I wonder how this will compete with Blame Society's riff of the same movie.

[TheUnabeefer]

It seemed a bit forced and too much for me (especially at the very end) how they spoke as if this was a massive hardship to watch this movie, or that it couldn't possibly be what all the hype was about back in the 70's because it was so bad.... it wasn't.  All in all, it's one of the best space movies ever made, and NOTHING as bad as the Prequel trilogy.

I agree with that.  I now stop the rifftrack at the end when Bill starts up on how they must not be watching the right movie.  I listened to that bit the first time, but it does seem pretty forced and unnecessary.

It certainly felt natural to me when they were ripping on the movie. They had me laughing hard on this one. I personally like Star Wars... but it is not as great a movie as everyone seems to claim. It has all the characteristics of a Lucas movie. Annoying robots, sub-par acting, and a very simple story. I think the biggest benefit of the original star wars was that lucas couldn't gag us with all of the CGI that he does now. And all of the recent enhancements seemed to kill the flow of the original movie. Mike & co. will probably upset the die hard fans on this one... but a superb rifftrax. Now on to empire strikes back! Show no mercy mike!

Just to be clear: The riffing was fine for me, I enjoyed both riff tracks a lot.  There's so much to make fun of in this movie that we have two complete riff tracks for it and I bet a third one could be made.  But Bill pretending that "this can't be the movie which was so big" as if he had never seen it before is what seems forced and unnecessary to me.  Just my 2 cents.

I've listened to this 2-hour rifftrax several times now, and I think it's great.  I just skip the last 45 seconds of it, with no loss in laughs.

Agreed.  There really are a LOT of things to make fun of in this, but the only REAL pain that this movie causes is in the fact that it spawned the SWHS and the prequels.... and Jar-Jar.  Don't get me wrong, this really is a stupid movie, but it's not pain inducing, and the "last 45 seconds or so of it" rant at the end just came off as forced, like they had to pretend it was a horrifying movie just for our sake.

I love how they ended things like the LOTR films.... they didn't bash on how terrible the movie was, or say "oh thank god it's over" to anything but the length.  They just went on a few rants about the characters' fate and stuff.  It was more like "Well, that was fun! And thanks for joining us!"

Not ALL things Star Wars really warrant a "Oh thank GOD that dreadful movie is over!!" response.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

It seemed a bit forced and too much for me (especially at the very end) how they spoke as if this was a massive hardship to watch this movie, or that it couldn't possibly be what all the hype was about back in the 70's because it was so bad.... it wasn't.  All in all, it's one of the best space movies ever made, and NOTHING as bad as the Prequel trilogy.

I agree with that.  I now stop the rifftrack at the end when Bill starts up on how they must not be watching the right movie.  I listened to that bit the first time, but it does seem pretty forced and unnecessary.

It certainly felt natural to me when they were ripping on the movie. They had me laughing hard on this one. I personally like Star Wars... but it is not as great a movie as everyone seems to claim. It has all the characteristics of a Lucas movie. Annoying robots, sub-par acting, and a very simple story. I think the biggest benefit of the original star wars was that lucas couldn't gag us with all of the CGI that he does now. And all of the recent enhancements seemed to kill the flow of the original movie. Mike & co. will probably upset the die hard fans on this one... but a superb rifftrax. Now on to empire strikes back! Show no mercy mike!

I agree with this, but, to be fair, I've seen the prequels first, so that might influence my...... viewing....... interpretation.......... thingy

[bratpop]

I hate to break it to everybody, but the prequels are better made than A New Hope, and they also have a better story. And gee, I dunno, but it's POSSIBLE that Mark "Whiny" Hamill, Harrison "Firewall" Ford, and Carrie "What Accent?" Fisher AREN'T better actors than Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Liam Neeson, and Ewan McGregor. Okay, better than Jake Lloyd by a small margin, I'll give you that. But "Gonk" was better actor than Jake Lloyd. The simple fact is that due to lack of green puppets and CGI, there wasn't very much to make A New Hope look as stupid as George's true vision for Star Wars, which is what all the sequels and prequels and spinoffs gave us. A New Hope really ISN'T Star Wars. Jar-Jar Binks is Star Wars. And rest assured,  he would have been in A New Hope if Lucas had the means. Jabba WOULD have been in the movie in a completely redundant scene. Han WOULD have been a seven foot tall green alien. They just didn't have the ability to make it as stupid as it was meant to be. A New Hope is like a demo version of a decent song, far superior to the album version. But you have to face facts. That crappy overproduced garish album version is what the artist intended and was happy with. STAR WARS IS JAR JAR AND STINKY.

[Piobman]

I knew I could rely on you to bring star wars fans back to earth.

btw- I think harrison ford would be one freakin awesome 7-foot tall alien... wait a second, maybe he would shoot himself first then!

[bratpop]

They shot at the same time. And for the record, Han can ONLY hit someone when they're sitting perfectly still across a two-foot table from him.

[Zandrax]

An early draft by Lucas had Han and Chewie married.

No joke.

[Thrashalla]

An early draft by Lucas had Han and Chewie married.

No joke.

There was also a point where Luke was Princess Luke and Han was old enough to be her father.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

An early draft by Lucas had Han and Chewie married.

No joke.

There was also a point where Luke was Princess Luke

wait, Luke's not?!

[dalem]

Watched it again this weekend and I was right - I had a gaffi stick up my butt the first time.  This time it was all good.  I was still bugged with the "robot smashing" jokes because I felt they relied on a misread of 3PO's line "We'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel or smashed into who knows what!"

The robot smashing jokes require the conjunction to be "and", not "or".

And yes, ladies, I'm available, hubba hubba. 

-dale

[RoninFox]

Watched it again this weekend and I was right - I had a gaffi stick up my butt the first time.  This time it was all good.  I was still bugged with the "robot smashing" jokes because I felt they relied on a misread of 3PO's line "We'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel or smashed into who knows what!"

The robot smashing jokes require the conjunction to be "and", not "or".

And yes, ladies, I'm available, hubba hubba. 

-dale

I never hear the word "and" or "or" in that line.  I just hear "We'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel, smashed into who knows what!"

[bratpop]

Neither of those alternative fates makes any sense, so I'm pretty sure it's legal to make fun of them. I mean, let's say the spine mines don't smash droids into who knows what. Would YOU use Threepio for mining? He can barely move. And R2 is only good for screwing computer terminals. And why would the Empire smash robots into "who knows what"? How do you smash something into something else? Or is that a euphemism for robot prostitution?

[Nunyerbiz]

I haven't heard the Blame Society version yet, but I'll be picking it up soon to compare it to the "official" riff.

As far as the official riff, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought that the pace was pretty much spot on. I'm probably in the minority, but I like when the source movies are given a little bit of room to breath. I think the whole riff concept works best when it compliments the source movie. Some riffs have bordered on annoying when the movie itself can't seem to get a word in edgewise. I'd rather have a lower amount of really solid jokes as opposed to the riffers throwing everything against the wall hoping that most of it sticks. I thought they balanced things nicely with A New Hope. There were maybe a few opportunities left behind, but generally they took what they movie gave them and served up a lot of good lines. The overall funny factor was high, maybe not a ton of laugh out loud zingers, but things were pretty consistent.

I thought they kept the played out themes from the prequels in check... Things like "Lucas is a retarded man-child" and "things have funny names" and "Star Wars is overrated and/or sucks" were kept to a minimum for the most part. In my opinion, these were the areas that drove the prequels riffs into a noticable rut by the time Ep3 rolled around. Compared to the prequel riffs, the mood was downright bubbly. They did sort of lose their restraint during the last 10 minutes or so and let loose with a number of "Star Wars sucks and Lucas gives things dumb names" jokes... but at least they tried. Either way, I was pleased with the effort. They obviously don't disdain this film as much as the other three films they've tackled from the SW franchise and I think it made for the best overall riff of the series. (I guess you could say that the SWHS was funnier... but a 1970's variety special with a Star Wars theme really is a whole different ball of wax than the feature films)

[CHF01]

I'm probably in the minority, but I like when the source movies are given a little bit of room to breath. I think the whole riff concept works best when it compliments the source movie. Some riffs have bordered on annoying when the movie itself can't seem to get a word in edgewise. I'd rather have a lower amount of really solid jokes as opposed to the riffers throwing everything against the wall hoping that most of it sticks.

I totally agree.

[bratpop]

throwing everything against the wall hoping that most of it sticks

Where does this expression come from?

I agree that they shouldn't have pretended like they'd never seen the movie before. That's the premise for a lot of riffs certainly, but it's a bit silly to act surprised that the fat guy is named Porkins. Everyone knows the fat guy is named Porkins. I've based my whole life on the fact that the fat guy is named Porkins. They didn't even do a good "J. Bartholomew Porkinstein" joke.

[Piobman]

throwing everything against the wall hoping that most of it sticks

Where does this expression come from?

I agree that they shouldn't have pretended like they'd never seen the movie before. That's the premise for a lot of riffs certainly, but it's a bit silly to act surprised that the fat guy is named Porkins. Everyone knows the fat guy is named Porkins. I've based my whole life on the fact that the fat guy is named Porkins. They didn't even do a good "J. Bartholomew Porkinstein" joke.

You know I never knew his name was porkins until this Rifftrax. So... assuming they never knew his name was not that far fetched to me.