Movie Review- Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Well, here's something you don't see everyday; a musical about a talking man-eating plant from outer space. But it's a horror-comedy, and the movie gets away with the ludicrous premise by being very, very funny. The cast is great here, which really helped make the movie. The screenplay is good too, it manages to be somewhat creepy despite the overall humorous tone of the film. The film works great as a musical, too, although it would have worked just as well without the singing. The art direction and set design is really nice, it manages to make a dreary setting quite aesthetically pleasing. The main attraction here, though, is Audrey II the man-eating plant. The puppetry and the puppet of the plant itself are both top-notch, and while a bit cartoony at times, are surprisingly convincing.
Rick Moranis isn't at his best here, but he's still a good fit for the role. Steve Martin's really creepy in this movie, surprisingly, and he plays a sadistic biker/dentist, and his performance is a nice change-up from his usual comedic self. There's a very creepy/hilarious scene between Steve Martin and Bill Murray, which serves very little to further the plot, but it's quite fun to watch. Bill Murray plays a masochistic dental patient, which is much to the annoyance of Steve Martin. Murray has a very demented air to him that was quite interesting to watch. The movie's score was really enjoyable, too, with a nice 50's love-ballad and rockabilly sound to it. Overall, a very silly and fun film to watch. Highly recommended. 5/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091419/

Movie Review- Murder by Death

I've always enjoyed mystery and detective-based movies, and this one is a treat to watch. The script is wonderful, from the dialog, to the plot, everything about it works. The main characters are all different stereotypes of detectives, (The San Francisco gumshoe, the Belgian Inspector Clouseau type, etc.) but it's played for laughs, and it works quite well here. Peter Sellers is particularly funny as Sidney Wang, the Charlie Chan spoof. The plot revolves around 5 world-famous detectives and their accomplices who are invited to "A Dinner and a Murder". It's later revealed to the detectives that there will be a murder at midnight, and that whoever solves it will win one million dollars. The pacing here is great, as the actual murder doesn't occur until two-thirds of the way into the movie, and there's a lot of room to build up suspects as to who the murderer will be, before the murder has even happened. The humor here is very fitting with the overall tone of the movie, very well-written and witty humor, laced with the occasional sight gag at the hands of the blind butler played by Alec Guinness. My only complaint is that the ending wasn't as clear as it could have been, but I get the feeling that was an intentional parody of mystery movies with confusing endings. Overall, a very funny and enjoyable film. Highly recommended and it would make a great double-feature with Clue: The Movie. 5/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074937/

Movie Review- Amazon Women on the Moon

I've read a lot of mixed reviews for this movie, people either love it or hate it. Personally, I'm on the fence about it. I wanted to love it, but overall it lacks the comedic punch that similar films have had. It was a pretty enjoyable movie, but I can see why so many people hate it. Amazon Women on the Moon is technically the unofficial sequel to "The Kentucky Fried Movie", but the writers are different, and therefore the humor is different, too. I'm pretty sure that's why a lot of people didn't like this movie. The subject of parody here is late-night TV, the main focus being a phony science-fiction movie supposedly from the 1950's that's being played on some local access channel.But the film strip keeps breaking, and the film cuts away to various other skits, mainly making fun of commercials. But there are a few skits in between all this, but they seem a bit out of place, since they don't take place on TV, where the rest of the movie takes place.
But on the bright side, most of the skits end up tying into each other at various points in the film, so it's not too nonsensical. The humor here is kinda dark and surreal in places, but it works given the format. The main problem here is that the script always seems to fall a bit flat towards the end of each skit, which takes away from the overall impact of the preceding jokes. All that besides, it's a pretty funny movie, nothing laugh-out-loud funny, but it's still amusing. It's worth a watch if you enjoy skit-based movies. 4.5/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092546/

Movie Review- The Chopping Mall

Chopping Mall is a science-fiction horror movie produced by Roger Corman. That alone should tell you what kind of movie this is. I've seen several Roger Corman movies, and this is definitely one of his better movies for sure. The premise is inventive, at least in comparison to other slasher movies. The movie, originally released as "Killbots", tells the tale of some teens who decide to have a party in the department store of a mega-mall. Unfortunately the mall's newfangled security guards, monolithic tank-type robots, come in and blow everyone up. And that's about it. But despite that, this is actually a pretty enjoyable movie. The plot gets a bit slow at times, and the runtime is unfortunately short at 77 minutes, but it's still a fun movie. The special effects are excellent given the budget, the killbots are really convincing and really well-built. The characters, while paper-thin stereotypes, are still pretty fun to watch, and the acting is fairly good given the material they had to work with. Speaking of which, the script is riddled with cliches, to the point where it strangely isn't all that annoying. The ending was a bit anticlimactic and ambiguous, but it could have been worse. There's also a fun little cameo by Dick Miller, who starred in one of Corman's earlier films, "A Bucket of Blood". The score here is the overbearing synthesizer-based music that plagues many a low-budget movie, but it isn't nearly annoying as other movies. Overall, this is a fairly good quality B-movie, it's not perfect, but it's still an enjoyable watch. Recommended for those who enjoy a good B-Movie, even if it's really campy.

Quality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090837/

Movie Review- The Kentucky Fried Movie

Gosh, this was a funny movie. The Kentucky Fried Movie is a skit-based film, and thus is short on plot and heavy on the laughs. While the subject matter varies greatly, the main subject of parody here is 70's daytime TV and film. The movie opens up with a skit involving a morning news crew and it gets rapidly more absurd from there. After a few skits, the movie hits its main feature, a lengthy and spot-on parody of Bruce Lee movies. Aptly named "A Fistful of Yen", the skit basically follows the plot of Enter the Dragon, and the parody works to perfection. The ending was a bit unexpected, but still funny nonetheless. There are few skits afterwards, my favorite being "Zinc Oxide", an educational film gone wrong. It's worth noting that the script was written by the guys behind Airplane! and the Naked Gun movies. The humor here is slightly different from their other films, though, as The Kentucky Fried Movie relies a lot less on sight gags than their other work. It's still a funny movie, but from a different aspect. Overall, a very tasteless and funny movie, and a highly recommended watch. 5/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076257/