VIRUS may be the most disappointing riff yet

[peephalk]

If you check out the writing credits for MST3K seasons 7 thru 10 it pretty much matches all the writers for present day RiffTrax, yet according to the RT credits they do not work as a writing team but little off-shoot groups complimented by Conor, Sean, or Matt. Perhaps they could try an old-school MST3K approach and throw some couches in a room, set up a tee-vee and all of them, as a group, pitch riffs at the screen and use the best on the final product with three of the writers recording the riffs. It doesn't have to be MKB or MJB all the time, mix it up! They brag about how they are a small business with a core group of employees, so put them all to work on a project all at the same time and earn a paycheck. I've occasionally had old guy get-off-my-lawn rants in various threads in this forum recently regarding the staleness encroaching on RiffTrax and The Mads. Or even more "guest" riffers would be welcome, things are getting stale and they need to freshen up a little bit! Thanks TDSFrank for starting this conversation, I'm sure the Rifftrax folks check this thread regularly and maybe they might, just might, listen to the fans suggestions and riff movies that show the talent of the writing pool and not just pick the shittiest movies possible and toss old and uninspired riffs at them

[mst3k4ever]

Easy to quantify for me -- I haven't watched a MKB rifftrax in easily 2 or more years. And even before that for a few years I thought most of their riffs other than the big live events felt totally like 3 guys alternating line readings.

I still watch some of the MJ&B and the brits.

[ageekyguy]

If you check out the writing credits for MST3K seasons 7 thru 10 it pretty much matches all the writers for present day RiffTrax, yet according to the RT credits they do not work as a writing team but little off-shoot groups complimented by Conor, Sean, or Matt. Perhaps they could try an old-school MST3K approach and throw some couches in a room, set up a tee-vee and all of them, as a group, pitch riffs at the screen and use the best on the final product with three of the writers recording the riffs. It doesn't have to be MKB or MJB all the time, mix it up! They brag about how they are a small business with a core group of employees, so put them all to work on a project all at the same time and earn a paycheck. I've occasionally had old guy get-off-my-lawn rants in various threads in this forum recently regarding the staleness encroaching on RiffTrax and The Mads. Or even more "guest" riffers would be welcome, things are getting stale and they need to freshen up a little bit! Thanks TDSFrank for starting this conversation, I'm sure the Rifftrax folks check this thread regularly and maybe they might, just might, listen to the fans suggestions and riff movies that show the talent of the writing pool and not just pick the shittiest movies possible and toss old and uninspired riffs at them

I think the issue with that approach is the output they're going for.  Between features and shorts, it feels like they probably average more than a riff per week.  I honestly wouldn't complain if they went to simply alternating between a short one week and a feature the next, reducing the overall number of features that they do.

Of course, they probably need the level of output they put out in order to have enough sales coming in each month to keep operating.

[spaceface]

while I do agree to an extent about virus, to me a part of it comes from extremely poor quality, pan & scan transfer they used of this film. this is a massive budget movie with professional actors that probably looks really great in it's truest form, but when you really can't make out facial expressions, locations, details, and so fourth it reduces the context of the jokes they use because it's so hard to make out what's going on. there are actually some really quality jokes is this release in my opinion.

the dark, mutant, nightmare at noon to name a few that are some of my favorites that I find way funnier and more enjoyable since users here have remastered them with a high-def release.

that said, i'll take releases like virus release any day over rem lazar, ouija shark, apex predators, or any of those other bizarre camcorder movies which personally I find the least funny.

[MarkP]

Rifftrax has made some of the funniest, most enduring and entertaining comedy ever, that will always hold a special place in my heart (and I'm sure most of yours, too). But their most recent efforts feel tragically uninspired and surprisingly unfunny.  
I watched the new 'grimtrax' film Virus, and there's not a single joke that stood out to me or that I even remember - I'm not saying that that will be the case for anyone else, and maybe you enjoyed it - I'm just mentioning it as a personal metric for what I fear is a noticeable drop in creativity and humor of their writing or riffing process. So many of the jokes are intentional groaners, baffling forced puns, and sub dad-joke level material, which, while present in even some of their best work, were never the substance of their creative wit, which they seem to form now: there were always actual jokes and energy around lampooning the films and creating a hilarious alternate reality of perception and humor that truly made their content memorable and irresistible!

Now, even though Virus is a grimtrax, which they took pains to distinguish from their regular content as material more striking or morbid in tone or substance...the jokes should still be jokes... it's not as though grimtrax are meant to be LESS funny or contain only certain jokes. I don't know that that should be a factor. And even so, many of their other more recent releases (The Amazing Bulk is similarly negligible and void of funny, memorable material, and both Hell of the Living Dead and Undefeatable may have had 3-4 good lines in them) just do not have the punch or level of quality that they so effortless achieved over the many years.

Idk if i'm so much expecting anyone to agree on THIS particular riff, but in general, does Anyone else sympathize with or relate to my concern that the Rifftrax boys are "more miss than hit" recently?


In case it helps or establishes my pedigree, these are some of my personal favorite rifftrax releases:
Laser Mission, Treasure of the Amazon, Sisters of Death, Missile X, Girl from Rio, Trucker's Woman, Ghost House, Psychotronic Man, Curse of Bigfoot, Neutron the Atomic Superman, Alien Outlaw, Abraxas, Contamination, not to mention their Harry Potter, Transformer, and Twilight series and all the other great just-the-jokes riffs. 

TDS Frank

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I have to disagree. True this was a god awful movie bt at least it was a real film with a fun professional cast. Their recent straight to video amateur stuff has been brutal! Thought the riffs were great.

[billythefist]

Sorry everyone, I stole Kevin's pets and have been forcing them to do stuff like Feeders, Fungicide and Baby Ghost. I told him i would give the pets back after they did Rem Lezar but honestly I think i'm going to keep moving the goal posts as this seems to be working out well for me tbh

I hope you guys like no-budget shot on video stuff because I simply can't get enough of it

[bumpkinhead]

Sadly, I agree things are getting a bit stale, but to be fair imagine having to wake up in the morning and have something like Virus or Ouija Shark to look forward to all day/week. I assume profit margins are pretty thin per riff, but maybe striking up a deal with MGM/Canon archives, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome or the like the way they have with Shout in the past might give a fresh injection of more riffable material to work with that wouldn't drain the lifeforce quite so much. It'd be fund to see what they could do with something like New York Ninja for example

[Miss Martian]

I have yet to watch this one, but it's a note-worthy (not great) film made by an incredible film making legend, who gave us some of the best Yakuza films ever made, as well as the cult classic BATTLE ROYALE. Seemed like an odd choice to riff, except for the fact that it's public domain.

[JetJaguar73]

 except for the fact that it's public domain.

There we go, that's why they chose it. 

Lady, now I need to fish out my copy of Battle Royale! for a rewatch. Katniss and Peeta can eat it. Lol.

Someone else used the word "lifeforce" above, and I'll say again that I'd love to see how the guys handle that 1985 classic without cutting a single minute from the runtime. 

[ktel69]

I have yet to watch this one, but it's a note-worthy (not great) film made by an incredible film making legend, who gave us some of the best Yakuza films ever made, as well as the cult classic BATTLE ROYALE. Seemed like an odd choice to riff, except for the fact that it's public domain.

99% sure Virus is not Public Domain. There's very few actual PD films out there. RiffTrax licenses many, probably most of the movies they release.