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Fun film commentaries from a former Mystery Science Theater host take watching DVD's to a new level.
Mike Nelson has taken his experience as a host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and translated it into a modern movie success. Mystery Science Theater was created by Joel Hodgson, also the show's first host. First airing in 1988, Joel played a janitor who was taken and locked alone on a space ship by evil scientists. The scientists used Joel as the subject of a cruel experiment. Joel was forced to watch a succession of very bad movies in order to see how he handled the stress of such a torture. Lonely, Joel created four robots out of spare parts to be his companions. Together they viewed each movie, voicing their opinions of the films with biting cynicism and wit. Mike Nelson started as a head writer for the show. He was tapped to replace Joel Hodgson as host in 1993. He picked up where Joel left off - making fun of bad movie and shorts. The show continued until 1999, earning a Peabody award in 1993. The movies of Mystery Science Theater 3000 were usually older movies. Examples of such movies are "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"(1964), "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"(1962), and one of the classic flagship of all bad movies, "Manos, the Hands of Fate" (1966). The commentaries of Joel or Mike and their robot gang made watching bad movies fun. Many fans were dissapointed when the series was cancelled. Fortunately, Mike Nelson has taken his MST3K experience and is applying it to newer movies. Past decades do not have the the monopoly on bad movie-making, after all! Now, Nelson writes and comments on recent movies along with a variety of friends, including some of his old Mystery Science Theater buddies. Nelson has named his new commentaries Rifftrax. Unlike Mystery Science Theater, where the commentaries and movies were on one disk, Rifftrax requires you have both the movie to watch and the separate audio commentary. Each commentary, or Rifftrax, can be downloaded for a fee from the website, and played back as an audio track which must be synched to play at the same time as the DVD. The Rifftrax can be played back on a computer or any MP3 playing device. The directions are quite simple, and make synching the audio commentary to the DVD easy to do. The Rifftrax tell you exactly when to start and provides check points throughout the movie to make sure the audio stays in synch with the DVD. This is done through the voice of "Disembaudio", a line-quoting voice designed to help Riffers stay on track. Rifftrax are available for a variety of new to modern movies, such as "Glitter", "Eragon", and "Fantastic Four" . There are over 30 movies represented so far. The commentaries are sharp and funny, turning each movie into a new viewing experience. Nelson and his crew mock, ad-lib, and comment their way through each scene, bringing many laughs. Rifftrax are perfect for everyone who loved Mystery Science Theater, and for anyone who loves movies and needs to laugh.
The copyright of the article Rifftrax in Drama DVD Reviews is owned by Christine Alcott. Permission to republish Rifftrax in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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