I'm getting a little tired of all these recent movies.

[Doc Steve]

I must admit I'm a little biased (which way, I dunno... sort of the middle). I want them to do Hellboy, Hulk and Batman Begins. And I don't consider those recent, but some people would. I can't think of an 80s movie I want them to do. I think if they didn't do the year's summer movies, people would still complain. Okay, That Movie, Dune, Star Wars. What else other than those?

If we stick with the "enough people own it to sell well initially" limitation, there are still a few others from the '70s and '80s I could name.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Original Star Wars Trilogy
The remaining Indiana Jones movies
Jaws
Escape from New York
The Thing

[Doc Steve]

I think they're probably very comfortable with the "sameness" of bad movies these days. If they go back to something like Dune, they're forcing a whole other level of suck on themselves (maybe Dune doesn't "suck" but it's definately a failure of galactic and unprecedented levels). I'm sure anyone would prefer riffing a bad movie from this decade to one with a full no-name crew shot through a hole in a cardboard box.

You've never seen David Lynch's Dune, have you? 

It was state-of-the-art for its time, and the cast is pretty well-known, by and large.  It's primary problem was trying to do to much within its already very long running time. 

Dune (1984) Cast:

Francesca Annis as Lady Jessica
Leonardo Cimino as The Baron's Doctor
Brad Dourif as Piter De Vries
José Ferrer as Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV
Linda Hunt as the Shadout Mapes
Freddie Jones as Thufir Hawat
Richard Jordan as Duncan Idaho
Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides
Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan
Silvana Mangano as Reverend Mother Ramallo
Everett McGill as Stilgar
Kenneth McMillan as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Jack Nance as Captain Iakin Nefud
Siân Phillips as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Angélica Aragón as Bene Gesserit Sister
Jürgen Prochnow as Duke Leto Atreides
Paul L. Smith as The Beast Rabban (credited as Paul Smith)
Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck
Sting as Feyd-Rautha
Dean Stockwell as Dr. Wellington Yueh
Max von Sydow as Dr. Kynes
Alicia Witt as Alia (credited as Alicia Roanne Witt)
Sean Young as Chani

[mrbasehart]

Plus you got Brad Dourif there for potential Chucky references...

[bratpop]

There was a hell of a lot more wrong with it than the running time. And Hollywood still has yet to produce a failure in the same league as Dune.

[mrbasehart]

There was a hell of a lot more wrong with it than the running time. And Hollywood still has yet to produce a failure in the same league as Dune.

If by failure, you mean financially, it wasn't a huge failure.  It made $30 million domestically against a $40 million budget.  One of the biggest ever failures was made just a few years ago, Pluto Nash.  It cost $100 million to make, and grossed $7 worldwide! And still Eddie Murphy was trusted to star in movies...

[Doctor Who?]

There was a hell of a lot more wrong with it than the running time. And Hollywood still has yet to produce a failure in the same league as Dune.

If by failure, you mean financially, it wasn't a huge failure.  It made $30 million domestically against a $40 million budget.  One of the biggest ever failures was made just a few years ago, Pluto Nash.  It cost $100 million to make, and grossed $7 worldwide! And still Eddie Murphy was trusted to star in movies...

GOOD NIGHT!

Is Eddie Murphy a Vampire or something?

Why is he still alive after that?!

[mrbasehart]

Whoops.  It's not $7, it's $7 million dollars.  A few more people than one went to see it.   

[bratpop]

I'm slightly annoyed I never got to see all of Pluto Nash. The power went out when it was on TV. I know that was probably a heavenly gift, but I wanted to know just how bad it really was.

[mrbasehart]

It's about as good as Daddy Day Care, or Haunted Mansion, or Norbit, or Dr Doliitle, or The Nutty Professor II, or Shrek 3, or....Meet Dave.   

[Doc Steve]

There was a hell of a lot more wrong with it than the running time. And Hollywood still has yet to produce a failure in the same league as Dune.

If by failure, you mean financially, it wasn't a huge failure.  It made $30 million domestically against a $40 million budget.  One of the biggest ever failures was made just a few years ago, Pluto Nash.  It cost $100 million to make, and grossed $7 worldwide! And still Eddie Murphy was trusted to star in movies...

The main failings of Dune (1984) were as follows:

1.  Unrealistic expectations because Lynch had his first "real" budget.
2.  Incredibly long running time in the original cut.
3.  Cutting the film led to a movie that could only be understood if you had read the book. 

Dune got a lot of positive press from people who had read the Herbert books and could understand what was happening. 


EDIT:  Check out this link for a synopsis of critical reception in 1984:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(film)#Reception

All of the negative reviews essentially complain that you can't follow what's happening in the movie. 

[dalem]

Rifftrax does bad movies. 

I couldn't disagree more.  Rifftrax does movies that can be mocked.

Raiders, Lord of the Rings, Sixth Sense, Memento - these are good movies that can be mocked, and have been.

Maybe that's part of your frustration level - mis-set customer expectation?

-dale

So four or five exceptions out of 70+ releases.  I think you're working pretty hard to disagree with me at this point.  I listed a few exceptions, too.

Well I think my entire point revolves around objectivity and product line.

Movies are entertainment and by their very definition subjectively judged.  There are clear outliers that can essentially be judged to be "universally good or bad" - say Citizen Kane on one end and Plan 9 on the other - but the rest of the area under the curve is pretty muddled.  There are lots of "good" movies in the Rifftrax suite.  The Harry Potter movies are good, solid fare.that hit all the required cinematic buttons, entertained people and more than made their money back.  If I felt like it would be useful I could run through the whole list, blah blah blah, as then could you.

Anyway, Rifftrax seems to follow the model that, if it can be mocked, it will be mocked.  In my opinion, which is worth exactly one opinion, that doesn't require that a movie be bad.  For example, most movies based on superheroes are downright silly when you stand far enough back from them, but some also manage to be very solid movies when viewed within their own context.  Both can be easily mocked, again in my opinion.

But I'm just running off at the mouth at this point.  I'm pretty happy with the selection so far so I see things from a different perspective than you have indicated.  I like pie.

-dale

[dalem]

You've never seen David Lynch's Dune, have you? 

Hah!  Another indicator of subjectivityness!  I think Lynch is a hack anyway, but Dune was a real prime piece of poop that deserved no one's time or effort.

In my opinion.

-dale

[Edward J Grug III]

You've never seen David Lynch's Dune, have you? 

Hah!  Another indicator of subjectivityness!  I think Lynch is a hack anyway, but Dune was a real prime piece of poop that deserved no one's time or effort.

In my opinion.

-dale

Strongly agree.

[RoninFox]

There was a hell of a lot more wrong with it than the running time. And Hollywood still has yet to produce a failure in the same league as Dune.

If by failure, you mean financially, it wasn't a huge failure.  It made $30 million domestically against a $40 million budget.  One of the biggest ever failures was made just a few years ago, Pluto Nash.  It cost $100 million to make, and grossed $7 worldwide! And still Eddie Murphy was trusted to star in movies...

GOOD NIGHT!

Is Eddie Murphy a Vampire or something?

Why is he still alive after that?!

That was another failed movie.

[gojikranz]

well i got to this late as i usually do.  but i just thought i would throw my lot in with the less new movies camp if that does any difference.  but i understand the dificulties so im not gonna complain too much.  actually maybe not even just less new movies but how about less comic book movies.  i mean theres only so much a man can take.  still i take any rifftrax over no rifftrax so keep doing what you need to do to stay afloat.