Jon's Random Reviews

[Emma]

Jon you mentioned the film was like Animal House and weirdly enough that picture of the parade made me think automatically Animal House.

Ive never heard of this film, but Im a big Kevin Smith fan so I may have to check it out.

[Jon]

  Oh yeah! It demonstrates what I meant, that they both come from a similar time and style, but don't think they are alike enough that one pre-disposes you to the other. Slap Shot came out the year before and is much better... 

[Emma]

Well im not a big fan of Animal House :p something was just off about it, I was surprised because I usually love John Belushi films.

Ive had a look around and found a cheap copy of Slap Shot, its on my wish list but im trying not to buy anything in Jan so I can watch some of the stuff ive already got 

[Jon]

Well im not a big fan of Animal House :p something was just off about it, I was surprised because I usually love John Belushi films.

Ive had a look around and found a cheap copy of Slap Shot, its on my wish list but im trying not to buy anything in Jan so I can watch some of the stuff ive already got 

Yeah, good luck with that.

[Emma]

Well im not a big fan of Animal House :p something was just off about it, I was surprised because I usually love John Belushi films.

Ive had a look around and found a cheap copy of Slap Shot, its on my wish list but im trying not to buy anything in Jan so I can watch some of the stuff ive already got 

Yeah, good luck with that.

...I spent £2.75 on DVDs yesterday so im not doing very well 

[Kathy]

Slap Shot is at Big Lots for $3 - I saw it there the other day.

[Jon]

The Little Shop of Horrors
4 out of 5



The original movie of this classic black comedy/horror about a rather dim-witted young man, Seymour (Jonathan Haze), working for $10 a week in Mushnick's flower shop on skid row who develops an intelligent, bloodthirsty plant. He names the plant ' Audrey Junior' and, as it grows, it demands human meat for sustenance and Seymour is forced to kill in order to feed it.

The Little Shop of Horrors is a little gem of a film the making of which has muddied by legend, but the story goes Roger Corman filmed it in just two days after developing the script in less than a week. He couldn't have filmed it any cheaper and to say it was a rush-job to make use of a set about to be pulled down, it's excellent. It's creaky, but holds up well and you don't feel like you have to make excuses for it. It really is a great story and very witty. It's so irreverent, it borders on a spoof.

It could have been a Hammer horror in another time and place, but it's set in an L.A. Skid Row florists, populated by a collection of characters who all have their own quirks beyond what the plot needs to the point it runs like a sketch show. Like Seymour's mother, who is such a hypochondriac she serves cod liver oil as soup! Or Corman regular Dick Miller who eats flowers, and of course, a young Jack Nicholson in a cameo as a masochistic dental patient. Obviously Corman thrived on pressure and wrote like there was a gun to his head! It's not just the writing though. The timing between the cast is really well done, especially when Jewish florist owner Krushnik (Mel Welles) is at the centre of the scene. Everyone just seems to bounce off him.

It's a huge amount of fun and very short, so well worth you digging it out, especially as the DVD only costs pennies.

[Jon]

A Time to Kill
3 out of 5



John Grisham's best seller A Time to Kill hits the screen with incendiary force, directed by Joel Schumacher (The Client). Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey and Kevin Spacey play the principals in a murder trial that brings a small Mississippi town's racial tensions to the fiashpoint. Amid activist marches, Klan terror, media clamor and brutal riots, an unseasoned but idealistic attorney mounts a stirring courtroom battle for justice. The superb ensemble also includes Brenda Fricker, Oliver Platt, Charles S. Dutton, Ashley Judd, Patrick McGoohan, Chris Cooper and both Donald and Kiefer Sutherland. These and other talents make for "one of the year's most powerful films" (Jeffrey Lyons, Sneak Previews/ABC World News Now).

This gets your right-wing juices flowing! I love courtroom thrillers and thought this one of the best Grisham adaptations. Well, it could be, but the more I see it, the clearer it is that the story is shamefully manipulative and unambitious. Everything is painted so very broad and some scenes are almost farcical and childish. There is nothing original in the plot and in fact, some of it, like McConaughey and Judd's marriage heading for the rocks, is very lazily handled. I don't think there is even a structure to speak of. You expect certain things to happen, in a certain order, and they do. Just a shame there's no subtlety.

I expect if they were to film it again today, it would be more powerful, with a well-played irony. Maybe something like Crash or Changeling. One thing you can be sure of, no way would it be so entertaining! These sort of films always pull great casts and this is one of, if not the best. Some like Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock have never been better (Bullock has probably never been cuter), others already so good, they wrap their tonsils around the killer lines with ease (Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Fricker, Patrick McGoohan). There wasn't a weak point in the cast, except maybe whatever-happened-to-Ashley Judd, but whatever-happened-to-Oliver Platt makes it balance just by turning up. This is back in the days when Samuel L. Jackson was a better actor too, keeping his shouty quotable lines to minimum. "Yes, they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell!" is a classic to rival Jack Nicholson barking "You can't handle the truth!" at little Tommy Cruise.

That line sums up exactly how director Joel Schumacher wants you the viewer to feel and you probably will despite yourself because it is such a great cast and the plot is so exaggerated. We don't just get racists, we get a specially formed brand new charter of the Klan, no less! You'll boil at the injustice! Punch the air when McConaughey sneakily punches the would be bomber! And cheer when it turns out the dog survived! Well of course he was going to survive, but that's what I mean. You can't help yourself. And what's wrong with a bit of eye-for-an-eye vigilantism?

It's absolute bollocks, but bollocks of the highest quality and a monument to the outrageous style Schumacher had before he disappeared up his own arse and found Batman and Robin. He finally produced the excellent Tigerland, but this is more memorable for all the very wrong and grimy reasons.

[Antares]

The Little Shop of Horrors

Once again, excellent review. And once again I state, if it weren't for your mis-guided affection for QT, we could be twin sons of different mothers.

It's sad that the majority of movie lovers out there only know the musical with Rick Moranis. This is far superior.

[addicted2dvd]

The original Little Shop of Horrors is in my unwatched pile. I may have to watch that one some time this weekend.

[Jon]

The original Little Shop of Horrors is in my unwatched pile. I may have to watch that one some time this weekend.

It's only 70 little minutes, Pete! I'm sure you can slot it in...

Once again, excellent review. And once again I state, if it weren't for your mis-guided affection for QT, we could be twin sons of different mothers.

It's sad that the majority of movie lovers out there only know the musical with Rick Moranis. This is far superior.

Thank you, Antares, you are a gentleman, and perhaps one day I shall convince you of QT's genius... 

Regards the musical version, I'm biased. I just don't like musicals. I know they're brilliant in certain cases for certain people, but why sing a song when one line of well written dialogue can suffice?

[goodguy]

The Little Shop of Horrors
4 out of 5

Fore a moment I was surprised when seeing that in the topic list. But of course you wouldn't review the musical.
I imagine Antares sadly shaking his head when I say this, but I've only seen some clips from the original (on the musical DVD I think) and those didn't really work for me.

[Critter]

Thank you, Antares, you are a gentleman, and perhaps one day I shall convince you of QT's genius...

[Achim]

Yes, I only know the musical as well. It's really great though and I enjoy the songs in it very much.

Maybe I'll add the DVD to a future order. The film is in the public domain, if I remember correctly, so technically even downloading it is legal. Amazon has several versions, ranging from $5 to $18.


EDIT: now also checked amazon.co.uk. Heck, they literally have used ones for a penny!

[Jimmy]

The film is in the public domain, if I remember correctly, so technically even downloading it is legal.

And this is the problem, since it's public domain any down the basement label release crappy VHS transfert or even TV taping recording of this film. I wouldn't even spent 1 cent for that...

The Corman library get the special treatment this year (for those who don't know it starts in april with Piranah ) so maybe there an hope to see a real remastered theatrical print of it...