Category: video

Over the weekend we had some friends over for dinner and a movie. We had talked about watching a movie with a Rifftrax and decided on Star Trek V.

Rifftrax are downloadable commentary tracks by Mike from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and company. You download the audio track from the Rifftrax website and play it out of the speakers of your computer or stereo during the movie. And hilarity ensues.

We chose Star Trek V because it’s famous for being a very bad movie. I had never seen it before but was not disappointed by the corniness. William Shatner directed it and it is, well, simply stunning. But the commentary track elevated the awfulness to a whole new level.

Here’s a clip of the Star Trek V Rifftrax.

I would recommend trying Rifftrax, especially if you were a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s $3.99 to download the commentary of feature-length films and they have a pretty good selection of recent and “classic” films including Ironman, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, etc… You can look through the catalog here.

With a lot of people trying to save money now days, downloading a Rifftrax for a movie you already own is a good way to watch it in a whole new (and funnier) way.

So as many of you know, I have a teeny tiny crush on Neil Gaiman. Like many a fangirl, I was hooked once I read his Sandman graphic novel series. I enjoy the stories he writes and the voice (the dreamy, dreamy voice) in which he writes them.

Coraline, a movie based on Gaiman’s book of the same title, is opening this weekend. Word on the street is that it’s pretty good. The animation, done almost entirely in stop-motion, is supposed to be great. I’m really looking foward to seeing it but unfortunately we’re pretty busy this weekend so it looks like I’ll have to wait a bit. But if you have the time check it out.

FYI, it’s kind of dark, so I wouldn’t take tiny little kids to it–maybe those 9+ would be okay? (I have a hard time judging this sort of thing since I don’t have older kids.) It is by the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, after all. As A.O Scott said in his review for the NY Times:

There are many scenes and images in “Coraline” that are likely to scare children. This is not a warning but rather a recommendation, since the cultivation of fright can be one of the great pleasures of youthful moviegoing. As long as it doesn’t go too far toward violence or mortal dread, a film that elicits a tingle of unease or a tremor of spookiness can be a tonic to sensibilities dulled by wholesome, anodyne, school-approved entertainments.

So there you go: if you take your kids you can rest assured that you’re giving their “sensibilities dulled by wholesome, anodyne, school-approved entertainments” a much-needed tonic. (But then again Mr. A.O. Scott doesn’t have to get up with your kid when they wake from a nightmare at 3am.)

So to sum up: go see Coraline but please don’t get mad at me if it freaks out your kids.