iJust Finished Watching

[WhyDontTheyLook]

TreacheRiffs - "Star Trek Voyager - 'State of Flux'" -- There's a traitor on board Voyager, and Chakotay has to figure out who it is!  Could it be... the bland curly-haired guy we've only seen in one other episode?  Or is it the character who is really obviously the traitor from the start?  What a conundrum!  TreacheRiffs shines in taking apart this suspenseless exercise in espionage shenanigans and skewering Voyager's worst S1 tendencies in the process.

[ https://orderoftheleague.com/products/stv-110-state-of-flux ]
[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/treacheriffs-star-trek-voyager-state-of-flux-1x11 ]

Riff Raff Theater - "Star Trek: Voyager - 'Heroes and Demons'" -- Voyager is mucking about with photonic energy from a star when suddenly A Thing Happens, and next thing you know, The Doctor (no, not *that* The Doctor, the bald one) has to get medieval on a lot of holographic asses.  It's even more contrived than I make it sound, though okay in execution, thanks to Robert Picardo's performance and the complete absence of Neelix.  Riff Raff Theater is funny and energetic throughout their riffing, making for a very enjoyable hour.

[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/riff-raff-theater-star-trek-voyager-1x12-heroes-and-demons ]

OneWallCinema - "Chevy Leader News 9-10"/"Cinco de Mustache"/"Barbers of Riffsville"/"LSD & Vinage Commercials" -- A lot of the riff groups that I've partaken of so far are bring great energy to their performances, but I'm not sure I've heard any that are so clearly having a blast as much as the One Wall Cinema crew.  That especially comes through in these short feature and commercial riffs.

'Chevy Leader News' 9 and 10 caught me up on their riffs of these old-time reels of 1940s goings on.  I was in a sour mood when I started them (not my usual starting point), but I cheered up pretty quickly as they mocked the weird goings on (which featured surprisingly few animals in dangerous situations).  The fun continued through 'Cinco de Mustache' (a compilation of vintage shaving-related commercials) and the two shorts in 'the Barbers of Riffsville' (an odd and kind of interesting Al Jazeera spot on a barber from Mosul travelling to Beirut for a singing competition that ends abruptly and is followed by a more standard old short contrasting 50s barber shops with beauty parlors).  But my favorite bit ended up being the 'LSD case study' featured in the last compilation--that was absolutely bonkers in the best way.

[ https://gumroad.com/onewallcinema ]
[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/onewallcinema-cinco-de-mustache-shaving-spectacular ]

[k1]

Thanks for the kind words!  We definitely have a blast riffing & we prefer our unscripted that we have moved to. We find it really works with the more bizarre stuff as we slowly lose our minds.

We do have a few more Chevy leader News that we need to record at some point. (Darn life getting in the way) I’ll try and touch base with my brother to see what we can do. It’s been far too long.

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Drawback Productions -- "Hard to Kill" (1990) -- Steven Seagal oozes his way through this revenge flick where he's a cop who got shot repeatedly by all the other actors for including them in his film dirty cops who made a deal with a shady politician, who he was going to expose.  Awakening after seven years in a coma, having had his death faked by a friend, he enlists his nurse in recovery and vengeance.

Seagal is about as loathsome as they come, and Drew and Megan don't hold back in gleefully (and hilariously) savaging him at every opportunity.  Loads of great lines, funny throughout, and about the only way I'd want to see a Seagal movie.  At least, *this* Seagal movie--it'd sound weird playing these riffs over a different one.

[ https://orderoftheleague.com/products/hard-to-kill ]

Quiptracks -- "The Forgotten" (2004) -- There was this... um... movie?... I think... and it had... oh, whatsherface... Julianne something-or-other, and she's looking for... I dunno... her agent?  *looks at note*  Her son?  No, that doesn't sound right, I know for a fact her character doesn't have a son, the alien overlords said so, and they're never wroooonnn-- *gets yanked into clouds*

This movie's a mess, and not even a hot one.  More like a cold, wet one that's been left on the counter too long.  Quiptracks does a great job in riffing it, though the first third of the film is still a bit of a slog, given all they have to work with is Julianne Moore being sad and yelly at people.  Once the evil/incompetent NSA guys show up, though, and the film gets a little less mopey and a lot more stupid, the riffs really take off.

[ https://orderoftheleague.com/products/the-forgotten ]

[zenmichael]

Quiptracks -- "The Forgotten" (2004) -- There was this... um... movie?... I think... and it had... oh, whatsherface... Julianne something-or-other, and she's looking for... I dunno... her agent?  *looks at note*  Her son?  No, that doesn't sound right, I know for a fact her character doesn't have a son, the alien overlords said so, and they're never wroooonnn-- *gets yanked into clouds*

This movie's a mess, and not even a hot one.  More like a cold, wet one that's been left on the counter too long.  Quiptracks does a great job in riffing it, though the first third of the film is still a bit of a slog, given all they have to work with is Julianne Moore being sad and yelly at people.  Once the evil/incompetent NSA guys show up, though, and the film gets a little less mopey and a lot more stupid, the riffs really take off.

[ https://orderoftheleague.com/products/the-forgotten ]

"Just get on the plane, kid."

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Cinester Theater -- "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- Directoral control of the annual holiday pageant is somehow given to enfant terrible Charlie Brown.  The power-mad tot immediately challenges the senses of his classmates by forcing upon them the most austerely tiny Christmas tree he can find, while his right-hand enforcer Linus bombards them with Biblical wisdom until they submit to the tyrannical auteur's vision.  Or maybe it's having to repeatedly dance in place to their theme music that finally makes them crack.

Okay, maybe it didn't go down *exactly* like that.  It's still a pretty charming half-hour, even if it hasn't aged quite as well as 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.'  Cinester Theater provides a superb, darkly funny riff that bring fresh laughs to the familiar proceedings, well worth adding to your holiday riff collection.

[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/cinester-theater-presents-a-charlie-brown-christmas ]

Riff Raff Theater -- "Die Hard" -- NYPD detective John McClane is in Los Angeles to visit his estranged family and nom on as much corporate Christmas party kibble as he can.  Unfortunately for him, an assortment of mainly Europe-y thieves has descended on the corporation's skyscraper to pretend to be terrorists, blow stuff up, and steal things, in about that order.

Riff Raff Theater turns in a pretty good riff on a classic action picture.  It's maybe not as tight or consistently hilarious as their 'Alien vs Predator' riff, but it has a lot of great lines and banter, so I didn't mind the bits that didn't work for me so much.

[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/riff-raff-theater-die-hard ]

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Toast and Rice -- "13 More Shorts" -- And now I am caught up on all the Toasts and all the Rices, by watching about 13 riffed shorts over 3 days.  Among them were year-round types such as "Let's Talk Turkey," "Wreckless," "Friendship Begins at Home," "Don't Get Angry," "Gardening," "Once and Forever," "How Honest Are You," and a couple riffed commercials for Timex and Vicks.  All of which were expertly roasted with his wry, well-timed style.

But really what I was looking forward to were his Christmas season riffs -- "Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen," "The Snow Man," "Santa in Animal Land," and "A Christmas Fantasy."  Of these, "the Snow Man" was my favorite -- such a bizarre cartoon, and one I've never seen riffed before.  But all of them were a lot of fun to catch in my runup to Christmas.

[ http://www.toastandrice.com/buy-riffs ]
[ https://gumroad.com/toastandrice ]
[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs/toast-and-rice ]
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP_iqceL88g&list=PLbFspqDEOoOOxYc5gggneZNGKsE7t1yj6 ]

Hor-Riff-ic -- "Monster Squad" -- A hundred years or so after nearly being banished by Van Helsing, Dracula, the Wolf-Man, the Mummy, the Gill-Man, and Frankenstein's Monster come to 80s suburban America looking to put the hurt on an Amulet of Concentrated Good, thereby plunging the world into evil and chaos.  They succeeded, of course, resulting in the world you see around you today.  But imagine if, instead, a group of plucky kids used their superior knowledge of monster movies to fight them!  That's pretty much what we get here.

A pretty fun, cheesy movie, though kind of hit-and-miss throughout.  Hor-Riff-Ic takes it to this film with their usual sharp wit and flair for puns, working pretty well with the material (though sometimes I was paying more attention to the movie than the riffs--it probably would have been a good idea for me to watch it unriffed the first time around).

[ https://hor-riff-ic.com/2013/04/20/monster-squad/ ]
[ https://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/hor-riff-ic-monster-squad ]