James, Ben, and Casey are three video rental store employees who work at a store that wishes it had a fraction of the business that Blockbuster has. Brad Sherman, the owner of B.S. Video, has a questionable taste in the movies that he decides to play in the store. Instead of succumbing to boredom or doing something completely insane, like doing their jobs, the trio decides to pass the time by making fun of the horrid movies that their owner makes them endure.
Titan AE is the story of Cale (Not Luke Skywalker) and his quest to free humanity from the evil Drej (Not the Empire). Along with Captain Korso (Not Han Solo), Akima (Not Princess Leia), and Gune (Not Yoda) they embark on a quest to find the Titan (Which looks nothing like the Death Star). Filled with characters and dialog that makes the Star Wars prequel trilogy look like Citizen Kane, this is one film that Joss Whedon surely wants to forget he ever wrote.
Written and performed by James Rosenthal (James of LinHood), Ben Rosenthal (MechanicalTorgo), and Casey Tripp with additional writing by Mike Hirsch (dignan) of the Rifftrax forums.
Comments
...the only thing I could think of was - needs more riffing! Some fine lines, though, and I would be glad to see more from these guys! Well, I think one of you had a less-than-stellar mike, too. But that's more forgivable if I get more riffs! ;)
M@
The initial setup of the premise (with the store employees) seemed a bit weak and forced to me. Once the track gets to the riffing, some of the lines are very good but there's long stretches of the movie with no riffing. At some points I forgot I was listening to a riff track with the movie, which meant I was watching the movie by itself -- and that was a bit painful! Also, my understanding is that Joss Whedon was only one of writers for this, and thus it seems out of place to direct so much venom at him. And as the other review noted, one of the riffers had a rather fuzzy-sounding mike, which was distracting at some points (but not as much of a problem during other parts). Also, the ending of the riff seemed to be mixed up, as they give closing credits for "The Movie Asylum" (the riffing group) while they were still riffing! ___p___
I'd say this is entertaining enough if you already own a copy of "Titan AE" (which, sad to say, I did...), but there's plenty of room for improvement. I'd give it 3 stars ("better than OK, but not great"). ___p___
Aside: It happened that I watched this the same weekend that I watched "Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn", and it occurred to me that this movie has a lot more in common with "The Genesis Project" than anything like Star Wars.
As far as the movie... Titan AE is sometimes beautiful to look at, but ultimately it's not very interesting to watch over the long haul. The script is a contrived patchwork of other, more memorable movies. None of the characters are very interesting or likable or funny. Nothing about the movie struck me as awful... it's just dull and vanilla.
As far the Movie Asylum guys, they do a respectable job with this riff. Things start off a little slow, with generally sparse riffing and one or two dead spots in the opening 10 minutes or so, but after that they seem to find a decent pace. They don't break any records for riffs per minute, but when they show up you are generally glad they did. I consistently chuckled and was pleased to find a few laugh out loud zingers were sprikled in as well.
The minor nitpicks: One of the riffers clearly had a lower quality mic. While noticeable, it was rarely a distraction. The opening intro did come across as a little forced and stiff, as the guys did thier own little take on the "we can get through this" schtick from the MST3K days. Something was messed up at the end, as the closing credits for the riff play early and actually walk over a joke or two.
Overall, I enjoyed the riff. I'd give it a 7/10, which was rounded up to a four star rating when taking into consideration the cheap $1.49 asking price. The Movie Asylum made Titan AE a much more enjoyable movie to watch... and that's about all you can ask. Recommended.
I noticed the problems that have been mentioned in the previous comments, but aside from that, I found the commentary to be very enjoyable. It was funny throughout. It wasn't perfect, but it was very good and I only suspect the quality of the Movie Asylum will get better as time goes on.
Looking forward to it,
OmegaRowsdower
I know most people consider it a good movie but it's so cheesy it deserves to be riffed MST3K-style.