but what really tests one’s mettle is to see how he reacts when he’s staring down the business end of THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE. Yes, our respect and admiration for “Casablanca” is unbounded, but if our motto—We Don’t Make Movies, We Make Them Funny—is to have any meaning at all then it must be tested by fire. So we offer you this, our first in a series of RiffTrax Challenges, where we step outside our comfort zone (our comfort zone, by the way, is a large rumpus room here at RiffTrax Towers, with lots of bean bag chairs, thick shag carpet and a huge supply of Cheddar ‘n’ Bacon Easy Cheese) for our equivalent of a corporate “team-building” exercise. (We tried the more traditional rafting expedition but lost half our staff. We think it was at a Mobil Station in Bakersfield, CA.)
Will Mike, Kevin and Bill triumph? Merely survive? Suffer a huge smackdown by an angry, gargantuan Sidney Greenstreet? Join us for our first ever RiffTrax Challenge to find out!
The riff will be out Tuesday, June 2. Free sample here.
My own thoughts: I’m part of a private riffing group and one of the things we do is get together on weekend nights and riff whatever is on Turner Classic Movies. That has meant we have riffed a lot of truly great movies, and while back we did riff “Casablanca.” Now, I’m with Conor: this is probably one of the three or four most captivating, enthralling movies ever made, and Bogart, maybe the best, most natural actor ever to come out of old the Hollywood system, is flawless in it, as is just about everybody else.
But. What we’ve found over the years is that a movie doesn’t have to be bad to be riffable. It just has to take itself very seriously. And “Casablanca” definitely does that. The result was a memorable riff: plenty of things to riff on, even as we enjoyed a truly wonderful movie.
I’m looking forward to this one.
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Maybe Sattelite News should just stop posting Rifftrax updates. It always leads to “This isn’t MST3K” bitchfest.
#50, I’ve seen all the CT releases and all the Rifftrax releases and I’ve had the complete opposite reaction. I’ve found most of the riffing in CT to be sub-par(with the exception of the most recent one) and I’ve found myself laughing much more at Rifftrax. I will admit that I haven’t found the last year of Rifftrax releases quite as strong as the first two years, but overall they still entertain me more than CT. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
It’s not that Rifftrax isn’t MST3K, it’s that it’s a near constant deluge of “new on DVD this week” type movies that in many cases, aren’t that great of fodder for the joke canon.
Add this to the fact that Rifftrax has gone from being fun to being catty and generally aggressively hateful in it’s tone, and you’ll see why they lost me as a customer and one of their biggest supporters. If you look back at the Film Crew stuff this same group of riffers worked on a couple of years ago, it’s a 180 degree difference in tone.
I love the hateful tone. :grin:
I watched a few of the Cinematic Titanic releases and the laughs were very few and far between. Yes, they have the silhouettes like MST and yes, they have the old movies like MST but they don’t have the funny riffing like MST. For me, the riffing comes first and everything else is secondary. I watched the rifftrax of The Happening and Twilight and thought they were both hilarious.
Ahem…this isn’t MST3K. Thank you.
..the hell? I’d better get back in my transport and get back to 1994!
After this, RiffTrax should take a break and review the entire film catalog of Daniel Bernhardt (aka Jean Claude Gosh Darn). There are so many direct to video movies that could be riffed.
Mike, Kevin and Bill should also pick through the films of Golan-Globus.
I wasn’t to terribly impressed with the quality of the riffs. Most of them (to me at least) seemed far to wordy, and were not that funny in the first place, so why bother making the riffs so wordy as to which they become annoying and detract from any sort of viewing pleasure one might glean from watching this. I also (unfortunately) have not seen Casablanca, so it probably would not be in my best interest (at this point anyway) to purchase this. I’m sorry I had to get wordy to get my point accross,but it seemed neccessary.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the really wordy riffs either. I’ve seen enough rifftrax to know, however, that they do these ‘rants’ on occasion but usually just a little bit per film. Unfortunately, this sample will give the impression to the uninitiated that this is all they have in their arsenal, which is certainly not the case. A poor choice for a sample.
Well, it is obivious that Rifftrax is still stung by The Dark Knight fiasco…..(it really did suck), This is another attempt to prove that they can riff good movies….they haven’t done it successfully yet, so we shall see.
Haven’t done it successfully yet? Huh??!!
Jaws – good movie – good rifftrax
Jurassic Park – good movie – good rifftrax
Matrix – good movie – good rifftrax
Lord of Rings films -good movies -good rifftrax
Spider Man – good movie – good rifftrax
Willy Wonka – good movie – good rifftrax
LOST – good movie (okay,TV movie) good rifftrax
Star Trek 6 -decent movie -good rifftrax
Bourne Identity – good movie – an extremely underrated and unfairly maligned rifftrax
I loved LOTR and was very excited to learn that Rifftrax was doing it, combining 2 of my favorite interests at that time. I felt it to be fairly reverent to the movie, but I didn’t find it all that funny. Part of it is the fact that it was 3 hours long. It is very difficult to pause or stop a movie and the commentary and then to correctly cue it up after life interjects upon one’s viewing. Perhaps I am spoiled by my DVR, but who has 3 hours of uninterrupted time these days?
Now comes Casablanca. Like LOTR, it easily makes my top-ten favorite film list. Fortunately, it is a much shorter film, making it much easier to sit through in one take. When I first heard they were doing it, I thought: “Yea, this could be interesting”. Then I watched the first few seconds and I was repulsed. Then I laughed. Then repulsion again, followed by some more laughter. I think what it boils down to for me is the fact that I already own the movie and it will only cost me $3 or so to get the Rifftrax. Therefore I will buy it. I refuse to buy or even rent crappy movies even if Rifftrax does a great job on them. What I would really like to see is Rifftrax choose one of the 50 packs of movies you can find a your local retail store and pick them off one by one. That way, I will be spending my money supporting the Rifftrax project, not the Hollywood blockbuster machine.
As someone who has never sat down to watch Casablanca, I don’t hold any ill will towards the effort. Funny is funny, classic or not.
This to me just seems like another nail in the coffin.
And you know, I don’t mind the hateful tone, in fact I love it…when it’s aimed at crappy movie that also equally pisses me off.
Of course that raises the question, what makes a crappy movie? It’s a matter of opinion as always. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And a lot of fans are quite happy with the way things have been going, riffing newer mainstream movies or classics, what have you.
But what about the fans that aren’t happy with it? Like me. How about throwing a few craptastic films our way once in a while?
I know there’s the whole issue with the availability of newer movies as opposed to older ones and less well known ones. But I mean as long as you can find it say online, where’s the harm in riffing a real stinker? I would happily try and find it.
I also know that this isn’t MST3k 2.0 and I shouldn’t expect it to be. But apparently I’m a die hard for the old system.
I’ll take the advice that many have suggested, and just move on, that if I don’t like it…I shouldn’t buy it.
But I gotta say for me, those “don’t buy it” opportunities are mounting as of late.
“How about throwing a few craptastic films our way once in a while.”
In the last few months they’ve done:
Planet of Dinosaurs
Twilight
Swing Parade
Missile to the Moon
Reefer Madness
Those films aren’t ‘craptastic’ enough for you?!!
Oh no they are, I won’t deny that. Maybe I should rephrase…a few *more* craptastic movies. It just seems as of late the scales are tipped in one particular direction.
I find that I enjoy Rifftrax more the more I enjoy the movie. The LOTR riffs are some of my favorites. I have yet to watch a rifftrax of a movie that ruined a movie I already like. To me, they enhance the viewing of the film like any good commentary does.
The First thing Rifftrax needs to do though is have someone else pick out the samples.
Swing Parade, man now that was pure crap. The Three Stooges are barely in the movie. Shemp had more screen time in The Bank Dick; well not really but I exaggerate to make a larger point.
Let me re-iterate again the need for RiffTrax of newer, theatrical and direct to video movies. Mike, Kevin and Bill have the entire late 1980s and 1990s to cover.
Here are some fine choices:
The Punisher (the first one with Dolph Lundgren)
American Ninja 1-6
Kickboxer 2
Bloodsport 2
Best of the Best 2-?
Any of a number of Sci-Fi Channel “original” movies.
And any movie with the following actors:
Daniel Bernhardt (Jean Claude Gosh Darn)
Sasha Mitchell
Don “The Dragon” Wilson
Many of the Sci-Fi releases may not be on DVD.
Some of them are.
The Last Sentinel, starring Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff and Don “The Dragon” Wilson even has a Blu-Ray disc. It’s sort of Warrior of the Lost World meets Terminator. The movies hero, played by Don “The Dragon” Wilson, even has a talking object, his gun. The Paper Chase Guy had his talking motorcycle.