As faithful readers know, I'm a big Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. I got cable for that one program, and canceled when it went off the air. These guys have done a few things since then, including Cinematic Titanic and the Film Crew. Another one is RiffTrax.
The idea is quite simple. You rent, buy or steal an ordinary DVD. Then you download an MP3 file of Mike Nelson and/or some other guys riffing on the film. You play the DVD on your DVD player while simultaneously playing the MP3 file on your MP3 file player. And there you have it - you get a movie with professional sarcastic commentary, and they don't have to get reproduction and distribution rights.
For our first Riff, we chose Spider-Man 2. Have I already complained about the Spider-Man movies? Oh well, I'm too apathetic to look it up. The RiffTrax was provided by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett (Crow) and Josh Fruhlinger, host of the Comics Curmudgeon (see my blogroll), a website that makes fun of newspaper funnies. I think they brought him in for his insight into the newspaper Spider-Man strip (insight: S-M/Peter Parker mostly sits around watching TV).
The experience was not quite as ... immersive as MST3K: partly because the commentors have no character arcs (or silhouettes on the screen), partly because the sound was coming out of different speakers. But it's still funny, and beats the heck out of watching Spider-Man 2 without riffs.
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