The Oozing Skull

[James of LinHood]

Maybe because Rifftrax doesn't do cheesy movies with cheesy music or sound effects or that seem to call for cheesy music or sound effects?

Huh.  The Star Wars Holiday Special, Troll 2, and Missile to the Moon come to mind as incredibly cheesy movies.

Thing is, I doubt I would buy this unless I already owned every Rifftrax, Legend, and Film Crew DVD. Not unless I'd heard of the movie or everyone said it was amazing amazing amazing. And I don't see how it could be. MST was an easy sell. All you really had to do was get up at 11.

Why would knowing what the movie is make it worth buying?  The whole point of CT is that they're riffing movies you've never heard of (Just like MST3K).  So, the odds are if you like MST3K you'll like CT.

Anyway, I do have to say that I liked this episode.  The riffing was good and I liked what they did with the skits.  I do agree with people here who were thrown off by there being no kind of intro at all.  Hopefully this is an issue they'll address with the next episode.  It was worth the buy and I look forward to seeing what CT has to offer in the future. 

[starfighter]

    I'm agreeing with most of what I've read here.  I enjoyed the whole thing but the cold open really needed introductions, even a skit where we actually see everybody.   I pretty much had to pick out Josh's voice just as being the one we hadn't heard in a long time.
    Freezing the film to allow for expanded jokes worked pretty well even if they weren't all gems.   I'm also glad I read Frank's defense of the "Ginger Baker Canyon" joke since I'm not sure I would have made the connection to the drumbeat otherwise.
    Didn't they say that they only plan one release per month?   That would seem to fit in well with the Rifftrax schedule so I'll continue to support both groups  work.

[BEERxTaco]

I thought it was awesome. Hilarious stuff, in the spirit of the older MST3K. I don't know why they didn't do any backstory, but maybe that will be revealed over the course of several shows. You know how Joel is, he's a mystery man, lol... but seriously, I loved the riffing. Solid stuff, everything i expected and more. Josh was terrific. I have been watching a lot of season one just to refresh my memory of his style and he's right on. It was great to hear Trace and Frank again... a lot of funny voices that you always heard during the old MST3K days were back.

I give it 2 thumbs up, but like I said, the older MST3K is more my style...

One of my favorite riffs:

Right at the start of the movie, the Hemisphere Pictures logo is on the screen:

Hemisphere Pictures! We've got half a mind to make a movie!

[RVR II]

Agreed! Despite the lack of intro and ending skits, It was Very Funny Indeed!!

Frank: "Hemp! Hempisphere Productions! Uh... I'm Hungry."

[Mr`Death]

So, for those that have seen it.....how did J. Elvis do?  He was never my favorite on the early MST3K episodes, so I am curious.

Josh blew me away. He's ridiculously quick-witted and funny. Some of the best riffs in the episode are his, m'thinks.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Just watched it, going to watch it again tonight to get a better feel for the quality of the riffs.  I think the freeze frame skits are a great idea, but they seemed a little flat, in fact it seemed to me like the whole thing was lacking energy or emotion or something.

Seemed like Joel did the least riffing, I don't remember laughing at a line from him, why I've got to watch it again.  Josh had a few really funny lines, Mary Jo also a few, I thing Trace and Frank were consistantly funny throughout.


My guess for the Time Tube:
I'm guessing the time tube thing at the end is just a DVD storage device?  Looked to me like Joel was putting a disk into it....

[Insert Coin(s) to Continue]

I was a bit disappointed by The Oozing Skull. There were good riffs here and there but, for the most part, it really wasn't that funny. It felt heavily scripted compared to RiffTrax. RiffTrax feels like a few friends getting together and watching a movie, often bouncing jokes off of each other and reacting to one another's riffs, but Cinematic Titanic felt like a production. Not as comfortable yet. The quality of the jokes just wasn't quite up there yet, either. Oh yeah, and the skits ... sucked ... majorly.

I'm not discounting Cinematic Titanic yet. I'll stay with them until the end. I love the crew. They just can't compete with RiffTrax at this point.

[bettertomorrowamy]

I was a bit disappointed by The Oozing Skull. There were good riffs here and there but, for the most part, it really wasn't that funny. It felt heavily scripted compared to RiffTrax. RiffTrax feels like a few friends getting together and watching a movie, often bouncing jokes off of each other and reacting to one another's riffs, but Cinematic Titanic felt like a production. Not as comfortable yet. The quality of the jokes just wasn't quite up there yet, either. Oh yeah, and the skits ... sucked ... majorly.

I'm not discounting Cinematic Titanic yet. I'll stay with them until the end. I love the crew. They just can't compete with RiffTrax at this point.

Wow, that's pretty harsh. 

[RVR II]

I think the movie itself was harsh, and the CT crew did what they could with it.

[darkside]

Okay, watched my copy of The Oozing Skull tonight and was very, very impressed.

The quality was much higher than the Film Crew DVDs and the riffing was also much better.

Joel has really captured the feel of MST3K with the tone of the riffing and the use of the silhouettes. Instead of doing host segments like the Film Crew tried and failed badly at they stay with the movie the entire time with the silhouettes.

I like that they start out of the gate riffing the movie and stop the film for quick bits sometimes using some visual jokes with the silhouettes. These stops are very quick and for the most part were pretty funny. I especially liked Josh's love theme for the movie bit. This is a much better idea overall than trying to do scripted bits outside of the theater. Without the bots those are just destined to fail.

I give Mike Nelson a ton of credit for finding ways to keep riffing alive. His Rifftrax's are very good and tackle high profile films and he has a very low cost way of riffing that will probably be more successful than Joel's obviously expensive project. However, from a purely artistic standpoint Joel has outdone him in every way. Joel has recaptured a big part of what made MST3K so brilliant and I hope they sell enough of these to keep the project going. This is a very polished production from start to finish and is the first thing I have watched that actually seems like a true successor to MST3K. It is also a very risky project with a very iffy distribution model.

I hope Cinematic Titanic catches on and I will buy every release. After watching the first one I no longer complain about the $16 cost. That is pretty much inline with what the Film Crew DVDs cost and is a much better product. I only wish Joel had made a deal with Rhino because I don't think his current distribution model will succeed. They do send it on a real DVD and not a DVD-R, but all you get is the disc in a mailer. I also don't think most fans will be happy with just a downloaded version for $13. Maybe it will get enough attention for them to make a deal later.

If you are a fan of MST3K I can't recommend The Oozing Skull highly enough.

[Insert Coin(s) to Continue]

I was a bit disappointed by The Oozing Skull. There were good riffs here and there but, for the most part, it really wasn't that funny. It felt heavily scripted compared to RiffTrax. RiffTrax feels like a few friends getting together and watching a movie, often bouncing jokes off of each other and reacting to one another's riffs, but Cinematic Titanic felt like a production. Not as comfortable yet. The quality of the jokes just wasn't quite up there yet, either. Oh yeah, and the skits ... sucked ... majorly.

I'm not discounting Cinematic Titanic yet. I'll stay with them until the end. I love the crew. They just can't compete with RiffTrax at this point.

Wow, that's pretty harsh. 

I don't intend to sound mean. There were a few very funny riffs, and it really does start to pick up at the end. The skits are embarrassing, though. Taking time out of the film to give us a poorly played vomiting joke just didn't do anything for me. Each skit felt like it had some potential as a skeleton to base a skit around, but it wasn't ready to leave the nest quite yet. J. Elvis' skit was the only exception. That one was very funny.

How does everyone feel about the skits happening in silhouette-view? I think I prefer the MST3K / Film Crew style. It throws something new into the mix. It gives us something colorful and different to look at for a while. It's quite refreshing.

[FordPrefect]

Joel has really captured the feel of MST3K with the tone of the riffing and the use of the silhouettes. Instead of doing host segments like the Film Crew tried and failed badly at they stay with the movie the entire time with the silhouettes.

I like that they start out of the gate riffing the movie and stop the film for quick bits sometimes using some visual jokes with the silhouettes. These stops are very quick and for the most part were pretty funny. I especially liked Josh's love theme for the movie bit. This is a much better idea overall than trying to do scripted bits outside of the theater. Without the bots those are just destined to fail.

So, did you like the silhouettes?  We really have both ends of the spectrum here between you and Insert Coins. I'm a bit confused by your argument near the end though. I haven't seen this yet, but why is the idea of doing scripted bits outside of the theater destined to fail without the props bots? Aren't Trace and Josh just carrying on their character's spirit without holding up puppets? All of those guys used to write for Crow and Tom anyway. If they left the theater to do the same skits they did in the theater, would they be less entertaining?

[bratpop]

These guys are too old to be seen in anything but silhouette. Good thinking on CT's part.

[Insert Coin(s) to Continue]

These guys are too old to be seen in anything but silhouette. Good thinking on CT's part.

I was actually really hoping to see the crew in action.

[RoninFox]

I only wish Joel had made a deal with Rhino because I don't think his current distribution model will succeed.

Considering Film Crew was almost a Rhino release and certain people (cough)mallon(cough) put the kibosh on that, I don't think that was ever likely.  Another dvd distributor maybe, just not Rhino.