The new app offers an automatic commentary syncing option.

HDD Tests the RiffTrax App! 

Some movies just have it coming! Hollywood makes hundreds of movies every single year. Some of them are good, some are just mediocre, others are downright awful. So what do you do with those big-budget blockbusters that are virtually unwatchable? The guys over at RiffTrax know what to do with those terrible movies! Started in 2006 by Mike Nelson of MST3k fame along with his co-stars Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, the new RiffTrax App makes enjoying your favorite bad movies a whole lot easier! 

Currently, RiffTrax is beta testing their automatic syncing app for iOS and Android platforms. All you need to do is download the app to your device and it currently comes pre-packed with all six riffs Mike, Kevin, and Bill recorded for the Star Wars films, free! The way the app works is by using your device's built-in microphone to detect the dialogue of the movie. After about thirty seconds or so, the track syncs up and in no time Mike, Kevin, and Bill are riffing away at midichlorians, Hayden Christensen's mullet braid, the hideous digital creatures, digital Jabba The Hutt, and everything else George Lucas' creations has to offer. Given that this is new territory for the guys at RiffTrax, the app understandably has some good points, but it also has some areas for improvement: 

On the plus side, the automatic synching works really, really well. Since the microphone is always listening for the movie dialogue, anytime the track may fall out of sync, it catches up really quickly. It's also nice not to have to monitor either your computer or mobile device throughout the movie. Since the app takes care of everything, all you have to do is sit back and laugh your socks off.

If there is something that needs work for this App before it goes primetime, it's the 30 seconds of dialogue that the App requires for the RiffTrax to sync up to the movie. Take the six 'Star Wars' films for example, as anyone who has watched a Star Wars film knows that there are several minutes of the opening without dialogue. Consider that the RiffTrax guys make jokes the whole time, that's a lot of missed material. 

Since this is new tech for RiffTrax to be toying with, I wasn't expecting a top of the lineup, out of the park home run. However, thankfully this is a solid double base hit. When I first heard this App was on the way, I was excited but also a little worried at how well it would work. Thankfully the tech is there, it works, it just needs a little fine tuning. I'm sure the RiffTrax team is hard at work making various perfections so that when the full version is released, it'll be a well-oiled laugh machine! That said, if you're new to RiffTrax or have only heard a couple riffs, here are my 10 Favorite RiffTrax releases to help get you started:

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:

Picture a movie that features Spock wearing flying boots, a Vulcan with emotional issues on a quest to find God, and Uhura doing a sexy fan dance to distract some bad guys, and you have the makings for one of the lamest 'Star Trek' films ever made. There' s very little redeemable value with this movie making it ripe pickings for RiffTrax. Mike and Keven do a grand job taking this one apart and never miss the chance to chime in with their own impersonations of Shatner and DeForest Kelley.

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The Happening: 

Considering the excess of really bad M. Night Shyamalan movies to come out, it was hard to pick just one of his movies the RiffTrax crew eviscerated. As bad as 'The Last Airbender' is, and they do a good job of making fun of it, Mike, Kevin, and Bill are in pitch perfect form with this one. From jokes about Mark Wahlberg as a science teacher to Zooey Deschanel's doe-eyed stare and John Leguizamo talking like he had a stroke, it's hard to get a full breath of air from laughing so hard. 

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Titanic:

While it may well be one of the highest grossing movies of all time, 'Titanic' is also one of the most unintentionally hilarious films. Part of that has to do with the on-the-nose plot but also the shallow dialogue and hammy acting. Add all of those elements together and 'Titanic' has a big joke target painted on it's stern and Mike, Kevin and Bill are more than capable of exploiting the film's many flaws. As one of the longest movies for the trio to take on, they maintain the energy and prove themselves to be spry commentators never leaving a good joke hanging.

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Any of the Transformers Movies:

From 'Transformers' to 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' to 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' Mike Kevin and Bill have made short work of Michael Bay's cinematic adaptations of the beloved 80s cartoon. If you've watched any of these films, it's easy to see where and how they could be undone by the RiffTrax brand of humor and thankfully these riffs don't disappoint. Considering the range of quality of this franchise, the RiffTrax goes a long way towards making them a truly enjoyable experience.

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Starship Troopers:

This is a studio recording version of the first big-budget RiffTrax Live! event. Since they weren't able to get the rights to release that show on VOD, Blu-ray, or even just the theater recorded audio, we have to settle for this version, which is still hilarious. While a lot of people feel and defend the film as a work of satire to begin with, it's impossible to ignore the epic level of canned cheese on display. From the first minute to the last, the Mike, Kevin, and Bill toss off the jokes one after another and the results are fantastic. Even if you're an ardent fan of the film, it's easy to still appreciate what RiffTrax brings to the show. 

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Jurassic Park:

Granted, this is probably one of my favorite movies from my childhood and I've seen it dozens of times, I can appreciate how easy it is to be made fun of. Mike along with special guest riffer Weird Al Yankovic do a great job at poking fun at the film while also appreciating that it still is a pretty good movie. My favorite knock is during the scene where our scientists see a dinosaur for the first time and Weird Al politely notes that they must not have very good peripheral vision if they failed to see a thirty foot dinosaur standing to the side of them! 

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

Without a doubt, this is the least liked entry in the entire 'Indiana Jones' franchise - making it perfect RiffTrax bait! From the opening prairie dogs to the drag racer with really big teeth to the nuclear refrigerator escape, Mike, Kevin, and Bill don't miss a chance to put this movie in its place. Add in their frequent gags about the presence of Shia LaBeouf and this stands as one of the funniest RiffTrax releases. I know it's a tall order for a number of people to even give 'Crystal Skull' another shot, but trust me, RiffTrax makes it worth it! 

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Anaconda:

This is another studio recording of one of the RiffTrax Live! shows, and like 'Starship Troopers' it's absolutely hilarious. I've long loved this movie for exactly how cheesy bad it is. When you've got Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez and a sneering Jon Voight fighting a gigantic intermittently animatronic and digital snake you've got a great movie, add in a young Owen "Oh, wow!" Wilson and a comatose Eric Stoltz and the movie just gets better. The jokes fly a mile a minute as Mike, Kevin and Bill never fail to point out the film's numerous flaws, including a waterfall that goes backward because the filmmakers were too cheap to shoot a boat going in reverse!

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The Twilight Saga:

While some may think this series of star-crossed sparkly vampire lovers is a case of low-hanging fruit, but 'Twilight,' 'New Moon,' 'Eclipse,' and 'Breaking Dawn: Part 1 and 2' prove to provide Mike, Kevin and Bill with some of their best material. Each of the four films is a laugh a minute and it's darn near impossible to chose one over the other, so I lumped the whole franchise in together. If you had a hard time watching these movies in the first place, you now have a good reason to try them again! After all, you don't have to love them, you just have to laugh at them!

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Road House:

This seminal Patrick Swayze classic is one of the best/bad action movies ever made. Pain may not hurt, but Mike Nelson makes you hurt so good from the constant jokes. As the very first RiffTrax release, it still stands as one of the best. While numerous other bad movies have been riffed over the years, I keep coming back to this one because it is just that good. While I loved that the RiffTrax App included the six 'Star Wars' riffs, there's a big part of me that wished that it came packed with this one instead! If you've yet to hear a RiffTrax, this is the movie to start with!  

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Get Your RiffTrax Commentary Here

The wonderful thing about RiffTrax is they have done nearly 80 commentary tracks, making this list far from definitive - but it's a great place to start! When you have 'Point Break,' 'Over the Top,' and 'Glitter' among dozens others, you now have a great reason buy some guilty pleasure bad movies and some RiffTrax commentaries. The new RiffTrax App is just going to make getting your laugh fix easier!