Rifftrax!

Okay, so Traumador suggested that I check out Rifftrax, being that I'm a huge MST3K fan and all. If you don't know what Rifftrax is, a quick visit to the website will give you a whole lot of info, but in short, Rifftrax is a project similar to MST3K. Mike Nelson and the guys who play Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo rip on movies. I know...this sounds exactly like MST3K. But it's different...you see, rather than buying the rights to really cheesy old films, the guys just record mp3s of their voices and therefore don't need the rights to the movies...so they use recent popular movies. The only letdown is that you don't get the little silhouettes on the screen or the Satellite of Love scenes. Of course, as you can see in the picture, J solved this problem by adhering the static sticker that came with my MST3K "Mitchell" DVD to the television screen.

Anyway, last weekend, I downloaded the track for The Matrix and Jurassic Park. I didn't get to see either until last night, when J and I hunkered down with some Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch and The Matrix.

How's the whole operation? AMAZING! So funny! I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and had very few complaints. Some highlights:

• Any time Keanu Reeves's mug is on screen and something happens, the guys say, "Whooooaaaa" in a surfer voice. They also make constant references to joints flying out of Keanu's clothes any time he does any kind of flip/spin.

• They refer to Morpheus as "Snuffleupagus J. Morhpeus."

• When Agent Smith pulls out the little robotic "bug" that goes into Neo's belly, one of the guys says, "Robotic cigarette anyone?"

There's really no way to make those lines funny...you have to watch it for yourself. Download the Rifftrax for $3.99 and play it simultaneously with the movie. The only drawback is that it's hard to pause in the middle of the movie (you have to pause the track and the movie at the same time) and that if the track or DVD skips, they get out-of-sync and it's a pain in the butt to get them in sync again (though I think you can avoid this by downloading the Rifftrax player and playing the DVD on the computer...we watched the DVD on the television and played the track on the computer).

Anyway, I laughed just as much if not more than I do when I watch any of the original MST3K movies.