DVD Corner

RiffTrax Shorts-A-Poppin’ and RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts DVD Reviews

“RiffTrax: Shorts-A-Poppin’” is moose-tastic while “RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts” is hit-and-miss.

Grades:

Content: B

Picture: D+

Audio: C-

Extras: B-

For those of you who prefer buying RiffTrax on DVD, I’m happy to inform you of two new short collections titled “RiffTrax Shorts-A-Poppin’” and “RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts.” ‘Poppin’’contains 9 shorts titled “The Case Of Tommy Tucker,” “Shy Guy,” “What About Juvenile Delinquency?”, “The Tale Of Moose Baby,” “Molly Grows Up,” “You And Your Family,” “Cork- Crashes And Curiosities,” “The Bill Of Rights In Action,” and “Following Instructions Game.” Of the two releases, this is far and away the funniest. Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy have a grand old time mercilessly cracking jokes about everything from Dick York’s character in the hilariously awkward “Shy Guy” short to the goofy vehicle/racing centric “Cork” short that includes some truly gut busting Mario Kart and Irish cliché jokes. The real gem on this disc, however, is “The Tale Of Moose Baby.” Yes, you read that title right. ‘Moose’ is a cheesy short (complete with ridiculous narration) that follows a scary looking Moose baby as he grows up and learns how to live in the wild. Simply put, this is the funniest RiffTrax commentary I have heard in quite awhile. There was barely a second where I wasn’t laughing. I’m not sure what it is about this particular short that spawned such amusing riffs, but the RiffTrax gang was simply on fire here. Maybe they should look into tackling more moose-centric shorts in the future?

Those three shorts aside, I was also quite found of “Following Instructions Game” which contains a weird old man who rhymes and the bizarre and lengthy safety short “The Case Of Tommy Tucker” which contains jokes about everything from TMZ and the Hamburgler to Gnome Skulls (don’t ask).

As far as “RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts” goes, I’m afraid this disc wasn’t quite on par with ‘Poppin’’. Several of the shorts such as “Teenagers On Trial,” the vague “Going Steady” and “Women In Blue” just don’t seem ripe for riffing as the shorts are either too straight forward or too short in length. Thankfully, there’s a few winners here in “Wing Claw And Fang,” “Constance Bennett’s Daily Beauty Rituals,” and the dull, overlong“What It Means To Be An American.” ‘American’ is basically a slideshow/home movie that looks at government, places, families, schools, churches, and various cities. Of course, nothing about this short is in depth and, in fact, the narrator just rambles on and names places for minutes on end. Thankfully, Mike, Bill, and Kevin make it bearable by criticizing the length and even referncing “The Room.” “Wing Claw And Fang” is truly one of the weirdest shorts I have ever seen as it doesn’t seem to have any real point. It just follows vaious animals (a cat, a dog, a bird, a lion, and a Penguin). The short is so weird that it manages to be amusing even without the RiffTrax commentary. Where else can you find a Penguin walking across town? ‘Constance,’ which revolves around Constance Bennett’s daily beauty rituals, is the best short here simply because the riffs about her ritual are so amusing. She literally applies six products to her face throughout the course of the short!

As for the other shorts (“A Circus Wakes Up,” “Highway Mania,” and “Understanding Your Ideals”), expect to have some good laughs from them as well. I especially liked the scenes with the creepy crazed driver in ‘Highway’ and the Larry Watchowsky and talking to the dog jokes in ‘Understanding.’

Summary: In reviewing these two new RiffTrax discs, I realized that I am starting to run out of adjectives to describe how funny this comedy group is. The RiffTrax crew truly has something that will appeal to everyone which is what makes their riffs so consistently funny.

 The widescreen picture quality varies from short to short. All of the prints are littered with the usual lines and scratches, but some shorts look better than others.”What It Means To Be An American,” for example, is in pretty bad shape.

The sound quality is also hit-and-miss. “Molly Grows Up” has faint dialogue and the narration was really hard to hear on “Highway Mania.” The other shorts sounded so-so. The riffing, however, sounds crisp and clear which is what matters most.

“RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts” contains 5 minutes of alternate riffs of “What It Means To Be An American” and “RiffTrax Shorts-A-Poppin” contains 5 minutes of alternate riffs on “The Case Of Tommy Tucker” It’s interesting to compare the alternate riffs to the ones that wind up in the finished product. Many of the alternate riffs are just as amusing as the ones used.

June 18, 2010 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | RiffTrax Plays With Their Shorts DVD Review, RiffTrax Shorts-A-Poppin' DVD Review