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New DVD from RiffTrax…24 Replies to “New DVD from RiffTrax…”Commenting at Satellite News
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This is great news, but here’s the news I don’t understand: RiffTrax recently began selling a $9.99 VOD version of…The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Could somebody please tell me how they got the rights to do that? I checked the RiffTrax message board, and everyone there is asking the same question.
Just speculating here…
It’s well known that George Lucas refused to let the Holiday Special ever be seen again. But Lucas no longer owns it or Lucasfilm. Maybe Disney decided that granting VOD rights to RiffTrax was an easy way to receive a little money for a property that they have no other use for.
Has anyone seen the writer credits for “Ghosthouse” yet? I got the recent shorts DVD, and I have to say I thought it was a dud. If I understood the credits correctly, Mike, Bill and Kevin had nothing to do with any of the writing. If they’re only going to be reading other people’s (subpar) jokes, then this isn’t what I’ve signed on for. With Cinematic Titanic winding down, and RiffTrax passing on the writing duties to college kids, it looks like all I’ll have to look forward to is the MST3K releases. I hope Shout! Factory has a lot more in the pipeline!
That clown doll sure looks a lot like the one from Poltergeist.
Interesting development on the SW Holiday Special. The Boba Fett cartoon was on the Blu Ray set.
Henry- mike, Kevin and Bill write for Rifftrax. The writers credited on the dvd’s are additional writers.
@3 – Ghosthouse is actually one of my favorite Rifftrax VODs if that helps in your purchase decision. Also, pretty sure Mike, Kevin and Bill DO write with the other guys (Conor and Sean). The younger guys I actually think are quite funny…
All three performers share writing duties evenly with everyone, including the other two writers and the occasional “contributing writer.”
Remember, even MST used writers that were never heard riffing. What ever became of Paul Chaplin, anyway?
Wow! Dradon Wars and the Incredible Hulk are also being offered as VOD on Rifftrax too. How are they able to do that? Not that I am complaining
@1 lets hope its not a “hey lets put this up till someone stops us” type of deal ;)
The Mike Nelson/Joel McHale riff of “Red Dawn” is also VOD now… how did I miss that one?
Thanks everybody for the help. I find that even more disappointing, then. I thought maybe they were taking a break, and would eventually come back to writing. I know the show used writers who weren’t on camera much. My problem isn’t that they’re using other writers, just that I’m not finding them funny. Maybe it’s simply a matter of quantity over quality. I’ve never been interested in the “Joel vs. Mike”, “Josh vs. Kevin”, etc. debates, because I always thought the show was consistently funny. Different personalities, but always funny. But I have to say, in my opinion Cinematic Titanic’s few releases (and the even fewer Film Crew releases) are on par with MST3K. I don’t feel that way with RiffTrax, and I wish I did.
Conor has literally been involved since the very first RiffTrax. There’s no changing of the guard happening there.
@12 – With the sheer amount of riffs those guys put out, there are sure to be some clunkers in there somewhere. I actually find most of their VOD movies quite funny, though – I haven’t seen it since it was first released on VOD, but I recall “Ghost House” being a lot of fun.
@14 – That’s a great point. Just looking at the VOD releases this calendar year of full movies, there have been something like 18 releases (again, that’s not even including the shorts, the clip-vids they’ve run, and all of these mp3 re-releases). And I’m sure there will be 2 or three more before the end of the year.
We’re at the point with the VODs that we’re getting at least a full tv season worth of content in a year. There are going to be clunkers, just like there were clunkers in Seasons 3, 4, 5, or whatever one’s favorite season is. Anyone can disagree about quality overall or if the modern riffs (including CT) are as good or worse than years past, but we’re kind of living in the golden age of riffing now and I don’t think we step back enough and look at the sheer awesomeness of that fact. Rifftrax has kept the concept alive in a way that MST3K couldn’t even achieve; they are performing live shows in movie theaters multiple times a year, putting out videos that can be easily downloaded, saved, watched on our phones, our TVs, anywhere we want. We don’t have to circulate iffy quality tapes, we just have to go and buy them without Comedy Central or Sci-fi adding crappy bumpers or editing shows. I saw Cinematic Titanic live, something only a few dozen people can ever say about MST3K.
Wow, quite a tangent there, sorry. At any rate, I agree that clunkers (I’m looking at you, Abraxas!) are the occasional price we have to pay given the sheer volume of (mostly quality) releases we are seeing. And that’s a small price at that.
Last time I ordered a DVD directly from Rifftrax they mailed it in a thin plastic envelope with NO padding and it arrived with the case all smashed and cracked. They did not respond to my inquiries about it. I’d like to buy this and the latest shorts DVD, but I’m afraid to buy direct from Rifftrax and Amazon doesn’t seem to be getting these newer DVDs for sale.
@Mr. Bob, we try to respond to every inquiry, but being such a small company, sometimes we miss one. If I knew your email address I could look it up to see why it got missed. We’d be happy to send you out a replacement case if you like. Shoot me an email and I’ll take care of it personally. erik@rifftrax.com
I have ordered every DVD Rifftrax has released and have never received anything other than awesome Service. They have always showed up packaged well and shipped across the country in a few days. The few times I had a question Customer Service has replied promptly and answered/resolved my problem. Do not hesitate to buy from them, I have a feeling this is one issue that fell through the cracks that will be fixed quickly.
I too have never had a problem buying DVDs directly from rifftrax. Always in great shape. I won’t being buying this one though since I got the VOD.
Ghosthouse is probably the funniest thing Rifftrax has done.
I’m always wary of buying them because sometimes they stink (no offense). I’d love to see a site like this just for Rifftrax/CT, so I know what to buy and what to avoid, or at least some guide. At $10 a pop, they aren’t that cheap, and their sales are pretty rare.
But this one is great.
@20 – I use the mightyjack site: http://mightyjackmst.com/Rifftrax/index.html
There are reviews of almost everything Rifftrax has done and I find my tastes line up pretty well with the reviews. I now won’t buy any mp3 or VOD (other than shorts) without looking it up there first.
I find their writing is slipping downhill, mostly with the shorts. The problem to me seems to be they are relying more and more on nerd and internet memes (memes = groupthink) rather than coming up with their own jokes. Also they are reusing more and more of their older jokes and running gags that have gone stale. Also Rifftrax has always seemed to have a meaner spirit to it than MST3K had, and it seems to be getting meaner and is starting to become off putting. They are probably just trying to appeal more to the internet crowd rather than old timer MST3K fans.
To Erik at Rifftrax: Thanks, I sent you an email today.
I don’t think they are getting meaner at rifftrax. Like with mst3k some movies need to be dealt with a bit harsher in order for us to survive them. How else can we stand watching such movies as Pumaman and Girl in the Gold Boots unless it is torn apart.
:)