Customer Reviews

Rifftrax: Shorts-tacular Shorts-stravaganza - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000!

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What do you get when you combine 10 old shorts with wisecracks from MST3K vets Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy & Bill Corbett? Two Hours of sidesplitting entertainment, that's what. As with "Wide World of Shorts", Rifftrax has dropped the "Volume" theme of the first two DVD releases.

The shorts run the gamit from self image and cat habits to fears of swimming and middle-aged strippers. Highlights start with "If Mirrors Could Speak", where three kids wearing disturbing clown make-up discover that bad behavior, selfishness, and depression can be cured by looking into a mirror with a pompus attitude. Three other elementary school shorts, "Primary Safety in the School Building" promotes properly tied shoes and walking on the right side of the hallways can save lives, if not your dignity. "Playing Together" says proper play is good, improper is really bad and "Kitty Clean Up" where a young girl takes her pet cat to school and the cat somehow doesn't go nuts, a true miracle.

"How Much Affection" focuses on the concerns of middle-aged high school students and how far they are willing to go. And speaking of how far;

Two shorts deal with the joys of catching syphilis. "Damaged Goods" and "Know for Sure" which features a bad Italian stereotype and two well known actors, Tim Holt ("Magnificent Ambersons", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre") and Ward Bond ("The Searchers", "Wagon Train").

Of course the most bizarre and pointless short is also the most ripe for the Rifftrax crew, "Your Chance to Live: Technological Failures" which somehow suggests that technology is good even if lots of folks have died from it.

On the downside, some of the shorts have the "YouTube Strobe Effect" notably "Playing Together". It's troubling, but not too distracting.

The riffs are funny and almost always on target. At times they crack each other up. Bill Corbett in particular shines by going back to his old "Crow" days and just ripping away at the stupidity of the films themselves. I heartily recommend this collection to all Mystie/Rifftrax fans out there. Enjoy!

RiffTrax: Shorts-Tacular Shorts-Stravaganza / 844503001511 / B0030VBGJK

Buy this RiffTrax DVD right now if only for the chance to hear the trio sing their latest song, "Sparkly Vampires", over the DVD menu. (Also available for purchase at the RiffTrax site, under the listing "RiffTones".)

This is a great set of shorts - well up to their usual standards. My husband and I are big MST3K fans, and RiffTrax has only cemented our admiration of Mike, Kevin, and Bill. The shorts here include:

- Primary Safety in the School Building: Watch emotionless children narc on each other for not passing the scissors handle-first.

- Know For Sure: I was hoping this would be an education short about paternity testing, but no - it's an educational STD short, complete with racial stereotypes!

- If Mirrors Could Speak: Learn that the most important thing is how other people perceive you; NOT for people who are afraid of clowns.

- How Much Affection: If you enjoy something, it's a sin; high school pregnancies automatically turn your husband into a complete berk.

- Overcoming Fear: Learn a healthy fear of dogs, as they soar over your privacy fence.

- Your Chance To Live: Gran Moff Tarkin explains that technology breaks a lot...and stuff.

- Kitty Cleans Up: Terrify your cat by taking it to kindergarten to be groped by dozens of small children.

- Cooking Terms: Use the glossary in the back of your cookbook - it could save your marriage!!

- Playing Together: Always shower thoroughly before watching swimming contests.

- Damaged Goods: Another STD short, but somehow just as fun!

~ Ana Mardoll

Two of these shorts are duds, four are very funny, and four are top-of-the-chain hilarious. I can't add much to what McGillicutty "DVD" Fan so wonderfully stated - all I can really think of is on that the Technological Failures short, because it's so strewn about in the most random way, the guys spend about 90% of the time riffing on the narrator's appearance, and man, I was rolling. This collection is worth getting for that short alone. Add onto that a short about safety (which is ALWAYS funny) and "If Mirrors Could Speak" (which looks too stupid to enjoy at first but really shines with the right amount of riffing) and you have something that's worth treasuring for years.

After such thorough enjoyment of this DVD, I'll probably own every other Rifftrax Shorts DVD available within the next year.

This is one of the best collection of shorts. I would have given it 5 stars but I had a freeze problem with "Playing Together". Reading some of the other Rifftrax DVD reviews, I noticed a lot of defective DVD complaints. The Rifftrax people need to work on their quality control.

That being said, the comedy quality of these shorts is top notch. My 2 favorites are Overcoming Fear and Cooking Terms. They will explain to you the meaning of the cooking term "boiling". Duh! If you don't know what boilng means, you really should stay out of the kitchen. You are a danger to yourself and others. You could stick your hand in boiling water because the bubbles are pretty.

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Well worth the price of the DVD.

We had a ball watching this one! Since so many reviews have already broken down the individual shorts I will just make one comment about "Cooking Terms:" How does a 1950s woman grow up without knowing what "boiling" means? And as the Crew comments, should this person really be cooking at all?

Lots of laughs in this one!

What to add, other than MST3K fans will love these, and anyone else with a bit of a warped sense of humor. Bad films joked about with funny guys. Great fun for a group to watch!

This is my favorite Rifftrax DVD so far, with "Voodoo Man" coming in second. I love this DVD! Perhaps the funniest short in the collection was "Know For Sure". It will have you rolling from the get-go. It's about the evils of syphlis and how it is spread. When the doctor tells the young man, "And no one ever need know that you have syphlis." one of the guys, (Bill?) says, "Unless they read my blog." I was rolling. Non-stop hilarity. "Kitty Cleans Up" and "Technological Failures" are two other standouts from this awesome collection. MST3K fans will love this one.

I ordered this a month ago and still haven't received it. I contacted their "customer service" (hah, what a joke) and they kept putting me off saying give it more time/ my post office was probably holding it. The DHL tracking number they gave didn't work. Finally after 3 weeks, they agreed to re-ship. That was a week ago and I still don't have it, despite telling them NOT to re-ship via DHL/ USPS. (I even paid double postage seeing that I bought another item from them and didn't ask for the postage to be reduced. You'd think they could have sent it Priority Mail, but no.) All I know is that I have an autistic son who has a meltdown EVERY DAY because it's not here. (The new DHL tracking number says it's been stuck in Kentucky for the past 3 days.)

Don't order from these people if you actually want to receive your item. They deserve ZERO stars for a rating.