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Former Host and Writer of MST3K Launches RiffTrax

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the invention-exchange dept.

dougman writes "Today James Lileks mentioned his 'friend and all-around comic genius/good egg Michael J. Nelson' called, to tell him about his brilliant new project, RiffTrax. Here's the pitch: '...free-lance commentary tracks. Bottom line: Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary for big famous beloved movies like Titanic or The Matrix. The hitch: you have to provide the movie. It's genius: no worries about copyright. You buy the commentary tracks for $1.99, rent the movie or get it out of your collection, load the commentary on your iPod or burn it to a disk, then watch them together in true you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate bliss. ... The first movie is Roadhouse." Cool! I voted for The Matrix as the next one to be riffed." While I (and many others I know) preferred Joel, Mike was not without his share of funny moments too. Without Crow and Servo it just might not be the same, though.

4 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Sometimes silhouettes were funny by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think this is really great, but sometimes my favorite parts of MST3K were jokes they played with the silhouettes on the screen. In one of the Godzilla movies, there was a bird's-eye-view scene of some Japanese soldiers with round, white bubble-helmets on. Joel stood up, knocked on one of the helmets, and the soldier looked straight up into the camera! :D Classic.

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  2. Share Crow with ShareCrow? by Robotech_Master · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't forget you can use ShareCrow to sync these commentaries easily if you have a Windows machine that uses compatible DVD player software.

    (And check Commentary Central for a bunch of freebie alternate commentary tracks, including my own for Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro ...)

    --
    Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  3. Joel vs Mike... Sigh... by John+Fulmer · · Score: 4, Informative

    CowboyNeal *DOES* know that Mike was a writer on the show from season 1 on, and the head writer starting season 2, right.

    That's one thing that I've never understood about the Joel vs Mike thing.... The writing staff was pretty much the same for both (with the huge exception of Frank Conniff leaving. Things were never quite as.... surreal afterward).

    jf

  4. No DRM by springbox · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anyway.. .. the best way to get the commentary in would be something like imovie and its linux equivalents... for that you can't have DRM.

    I just downloaded Road House from the site and it's in MP3 format. I doubt you have to worry about any DRM getting in the way.