Two titles have been released today: One features an episode from the “Star Trek: Phase II (aka Star Trek: New Voyages)” series, “World Enough and Time”, riffted by Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. This one is similar to the shorts: the riffing already included (and is DRM-free). You can also choose to download the unriffed movie and the RiffTrax commentary separately, if you prefer to sync them up yourself.) Here’s a sample. Get it here.
The other title being released today is a regular Rifftrax commentary track for the 2005 movie “Dark Water” riffed by British writer and performer Matthew Elliott. Here’s a sample. Get it here.
Another Star Trek: Phase II episode and another riff from Elliott are due out next week.
Just an FYI, the Star Trek New Voyages episode is called “World Enough and Time” — there’s only one episode. And it’s well worth watching without the riffing, but I’m downloading right this minute to watch it riffed. Should be great!
“World Enough and Time” is one title, not two.
Thanks for the corrections.
Mike’s out?!? Woah, Nelly! Running out of MST3K reserves already?!?!?!?
I checked out Matthew Elliott’s bio, but I’m still not convinced I should drop two bucks on him.
Any recommendations?
wow, if that Matthew Elliott sample is anything like the rest of the rifftrax I’m taking a big pass on it. he seems to basically go, “well, look at that… ok now… hey, that was funny… oh no…” Quite Lame. Rifftrax should really stick with Mike w/ Bill & Kevin, and sometimes Mike with a guest. The Troll 2 and Willy Wonka riffs were great with the guest, but Mike needs to be on riffs. ALSO, Rifftraxs with only 1 riffer are not the greatest, lots of dead air. one of the main reasons it seems Disembaudio talks so damn much in the first few rifftraxs.
No Mike? And riffing on what basically amounts to home-movie-fan-fiction?? I think Rifftrax has not only scraped the barrel bottom clean, they’ve broken through the bottom and hitting on the white-wormy things living underneath. What’s next? Kevin Murphy’s Christmas and vacation home movies?
I hope they checked out the legal issues involving “Star Trek: Phase II”. Paramount/CBS only allows the fan films as long as no one makes any money off of them and they may look at the “video+commentary” download as a violation of that agreement. It could be viewed as a single, derived product that, therefore, infringes on their copyrights and trademarks.
What the Sam Hill is going on? Where’s Mike? Can we get a little news on this, or do we just accept it as “Oh well… whatever.”?
GAHHHHHHH!! Change!!!!!!!
RiffTrax Presents are going to be a way to switch things up every now and then, a chance to get different combinations of riffers, different styles of movies, and introduce new people that we think are funny. Regular RiffTrax aren’t going away.
@Graboidz - Your barrel analogy leaves me confused. We are the barrel, and who again are the white-wormy things? Where are you getting your barrels from?
Nooo Mike! (whistle)
Will Matlack: The Rifftrax business is growing, that’s all. Relax.
Incidentally, for those of you playing along at home , this post would have to rank as the single most-corrected item I have posted yet. Just about every material fact in the initial post was incorrect in some way. First of all, at the risk of losing my nerd credentials, I had never heard of Star Trek New Voyages, nor of the 70s unsold “Phase II” series that I initially confused it with.
Nor had I heard of the good Mr. Elliott. And until I downloaded it, I didn’t get that the “Dark Water” offering was just a typical rifftrax and not a “on demand” thing. And as noted, I misconstrued the Star Trek episode title. And I spelled Mr. Elliott’s name wrong in a couple of places.
So, sorry, everybody.
One other note maybe Conor can answer: At more than 700 megs, is the ST product the largest single download Rifftrax has offered?
Wow! rifftrax has DONE IT AGAIN!
Leave it to rifftrax to show once AGAIN that ANYONE (AND THEY DO MEAN ANYONE) can riff for rifftrax!
Mike, Kevin, Weird Al, my Grandma, 13 year olds on the Internet, your Grandma’s grandma, a doorknob, and soon to come… even YOU can riff on rifftrax!
We call it “Do-It-Yourself riffing” (because we’re all too damn lame, unfunny, and just plain LAZY to put out a top notch product.)
You see at rifftrax, it’s not about “quality” - it’s about “QUANTITY.” The more rifftrax we can put out, the more $$$ we make! Our faithful customer base a.k.a. MSTies (target audience) will BUY ANYTHING! Ha ha ha ha SUCKERS!
It will take the boobs years to discover and regret purchasing these stupid little rifftrax! Ha ha ha ha ha
MSTies, give us a call in 2009 when rifftrax is long since dead and we’ll be glad to take your money for our newest money-grab venture simply titled: “You’re all too stupid to have money. Send it to US instead!”
…and they will! (God, I love this Internet!)
Oh, and perhaps this website should be re-named “rifftrax news.”
CONOR: @Graboidz - Your barrel analogy leaves me confused. We are the barrel, and who again are the white-wormy things? Where are you getting your barrels from?
I have to admit I smiled at this
Funny you should mention that. We’re releasing the original STAR WARS next week, riffed by your Grandma’s grandma and a doorknob.
Jeez, Faruk, DON’T say hi!
Uh-oh, Faruk, now you’ve made Bill mad!
@Faruk - Wow! You really nailed us. How did you know that was our intent? Are you spying on our meetings again?
Hey Bill Corbett….F**K all these HATERS! I saw the Star Trek clip and it was hilarious. I can’t wait to see the rest!!!!!!
“Aye, MAROONED!” lol
I was co-producer of “World Enough and Time” (or WEAT, as we call it). I was stunned to see the Rifftrax news last night, and went right to the site to download it. I don’t know if I found it hilarious despite having seen WEAT about thirty times, or BECAUSE I’ve seen it about thirty times.
Anyway, I stopped about halfway through, because I decided I should get some of the WEAT gang together to watch it, and I wanted to leave some of it fresh for me when that happens.
Damn friggin companies,… releasing product…friggin trying to make a profit…
*****
Winston, could I be unbanned from the forums then, as I was banned for posting about the RiffTrax.
Winston, glad to hear you liked it so far! Please come back (or better yet, hop on our forum) and let us know what you thought of it.
hey faruk–its just a show, you should really just relax!
Well, sure. I guess we just need to remove that item about Josh Weinstein’s short film from the front page… And the item about changes at mst3k.com… And the item about MST3K:TM being available… And the item about Frank’s gig on “The Writers Room”… Not to mention the discussions of “The Rebel Set” and Season 8 host segments…
Yep, after we do all that, then I guess we can go ahead and rename the site “Rifftrax News.” Thanks for the suggestion!
I wonder why Mike isn’t doing it?
And I still think Mike should do it with Joel sometime!
Erhardt - thanks for saying what I was thinking. The rabid anti-RTers elude me.
Winston, I thought Kevin&Bill did a good job - they seemed to be in “having fun with a show” mode instead of “making fun of a show” mode (although a few costumes and accents get ribbed). The show itself was a nice production, and while I’m not much of a Trekkie I can appreciate this.
#22 Bathtub:
I’m afraid I don’t have anything to do with the forum… or, really, the ongoing STP2 series. I came into WEAT via the writers/director.
Seems to be some real nastiness regarding RiffTrax, which I find it utterly baffling and frankly, pretty silly. I think it’s great that RiffTrax is expanding to include guest riffers on a consistent basis. 1) It gives me a chance to discover people that, as Conor says, the guys find funny and 2) perhaps it leaves Mike open to doing some other projects, like (fingers crossed) turning Death Rat into a screenplay? Well, I can dream anyway….
Mike, come back! We hardly knew ye!
As an aside….I’ve got a bone to pick with Rifftrax, that I’m going to take the opportunity to get it out of my system.
That being, the inherent flaw in releasing commentary tracks like this for sale.
Take old MST3K. You could go out and buy “MST3K–Manos”. The sale was of MST3k–NOT Manos. No dim witted Hollywood exec could look at sales figures and go, “Wow, that ‘Manos’ is really selling! Let’s make more movies just like ‘Manos’!”
(Note I’m using Manos as an example, I know fully well it wasnt a Hollywood production.)
Rifftrax…if I want to enjoy, say, the Rifftrax version of that movie abomination “Batman and Robin”, I have to go out and…..BUY “Batman and Robin”.
A. The very thought of that chills my bones.
B. I have nightmarish thoughts of some company man going over sales, seeing “Batman and Robin” sales go up, and get the bright idea that the public SUPPORTS this kind of moviemaking!
See the problem?
That’s why I much prefer MST3K or Film Crew DVD’s. I’m voting with my pocketbook for Mike, Joel, Kevin and Bill (and the rest). NOT for ‘Bat Nipples’ Joel Schumacker!
Tim: As Jack Palance would say, DO WHAT *I* DO and just rent them!
A rental fee for Batman & Robin at THIS point is hardly going to make a ripple in Schumacher’s world…
Personally I am not a fan of Mikes new Rifftrax “persona” so just Kevin and Bill doing some Rifftrax sounds very cool to me. I don’t care much for the Rifftrax without Kevin and Bill, and I find Mike to usually be the low point. It just feels like he’s lost much of the charm he had even on the excellent Film Crew DVDs. A lot of his comments feel very artificial and fall flat, where as Kevin and Bill (Bill especially) still have that old air spontaneity that is so important to making the riffing feel natural and funny. I know it’s all pre-written, but making it sound like it isn’t is what makes it work in the moment, and I just think Mike misses that mark more often than not in his Rifftrax.
K so everyone has the right to their own viewpoint on this issue. I’ve always thought the people involved with mst3k the most talented and funny bunch of people out there. If they try to break new ground and try some different ventures then let them. Some may not like Cinematic Titanic and some may not like the various Rifftrax or Rifftrax related ventures out there. Like it or don’t like it that is your right; but don’t start taking sides and dissing one thing and the other. To put it blanintly the mstie and mstie related communities are among the tightest and closest bunch of people on the internet. So lets all just be civil about all this. There is no reason we all can’t respect each others Opinions.
Watched it last night and loved it. Bill and Kevin done a great job.
Oh and if you’re still reading Bill, as a Scot you’re Scottish accent’s better than Sham Scottie’s. Don’t know if that’s a compliment or not!
I watched the rifftrax before the original. Unfortunately, I thought I was watching a Star Trek parody get riffed and when long-hair Sulu appeared, I almost lost it. From now on, original first, then rifftrax.
From Andy Bray who played Checkov on the net show:
Hi all, I’m new to rifftrax and the rifftrax forum (though I am a huge fan of MST3K)
My name’s Andy Bray, I played Chekov in the New Voyages episodes: ‘To Serve All My Days’, ‘World Enough and Time’ and ‘Blood and Fire’
I just finished watching the ‘World Enough and Time’ rifftrax and thought it was absolutely hilarious! I laughed my ass off!! As far as I’m concerned it’s an honor to have the geniuses of ‘MST3K’ choosing a piece of work I was in and spoofing it. I’m looking forward to seeing their take on the Walter Koenig episode.
Oh, and don’t feel bad about being banned from the New Voyages/Phase 2 forums, they banned me for life when I decided to leave the show (without even sending a notification or explanation) and I was a cast member!
But just wanted to chime in and say that not everyone involved with the production of WEAT is running to the phone to speed dial their lawyer, I absolutely loved it and am dying to see the next one!!
Here’s a better (new) sample for Dark Water:
http://www.rifftrax.com/displaythickbox?file=videos/Dark_Water_Sample2.flv&width=500&height=380
I only watched a little of the Dark Water one. I couldn’t hear the guy here at work so I’ll check it out later. But if you want some famous funny Brits doing these try and hire someone from the Red Dwarf. The commentary they did for their DVDs was off the cuff and often hilarious! I’ve watched each one about 3 or 4 times with the commentary track going. Get Chris Barrie. He’ll make you one worth at least $3.99! Robert Llewellyn would also do a good one. Those guys are really funny Brits. Just like MST3K, Red Dwarf didn’t last 10 years for nothing!