iJust Finished Watching

[Darth Geek]

And on to The Lost City Chapter 2 by Riff Chick - Hey, a female riffer! Cool. I always like the inclusion of women in this admittedly rather niche market of ours. Of course, that matters more when it is multiple riffers, a man and a woman for example, you can better tell which is which, and it gives variety in voices.
  I can't seem to find Riff Chick's profile page on the iRiffs section, as it is still messed up. But it doesn't look like she's done anything else. If she has, let me know. She definitely has promise. the voice performance is quite good. Good amount of energy and riff density. Variety of references and just silly observations is excellent.
Unfortunately the sound level of the short is lower than the riff, so it is not easy to hear unless you have the audio level way up.


They had three people doing continuity? This thing better be as slick as a wet bald tire.

And Jim Crowe as "african stereotype".

The whole "scream, help, scream, help" sequence was great!

Okay Droppo, you try to find a way out.

Ho Ho Ho, white giant.

Ugh. He's like a gay 17th century Torgo.


Sure, you've made men into horrifying giants. But make sure to have them walk in a silly stiff legged way, to eliminate any intimidation factor they may have had. Oh, and give them goofy hairdo's too. You know, because Wierd Al is scary as hell!
Note to self: to save money on evil lair, cardboard with painted gumdrops on it looks just like riveted steel.
Note to self: put locks on the closet full of lightning effects.
Also, if you have enough of them, trap doors can be anywhere you need at the time.
  I like that we are only two episodes in and the villain has already captured the heroes and has no reason not to kill them right away. Meaning this serial should be over already, evil triumphs. Commense maniacal laughing. But no, we TEN MORE of these things to get through.
  Oh, and they have already shown the one musclebound henchmen to be hilariously easy to beat in a fight with a scientist.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 3 by Just Andrew - This was excellent! I remember not liking his riff of Voyager episode very much, but this is a practically night and day difference from that. Lots of very funny jokes here.
  This riff starts really strong for the first half. Then there is an odd bit near the middle with more dead air than the rest. But then it slownly picks up again. On average good amount of jokes.
  Really liked his voice here. While I wouldn't say he puts as much performance in as, say, Quiptracks or Cinester Theater or ones like that, but he definitely does a good job.


I love the whole run in the beginning credits about figuring out which characters are good or evil. Very well done. Hilarious.

That's not stalking, that's prancing. Stop it!

Are those pants functional or they just comfortable? Like, can you put food in them like a hamster, or...? (In the movie they are wearing those old-timey jodhpurs with the flared hips. I have been laughing at them since moment one, they look so goofy.)

It's just one hallway, of course it's all alike!

"Lets get out of here!" --- Before people don't beleive that worked.

I was trying to crochet and I missed.

"He's the one who has captured your men and made them slaves." --- Now do what I say and go kill them.

Woh! Then he gets eaten by a shark I guess.


  The escape of the old guys by just pushing Zolok out of the way had me rolling on the floor!
  I love how we have already set the plot in motion already (such as it is), but they keep pulling new inventions out of their ass.
  Oh, and apparently you can freeze electricity. Good to know when I make a big recipe and have leftovers.
  Why even HAVE a musclebound henchmen if he can be easily overpowered by damn near anyone?!
  The hero just tosses away the super electricity freezing ray, because he says it looks broken (even though he's never seen it before, and has no idea how it works).
  At the end the tribe of African natives are about to kill the old guy scientist with what looks like a part of the Mousetrap board game.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 4 by RoninFox Trax - Very good riff, as to be expected from RoninFox. It is an early one of his, and he is the only riffer here, so it isn't as good as his later riffs. But still, decent performance, and lots of funny lines. I like that he does some stuff with the VOD format I haven'tseen before. Like the "Gibberish to English" subtitles.

The one time National Geographic comes in clear and there are no breasts.

Minister of Silly Walks, Careem Abdul Jabar.

The "Gibberish to English" translation was great! Nice use of the VOD format. I don't think I've seen that done before.

Hey, don't you lay a finger on my Butterfield.

Well, the idea is sound. But this doesn't really spice anything up unless one of us ISN'T tied up.

I think the sun just broke!



  Yup, more sciency machines that we know are working properly because they spark and shoot smoke.
  Unfortuantely due to the low resolution and bad quality of the print, I sometimes had difficulty distinguishing between the good a bad white guys. On the other hand it was overcomplicated and stupid anyway, so no loss really.
  Why did we need ANOTHER evil white guy in this plot?! We're only a third of the way through this thing, yet apparently "evil guy with sciency gadget that can destroy the world" isn't enough of a threat.
  I love how they have more difficulty beating up Butterfield, a doughy old white guy, than the young musclebound henchman from the previous chapter.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 5 by Cap'n Steve-O's Old Style Goodtime FunTrack Factory - Oh wow, is this a great find! A whole new iRiffer I hadn't even heard about, and he sure is spectacular. Good vocal performance, plenty of energy and fun, and great joke density. Looks like he hasn't done much else other than this, but I will definitely check out what little he has.


Ladies and gentlemen, it's Christina Agulera!

Yes. There's nothing safer for a white woman in a lowcut blouse than an Arab camp.

Frozen concentrate orange juice futures.

Woh! Buckweat's been bulking up.

Huh. So it turns out people can just crawl right under the walls of canvas prisons. Oh, well, live and learn.

Seriously Bruce, what is with the pants? It looks like Torgo's knees migrated north for warmth.

Rar. I'm a cat.


  Holy crap, these arab steretypes just come right out of nowhere! No mention of them at all, and then BOOM, whole bunch of guys in turbans and everything.
  Not to mention that they have EXACTLY THE SAME PLAN as Butterfield, making him completely superfluous (which he was anyway).

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 6 by Ice on Mars (with guest Josh Robinson). A good riff, as Ice on Mars is always reliable to bring the funny. Fine performances, and decent jokes throughout.
The only real complain I have is that it's another one where the riff is too loud compared to the movie.


This is what reality TV would be like if Strom Thermand had become president.

Wait, is he hunting her? (by the way it's incompetantly edited, it really does look like our "hero" is chasing her down to kill her)

Oh, and dry-hump as we move.

This was a regrettable pit-stop on the road to Obama's inauguration.

Where the hell did I park my giant oil-guzzling, peasent-murdering SUV?

I loved all the stuff with the italian accent for the Arab sheik. This actor sounded like he was originally from Brooklyn or something.

Man, what sort of trouble is these honkeys gettin' into now?


  So...we've just abandoned the whole "evil guy with natural disaster machine that wants to take over the world" thing, huh?
  Not to mention that man-eating tiger chasing our heroine. Which was enough to seemingly name the last chapter after, yet never showed up till the very end, and is immediately dropped at the beginning of this one.
  I do appreciate that these seem to be getting shorter each time.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 7 by Dark Matter Productions. Another new group for me, and it's a good one.
  This is what I would consider the epitomy of an average riff. Vocal performance is okay, and there is energy put into it. Some good riffs throughout, no real bad ones per se either. Just nothing spectacular about it. However, that just means it is worth checking out. And there is definitely potential for improvement in future riffs.
  If I do have a critique, its that the riff is a little too quiet at the begiining credits because of the music, but in the rest of it the sound levels are fine.


Nice cameo at the beginning. Cool touch. Haven't seen that before in these group efforts (IIRC).

Ben Ali. Yes it is he, selling some carpet.

*laughing* You know, that MAY not actually be Arabic. Banga banga binga banga.

LEROOOY JENKINS!

I see your Schwarts is as big as mine.

Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!

Pavlo? Pavlo, the African native.

Hey, wait a minute! That native is wearing a button-down shirt.

Ah, finally! The mystery speaker from Eegah revealed.

Rob Zombie's wind chimes.


  It never stops being funny watching Ben Ali constantly being surprised when people betray him, when EVERYONE has tried to betray him.
  I love the sound effects on this crappy serial. Not only is there absolutely no music over anything (despite the very enthusiastic opening credits music), whenever somebody gets punched it sounds like someone just snapping their fingers.
  The silly swordfight between our hero and the sheik is hysterical. Particularly the end when he is just pushed and seemingly defeated by gravity taking over.
  And we have now just abandoned the Arab camp entirely, back to having Butterfield being the secondary villain as if the ENTIRE LAST FEW CHAPTERS NEVER HAPPENED!
Great, and now we have...spider...men? Hey, as long as they have mechanical webshooters, because I'm a purist.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 8 by Harass Bastards. I am glad they at least give a notice at the beginning that this is an improv style riff. This means that joke density is all over the map here, and riffs are thrown out that don't always work or are  thought out. It does make it feel like actually watching the movie with friends, though. And these guys ARE funny. So when the riffs work, they work well.
  Sometimes the riff completely covers the dialog 9which seems to be deliberately turned down when riffs are over it). So any pretense of being able to actually follow along with the movie has been dropped. Take that for what you will.
  Recommended if you like these types of riffs. I dug it, although I do prefer the other style. It gives variety of styles in this series that is a welcome change.

Ha ha, so were there speed readers back then? Oh, apparently not.

Now see, now now, that was a bad move. They gave away their position. And that's just not good.

You're all fired! You're all fired!

Some pig? What the hell?

That guy is inconspicuous right there. He must be KGB trained.

No, see it was traditional to take your film and direct it in tar.

I gotta go vote now! And own land!

Oh good, Booker T is here.


  I find it hilarious that we keep taking longer and longer to get back up to speed at the beginning of these, yet they aren't telling the whole extended plot or anything (like they did in Rocky and Bullwinkle), so there is no reason for this.
  So...*sigh*...the scientist can now turn black people into white midgets? Even in the context of what we've already seen, WHAT. THE. HELL.
  Yet another whole chapter where we don't see or even hear about THE EVIL WARLORD TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD, which was the only reason they were here in the first place.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 9 by Riff Raff Theater - Going from the inprove style of Harass Bastards to the exact opposite of Riff Raff Theater is a bit of a whiplash. But these guys are very funny from the get go, as they always have been. Too bad the group is disbanded, they were one of my favorites.
  Everything is great here. The perfomances, the energy and fun, the variety of voices. And of course the variety in references. RRT shows the real advantage that the collaborative efforts give.
  The sound on this is WAAY too low compared to the riff. I've mentioned it before, but this is much worse. Particularly since they are responding to dialog often.


They call me Oog. Oog of Loxley.

Ok run, and pose. And run and run and run, and pose.

His holiness, Pope Eddie Munster the 3rd.

It's like Terry Jones' Mine-Me.

Wow! Grandma's hot.

Must suck in gut at all costs.

Bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy.

Mortal terror, or...gas. You decide.

Some nice sneaking music would be appropriate here. Or, you know, ANY SOUNDTRACK WHATSOEVER!

Fight coreography by 3AM drunk.



Oh, we FINALLY get back to at least showing the guy who WANTS TO TAK OVER THE WORLD and the only one who actually lives in the titular Lost City.
I like to imagine he's been kicking back eating popcorn this whole time, watching all of this other crap on his little view screen.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 10 by The Movie Asylum. Slightly below average. On the positive side, they do put energy and fun in their performance, I will give them that. I just found their riffs hit or miss. And the pacing seems to vary a lot. Not too shabby for an early attempt, though. Unfortuantely they have officially called it quits a few years ago. Too bad, there was room for improvement. They did riff Titan A.E. and Halloween 2 (the original), so I don't know if those were better than this.



Arrr! Ye fight like girls.

Ay! Me pirate sense be tingling.

I'm going to try the "scream like a girl defence" the next time I contest a speeding ticket.

*laughing* They really need to rethink their outhouse design.


  Glad they actually said what was written on Bruce's chest, otherwise I wouldn't know, I couldn't read it.
  I'm starting to notice a pattern, that most most of what happens here doesn't seem to matter. I think I'm the first person to ever realize this.
  So after this whole time Butterfield has been a backstabbing greedy SOB, and now we get a heelturn so fast a goose-stepping Nazi would be jealous? Gee, I wonder what will happen...
  Ok, so Bruce has been blinded. Strangely, NOT by science. Well, now he's more less exactly the same amount of useless as before.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 11 by JoshWay. A good riff. I haven't seen much else from JoshWay, I just remember liking his Phantom Empire episode riff a LOT. This isn't as good as that one, but it is a solid riff. You can tell he's more experienced than a few of the other groups in this series.


Also supported by: Gin, unfiltered cigarettes, and unreppentant xenophobia.

Kill your enemies in style with the Nebekenezor 3000 Lion's Den. With optional breakaway platform for that special victim.

This way to next embarrassing scene.

Okay, you go that way, notify ACLU. We go this way, hire attorney.

The wild honkey is easily treed. (This had me laughing out loud for quite a while. Easily my favorite single riff here)

There there. There there.

Fashions by Miss Piggy's of Zair.

Jerry, I brought scissors. I'm gonna bust you out of here.

What happens in the fakey jungle stays in the fakey jungle.

Nobody expects Gabby Hayes!

Long live Queen Rama!

Are you doing that! Please tell me you're doing that!


  And, OF COURSE, Bruce's blindness is almost immediately cured and he is back on his feet being a bland pointless lead in no time. Never saw it coming.
  Speaking of "never saw it coming", Butterfield is back to being a weasel. I guess. I was actually hoping he would be immediately killed or something.
  So the Queen dies from apparently being poisoned? And this serial, which is padded to all hell, actually does something like this OFF SCREEN?! I mean, I know she is irrelevant to the overall plot ad all, but why?
  FINALLY! We get back to more sciency stuff. We know because of the sparks. Also, a young Goldberg Fingerstein must have seen this short.

[mr.b.natural]

The Lost City Chapter 11 by JoshWay. A good riff. I haven't seen much else from JoshWay, I just remember liking his Phantom Empire episode riff a LOT. This isn't as good as that one, but it is a solid riff. You can tell he's more experienced than a few of the other groups in this series.

He writes for official Rifftrax.

[Darth Geek]

The Lost City Chapter 12 by One Man Band. An excellent way to end this series. One man Band does a good riffing job here. I like it a little better than his Ice Pirates riff, actually. Due to the nature of the VOD and short subject, the computer voice and OMB premis seems a little out of place, though.
Still, well done perfomance and funny riffs.


Death Ray now sole with Death Joe. Death Steve sold seperately.

Meanwhile, on the set of Yor: Hunter from the Future

You know, this actually counts as marriage in four states.

I now pronounce you the generic everyman and lady pirate. You may now tongue wrestle the bride.

It's so clear. It's like the director's assistant is in the room with us.

Good job Bruce. You got out three whole sentences without being captured or interrupted.

A Paramount Prod-AAAAAAH!


  I like that they keep having to remind us that Bruce is an "electrical genius", since the only time we saw him do anything electrical it blew up.
  Oh, and they captured Zolok, but didn't frisk him? He has sciency stuff on him! Well of course it's sciency, it's smoking!
  Zolok is hilarious here. He looks like the second imprisonment (in just a few days) just blew his mind and he has completely gone crazy. Wobbly walk, insane laughter at everything, looks confounded by everything, the whole 9 yards. And, naturally, it ends with sparks and smoke. Because it's sci-fi.

[Darth Geek]

And that concludes our retrospective on racist sci-fi of the 30s and the riffers who try to make it bearable.
  What do I think? A very satisfying series of riffs for a very goofy, meandering, and uncomfortable serial.

A few notes about some minor issues that I noticed.
  Filenames. I think it would be best if the person running one of these serial riff projects standardized the names that contributors called the files. It just made making sure I had all the right files in the right place and order more difficult.
  Same thing with the sound issues. Most of them were good, but there were several that had the feature sound significantly different than the riffs, and it made it hard to hear one or the other (usually the feature sound was tooo low). This in particularl would be a good thing for the organizer to check before files are uploaded.

Anyways, kudos to Atomic Treatment for getting everyone together to get this pulled off.

[RoninFox]

It was cool seeing these reviews, I looked back on my chapter a month or two ago for the first time in awhile and had a lot of fun with it.  I need to watch the whole thing again from start to finish myself sometime.

[Darth Geek]

It was cool seeing these reviews, I looked back on my chapter a month or two ago for the first time in awhile and had a lot of fun with it.  I need to watch the whole thing again from start to finish myself sometime.

Glad you like the writeups.

Are there any other series like this or Voyager that groups of riffers have done?