Movie Review- The Man With Two Brains

I really like Steve Martin, he can be quite the funny guy at times. But this flick was lacking. The premise revolves around Steve Martin who plays a brain surgeon that falls in love with a disembodied brain's personality. This would be an interesting premise if the pacing had been a bit faster; nothing really interesting happens until about halfway through the movie, but given the sense of humor, it seems like the plot should have moved along a lot faster. I say this because the plot buildup doesn't really add to the story, there's some bit of character development, but it could have been handled a lot more quickly than it was.
But that being said, the movie can be quite funny at times, such as the scenes with the paper-thin laboratory, and the exchange between Steve Martin and Merv Griffin towards the end. Overall the film falls flat, mostly because the movie is all over the board with what it wants to do. For the most part, The Man With Two Brains is filled with slapstick humor, but there are elements of science fiction and romantic comedy that don't blend well together. Steve Martin is pretty decent in this role, though, and he makes the film a lot better than it could have been. All that aside, it's an okay movie at best, and it's not all that enjoyable. It has some funny moments, but overall it's just not that good of a movie. Not recommended. 3/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085894/

Movie Review- Commando

Gee, what a cool movie. Not a great one, mind you, but a cool movie nonetheless. Commando stars the manliest man of manliness, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as John Matrix, a former war hero who has to rescue his daughter from terrorists. But essentially this is 90 minutes of physics-defying fistfights, car chases, and explosions. It's a crappy plot, but really fun to watch. Schwarzenegger gives his usual soulless and robotic performance, but he's just so gosh-darn cool, it's easy to look past his crummy acting. The pacing is fairly decent, and that's really the only positive quality about the film, but you shouldn't go in to an Arnold flick expecting something good.
The fight scenes are great, by the way, with some really creative uses of garden tools near the end. The dialog is average, but the one-liners are quite funny, albeit cheesy ("Let off some steam, Bennett"). There are plot-holes galore, and improbable feats of manliness (jumping from a moving plane and surviving without a scratch), but it's a good kind of mindless fun. I don't really have any problems with this movie, it's just a straight-up awesome and campy action movie. Highly recommended.
Quality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088944/

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/