RiffTrax News: Screenings and a New App

Note: this article was also published on SciFi4Me.com.

RiffTrax is participating in a bit of #ThrowbackThursday themselves, showing “Best of RiffTrax Live” with repeat screenings of both their Kickstarter-backed Starship Troopers and The Room in partnership with Fathom Events.

Tonight is the repeat of Starship Troopers (tickets can be purchased here), the ’97 Paul Verhoeven-directed production. An adaptation of Heinlein’s sci-fi novel of the same name, the movie was a major flop for several reasons. The Kickstarter was originally geared towards riffing Twilight, but the trio (Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, and Mike Nelson) were unable to secure the rights and instead ended up with this one. The live screening was a success, with the trio commenting that they had heard several of the stars were planning on watching as well.

Next week is another Kickstarter-funded project, this time from 2015. Dubbed “The Crappening”, the Kickstarter was geared towards four live screening events, one of which was The Room, the infamous Tommy Wiseau production that has repeatedly gotten the ‘award’ of worst movie ever made. Tickets for the repeat of The Room can be purchased here.

In addition to the live screenings, RiffTrax has added another tool to enjoy their other riffs. As I wrote about when I interviewed Mike Nelson, most of RiffTrax’s products are MP3 audio tracks that you have to sync with the movie in question. As anyone who’s ever tried the ‘Wizard of Oz via Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon‘ project, syncing video and separate audio is sometimes a bit of a problem.

To help ease that problem, they’ve now released an app for Android and iOS which will automatically sync the commentary with the movie. The app, once launched, actively listens for the movie and then automatically syncs. And for a limited time, the beta includes the commentaries for all six Star Wars films. For more information about the app, visit the RiffTrax website.