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Once upon a time in the seventies, a science fiction movie arrived in theaters that redefined what movies could be. It was exciting, magical, overwhelming! That movie, of course, was Star Wars...then Paramount asked "What do we have that we can use to milk these sci-fi fans dry with?"
Thus Star Trek made its debut in film with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a story so big, so massive, so filled with endless repetitive and slow paced minature effects shots, that it took the big screen to hold it all.
Now if they'd put anything else worthwhile in the movie it might be remembered more fondly, but what the heck, that's what Star Trek II is for.
Now join Ronin Fox and his friend DraCCu for this riffing of the biggest false start to a major film franchise we may ever see.
(This riff uses the "Director's Edition" of the film.)
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Star Trek Opening Weekend Sale!
While the rebirth of Star Trek hits theaters, you can celebrate by remembering one of the reasons it had to die. This weekend (May 8th through 10th 2009) this iRiff will be only 99 cents! Price goes back to $1.99 come Monday, so act quickly.
Only one day left!
"So, Space ... there sure is a lot of it!"
Like many long-time fans of the original series, I was excited when this movie first came out. It was fun to see a movie studio spend more for special effects in one movie than they had spent on the entire TV series. And I bought the DVD when it came out, but the movie is so slow-paced that I almost never watched it. So I was happy to pull it out again to play this riff track. .... .... Ronin Fox and his guest riffer did a great job at turning this into a very entertaining film. Without the riffing, it's a 45-minute TV episode wrapped inside 90 additional minutes of special effects. With the riffing, the entire movie is fun to watch. Ronin and DraCCu do an excellent job of filling all that extra space with a variety of riffs. Ronin plays it as a die-hard fan who hasn't seen the movie before, and DraCCu comes in as another fan who is well aware of what the movie is like. This allows them to come out with some comments which are "innocent and eager, only to be crushed by the movie", and others which are resigned to how bad some parts of the movie are going to be. Nice touch. And both of them sound like they're having a good time watching it. .... I can't quite bring myself to say this is 5-stars, but I'm not sure why. It's good for at least 4.5 stars though, at least for someone who is a fan of the original series (like me...).
Don't take this the wrong way but
...I actually didn't enjoy this riff very much. Some great lines and all but for some reason I was really bored and struggled to get through the whole thing even with all the clever, funny lines added. But it almost completely had to do with the fact that this movie is so insanely boring that even a very good riff just wasn't enough to make this entertaining. Is there a such thing as a movie being TOO bad to riff? If so then I think this was it. The quality of the riffing was a 4 or 4.5 but the overall entertainment of the whole package made this a 3 rating for me. I look forward to your future stuff just pick a movie that has at least some excitement value on its own next time.
The BEST iRiff I've Seen So Far
It's length and boredom make STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (or as it is more fittingly known, "THE MOTIONless PICTURE") a perfect candidate for riffing, and Ronin Fox Trax does a very professional job. As I learned from riffing on Peter Jackson's KING KONG, it is tough to remain consistently funny during a long movie, and especially a boring one (and KONG is nowhere near as dull as STAR TREK I). Some of the other iRiffs I've sampled were funnier in places, but they also were NOT very funny in places. I felt that Ronin Fox Trax offers a more consistent level of humor throughout the film, and is overall the most professional iRiff I've seen so far. I look forward to their next project.
You Made Tedium Fun Again!
Man, I had forgotten how BORING this movie was.
Great iRiff. Nice balance of calling the movie out and riffing on the "action".
Recommended.
fantastic stuff
I'd never actually seen this movie before but knew it's reputation, my housemate going into near hysterics when I asked if he had the director's edition copy should have been a warning sign.
However this is GREAT work, Ronin's obvious love of the series he's riffing on shines though and adds to the fun. Even though nothing seems to actually happen, there's no bad guy and the storyline is vague at best the riff actually keeps the movie progressing nicely and lets you bask it it's dullness while laughing along.
Stellar
And that doesn't just refer to the screen saver at the beginning.
Just a very entertaining riff, go buy it everyone. Unless you're really allergic to Shatner in which case even Ronin's abilities might not be able to save you.
Solid and good riff ... painful movie
I gave this 4 stars because, well, I never finished it. I think the riffing is very good--a decent percentage of misses, but a very small percentage of slow riffs overall, but still it was not enough to get me through this friggin movie. I've watched it before, even! (Yes, the director's cut!) So while I don't think the riff CAUSED it to go slower, it certainly didn't make it viewable upon second watching. It's not even that the movie's BAD so much as it is UNNECESSARILY long. Like, seriously, I got 1:45 in, and here's the plot: 'Big thing's blowing up ships. Enterprise investigates. They get close to it. They get closer. They get EVEN CLOSER.' There y'go. Oh, and some character bits about new people, and none relating to the Enterprise crew I've grown to love from the series. Ouch.
So, yeah. Very solid. Every now and then I had a bit of trouble hearing DraCCu's lines, but beyond that pretty technically sound.
Favorite gag: the guy falling (I assume he's not REALLY falling) through space, 'Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!'
Michael T Bradley
Ice on Mars
Awesome
Apart from some censorship bleeps (which I guess was done to keep the riff within the rating of the movie, plus me being anti censorship), this was a pretty good riff.
Although I do have to say that I've watched this movie many times and have come to appriciate it for what it is, though even I do think it's slow.
Still great work.
Great job
A great riff of a very long and dull film. The movie is more of the problem than the riff. The riff makes the movie way better, but the movie drags it down about half a notch due to the overwhelming dullness. Still a great riff and worth the money. If the movie was shorter it would get a full 5/5, but due to drag factor it gets a 4.5/5
-Rattrap007
Amazing!
This is one of the funniest riffs I've ever heard! Def deserves a place along side Mike and Co's riffs of 5, 6, and Generations!
Best part: The Cricket Noise
Great work
This is the slowest movie ever created. One of the best lines is "Hurry up. The sun's gonna lap you."
There are a lot of really funny lines though. But the whole part where the Enterprise is finally leaving space dock is hilariously done. 4 stars!
GR8 Job!!
Good Work on turning this piece of Drivel, into something laughable!
The One, The Only, RVR II