Four years ago, Roger Ebert encouraged movie buffs of all races, colours and creeds to create their own audio commentaries and to make them available online as mp3s. I have been meaning to do something like that ever since, and with one film in particular — a film that is short enough that I could almost fit the entire commentary onto a CD — but have never gotten around to it.
In the meantime, it seems like others are increasingly giving this idea a try, and putting out commentaries sold separately from the films in question. A few years ago, Brian Godawa released a CD with his commentary for To End All Wars (2001) — a film that was written by Godawa, but the commentary on the actual DVD featured the director only, and not the writer. And as I mentioned here two weeks ago, Kevin Smith is releasing an mp3 commentary for Clerks II that fans can listen to on their iPods in the theatre.
And now, RiffTrax, a website hosted by Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. For $1.99, you can download his commentary for Road House (1988) — which, just for the record, I have not yet seen myself — and listen to it on your iPod. And the website has a thing where you can cast your vote and answer the question, “What movie would you like to see Riffed next?”
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