The Meteor Man (1993)

During the first half of the 1990s, urban struggle became a major theme in African American pop culture. Gangsta rap was becoming more and more popular, and movies about young black men coming of age in neighborhoods populated by street gangs were seeing release seemingly all the time.

However, the success of gangsta rap and "hood films" like Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society were unfortunately seen by some as glorifying the violent gang life that their underlying messages were trying to warn against. Perhaps as a response to this, filmmaker Robert Townsend created The Meteor Man, his attempt at creating a Superman for black audiences. And sadly, it's about as mediocre as you can get.

Meet Jefferson Reed (Townsend), a meek substitute teacher whose Washington, DC, neighborhood is terrorized by the Golden Lords. A drug-dealing gang that uses violence and intimidation to keep control of their turf, their grip on the community is such that they've even started initiating young children into their ranks. Jefferson loathes the Golden Lords, but is just as frightened of them as his neighbors are. He finally works up the courage to stand up to them and try breaking up a mugging, but ends up being chased by them instead.

When he emerges from the dumpster he had hidden in, Jefferson is crushed by a glowing green meteorite as it falls from space. His body is broken and burned seemingly beyond repair, but is somehow fully healed after only a few days.

Jefferson quickly discovers that the meteor has bestowed upon him numerous superpowers, among them (but not limited to) enhanced strength and speed, invulnerability, flight, X-ray vision, telekinesis, and the ability to speak to animals. He reveals the development of these powers to his best friend (Eddie Griffin) and his parents (Marla Gibbs and Robert Guillaume), who convince him to use his powers to improve the community.

Donning a costume and assuming the superhero identity of "Meteor Man," Jefferson quickly begins making a difference. He shuts down a crack house, turns a vacant lot into a thriving garden market, and fosters peace between the Bloods and the Crips. But his good deeds put him directly in the crosshairs of the Golden Lords and their leader, the vicious Simon Caine (Roy Fegan), who sees Meteor Man as a threat to their business interests.

It's obvious what Townsend was trying to do with The Meteor Man. Watching it, you get the feeling that he wanted to create something with the message that fearful people could run gangs out of their neighborhoods if only they'd band together and stand up for themselves. But the problem with the movie is that Townsend doesn't seem to know how to handle it. It feels like the movie wants to be both a serious effort and a parody of superheroes. You can't have your cake and eat it too, and it shows with The Meteor Man.

To his credit, I thought Townsend's direction was actually pretty good. It isn't as flashy as you might expect from a superhero story, but Townsend still manages to make the movie an energetic one. The best thing going for Townsend's direction, though, is the cinematography courtesy of John Alonzo. Alonzo's camerawork helps the movie a lot, elevating it above the generic homogenized feel that a lot of similarly-budgeted movies from the time period had. The score composed by Peter Scott also goes a long way, helping establish the tone with a grander scope that one might expect. The songs on the soundtrack aren't really all that good, unfortunately, but not everything can be perfect.

Speaking of things that aren't perfect, let's touch on Townsend's script. It's really one of the bigger flaws of The Meteor Man. As I noted before, Townsend doesn't seem to be able to make up his mind as to whether or not he wants to make a parody of superheroes or a straightforward tale of bettering one's decaying neigborhood. It's too serious to be a comedy, and too funny to be taken seriously. I appreciate what Townsend was aiming for, since the overall message is clear. But the execution is pretty weakly done.

I'm also a little curious about the Golden Lords. What kind of street gang expects to be taken seriously when they all have the same platinum blonde dye jobs and matching uniforms? I get gangs wearing certain colors so you know who they're affiliated with, but the Golden Lords look like they just stepped out of the music video for Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation." And are they even really a street gang? They're claiming territory all along the East Coast and their leader answers to an old man played by Frank Gorshin, so maybe they're in league with the Mafia instead? And what kind of gang includes a full army of kindergartners?

But let's move along to the cast, a veritable all-star team of black actors and actresses. Just look at the full cast roster on IMDB, and you'll be surprised at the number of heavy hitters Townsend has assembled for the movie. Townsend himself is in the lead role, and I liked him a lot. He's very engaging, very convincing, and very entertaining. I also felt like he owed a small debt of gratitude to William Katt's role on The Greatest American Hero, since both play teachers who became reluctant superheroes through extraterrestrial means. But that's neither here nor there, really.

As our resident villain du jour, Roy Fegan is sadly forgettable. He doesn't do anything to stand out, coming across like he's the living embodiment of every bad guy cliché out there. And the unfortunate thing is that pretty much the entire cast is forgettable too, even Townsend (despite his good work). There are so many stars in this movie, yet their talents are all wasted. Bill Cosby doesn't even get a single line of dialogue, for crying out loud! The cast situation pretty much sums up the entire movie: all kinds of promise, wasted.

That's the whole problem with The Meteor Man. It has all the potential to be a good movie. I desperately wanted to tell you that it's a great flick, but I can't. It's one of those movies that I want to like but let me down through one fault or another. The Meteor Man is, quite simply, a disappointment. So I'm going to give the movie two stars on the usual scale. I'll only recommend it to people who have to see every superhero movie ever. And for some reason, I'm tempted to track down that Meteor Man comic book that Marvel published after the movie was released. I'm still not sure why, though.

Final Rating: **

Private Parts (1997)

Though they've been around since the 1970s, "shock jocks" really hit their peak in the '90s. Radio DJs with a penchant for crude, potentially offensive humor were huge during the decade, and the biggest among them was Howard Stern. Stern was all over the place during the first half of the '90s, with his syndicated radio show and television shows getting high ratings, and his two autobiographies were on the New York Times bestseller list for several months. And to reinforce his self-given nickname, "The King of All Media," Stern starred in a hit movie based on his first autobiography, Private Parts. Because who better to play you in a movie about your life than you yourself?

The general plot of the movie sees Howard narrating his life story as he sees it. After touching briefly upon his awkward childhood, it really starts focusing on his awkward adulthood. He takes us through his days as a Boston University DJ and meeting his future — and as of this writing, former — wife Alison (Mary McCormack), to working at stations in Hartford, Detroit, and Washington, DC. We see the origins of his friendships and working relationships with long-time collaborators Fred Norris and Robin Quivers (who both play themselves).

The movie's final act takes us to Howard's tenure on WNBC-AM in New York City. His outrageous nature causes him to frequently clash with the station's hot-headed program director, Kenny Rushton (Paul Giamatti), whom Howard promptly nicknames "Pig Vomit" (because, in Howard's words, "he looks like a pig and he makes you want to vomit"). But despite Pig Vomit's attempts to tone down Howard's routine, his popularity and ratings soar nonetheless.

Okay, so Private Parts isn't a great movie. I don't know if I could even call it a good movie. But it's certainly an intriguing one. It's a vanity project on a grand scale, basing itself on Howard Stern's first book, starring Stern and his friends, and featuring a song performed by Stern on the soundtrack. The whole thing is all about him. And though I've never listened to Stern on either terrestrial or satellite radio, the way he's depicted in Private Parts makes him way more interesting than he probably is for real. But I guess that's how it is when you get to make a movie about your own life story.

I'm not sure if I can truly critique Private Parts, since it's less a movie and more a promotional vehicle for Stern's on-air persona, but I guess I can try. In the director's chair is Betty Thomas, whose only really notable credits before Private Parts were The Brady Bunch Movie and a few episodes of Doogie Howser, MD. Her direction isn't really anything tremendous, but considering the movie is a comedy about a radio DJ, you can overlook that. Thomas does, though, manage to bring a silly energy to the movie, giving Private Parts the "we're going nuts, so don't take us too seriously" vibe that Stern himself has in the movie.

Continuing onward, let's hit the script, credited to Len Blum and Michael Kaleshniko. I don't know how much was pulled from Stern's book or contributed by Stern himself during production, but overall, the script is... okay, I guess. It's adequate. The thing is that there's not really any story being old. It's simply a series of vignettes, and then it ends. It just kinda tapers off towards the end with no real climax or anything like that. Considering that there's no real narrative or really satisfying ending, I think the script was lucky to even be mediocre.

Its saving grace is the comedy. The jokes in the movie aren't for everybody, just like Stern's show. Not all of the jokes and gags work, either. But he ones that do work are actually pretty funny. I'm not going to call Private Parts a laugh riot, but the humor will at least put a smile on your face if you share the movie's sensibilities. It may be crass, but it's a charming kind of crass.

Last on my list is the movie's cast, and it's obvious that many of the major players aren't professional actors. But the fact that they're all trying their hardest goes a long way. Stern is obviously the movie's focus, and since he's playing himself, his performance is about as natural as you can get. Stern's really funny, entertaining, and does a great job carrying he movie. Granted, the guy has a face for radio and a voice for silent film, but Stern knocks it right out of the park.

The rest of the cast is fine, but only two of them stand out. One is Mary McCormack as Alison Stern. While I do wonder how the movie would have turned out if the real Alison had played herself, I can say that I thought McCormack was sweet and charming. Her performance actually makes me sympathize with the real Alison (and by extent, Howard's current wife Beth), since they're the ones who've had to put up with his crazy shenanigans.

The other standout performance was Paul Giamatti as Pig Vomit, a composite of two WNBC executives that dealt with Stern during his time there. Giamatti is loud, over-the-top, and totally hammy, never once taking a breather. I'm surprised you couldn't see the veins popping out of his forehead during his tirades. Every second Giamatti is onscreen, you can't wait to see how he reacts to Stern's attempts to humiliate him, something that makes his performance so important to the movie. He plays a great foil for Stern, at the very least.

Though Stern's mainstream recognition has cooled rather significantly in the fourteen years since the movie's release, he still has a presence on radio. And even if he didn't, Private Parts would still be around to tell us what an oddball he is. The movie is actually quite a lot like Stern himself: either you're a fan and you get the joke, or you aren't and you don't. Frankly, I'm not sure how to feel about the whole thing. But as of now, I'm leaning towards two and a half stars for Howard Stern's Private Parts. There's a joke in that last sentence somewhere, but I won't be the one who makes it.

Final Rating: **½

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

There's more than one way a filmmaker can approach a sequel to a hit movie. You can follow the same formula as the original movie, or try building upon the mythos it created. You could even go the Blair Witch 2 route and do something so completely different that nobody will believe it was actually made at all.

Or you could always aim for self-parody, as Joe Dante did when he made the sequel to his seminal '80s creature feature Gremlins. The sequel was more lighthearted than the original movie, eschewing much of the dark humor for a self-referential silliness that makes it feel like a completely different creature than its predecessor.

It's been a few years since Kingston Falls was decimated by the gremlins, during which time the peaceful mogwai Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel) has lived safely in the curio shop where he was initially found. But when the shop's owner dies and the store is demolished, Gizmo is left homeless.

He is eventually found by a geneticist and taken to the laboratories at Clamp Tower, an ultra-modern skyscraper in Manhattan owned by eccentric media mogul Daniel Clamp (John Glover). It's an amazing coincidence, too, as former Kingston Falls residents Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) work in the building as a graphic designer and tour guide.

Billy stumbles upon Gizmo one day and frees him from the lab, leaving the mogwai hidden in his desk until Kate can take him home at the end of her shift. But a broken water fountain sprays Gizmo, spawning a new batch of evil mogwai. And thanks to a combination of the Clamp Tower food court and a triggered sprinkler system, an army of gremlins are soon running loose throughout the building. Trapped inside with them, Billy and Kate must find a way to destroy the gremlins before they can escape Clamp Tower and wreak havoc on the streets of New York City.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is nowhere near as good as the first one. Let's go ahead and get that out of the way right now. It quite simply comes nowhere near its predecessor. But for all the stupid moments and corny jokes and all that jazz, Gremlins 2 is still an hour and a half of dumb fun. The movie's not really all that good, but the fact that it's willing to go to any length to get a laugh is somewhat endearing.

As I said, Gremlins director Joe Dante returns to helm the follow-up, and he's made the odd choice to go from a horror/comedy to a straightforward screwball comedy. The shift in tone between the movies can be a bit off-putting, especially if you watch them back to back. But it's still watchable, however, so it isn't a total waste of time.

But still, Dante does do a fine job in the director's chair. He's armed with a bigger budget, which allows him to approach things on a grander scale. The mogwai and gremlin puppets have been improved upon, and the sets are a lot roomier than the studio backlot from the first movie. (And I still think it's strange that the backlot Gremlins used would later become Hill Valley from Back to the Future). The bigger sets allow for some fantastic cinematography from John Hora; the movie looks great, in large part due to Hora's camerawork.

The problem with it, though, is that you get the feeling that part of the reason the movie was made was so Rick Baker and the gremlin designers could show off. Thanks to Clamp Tower having a genetics lab full of weird experimental serums and concoctions, you get to see all kinds of new gremlins. There's a gremlin with bat wings, a spider gremlin, a gremlin made out of lightning, a gremlin that turns into vegetables, and a metric ton of gremlins in the Clamp Tower lobby singing "New York, New York." I ended up with the impression that the movie's whole point was so Baker could point at the movie and say, "C'mere and look at all the cool stuff me and my crew can do." I don't want to sound like I'm dogging the effects, because they're great. But sometimes I just wanted Dante to focus on something other than showcasing the gremlins.

The screenplay is pretty flawed too. Written by Charles S. Haas, the script is full of nonsensical scenes that don't contribute anything at all to the movie. Take, for example, the scene where the movie breaks the fourth wall, having the gremlins destroy the film in the projection booth, and a theater usher gets Hulk Hogan to scare them into showing the movie again. The scene is funny, but does it have anything to do with anything else?

The same can be said for the Looney Tunes scene at the beginning of the movie. If you haven't seen it, Gremlins 2 opens with Daffy Duck stealing the Warner Brothers logo from Bugs Bunny. The scene has no real purpose, no point, and no reason for the scene to be in the movie at all. But that's the movie's whole shtick: getting humor from random silliness, logic and story be damned.

That's the movie's biggest flaw, too. There's just so much random mayhem going on that anything resembling a plot or a story gets buried underneath a mountain of goofiness. Did the movie really need the moment where the gremlins attack Leonard Maltin while he's giving the original movie a bad review? Maltin even holds up the VHS box of the original Gremlins to further hammer home the point that Gremlins 2 just doesn't care if it makes sense or not. And really, that pretty much sums up the entire movie: It just doesn't care about making sense.

I could go on all day about the stupid crap in the script, but I really should move along to the cast. Reprising the role of our hero is Zach Galligan, who plays the role as well as he did in 1984. Galligan is charming, likable, and entertaining, and he's all aces. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is sadly forgettable. They're adequate, I guess, but you aren't going to be telling people about the fantastic acting in Gremlins 2. Phoebe Cates is fine and I did like Christopher Lee (I'm still not sure how they roped him into this movie) and Robert Prosky, but my favorite performance came from John Glover. I like Glover a lot anyway, and his work in this particular movie is really funny. It's always weird seeing him do comedic roles after spending six years watching him as a villain on Smallville, but the guy is great. He's so great, in fact, that he practically steals the movie.

And Glover would have, too, if it weren't for the late Tony Randall. Randall plays Brain, a rather verbose hyper-intelligent gremlin. While he only provides the voice, he plays Brain as hammy as he can get. If overacting has a sound, it would be Tony Randall's voice work on Gremlins 2. Quite frankly, it's a glorious example of how sometimes, silliness can actually work.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is nowhere near the quality of the original movie. Hell, it's barely worth being called "good." But is it fun? Oh yeah, it is. Though all the stupid scenes and jokes that don't really work and pointless nonsense, Gremlins 2 is entertaining enough to be worth a watch. However, I can't give it anything higher than two and a half stars. And even if it does lead to gremlins, I still want to own my own pet mogwai. That'd be awesome.

Final Rating: **½

Gremlins (1984)

I've been reviewing Christmas movies every December since 2006. And outside of a tiny handful of exceptions, the movies I've reviewed have been, shall we say, "unconventional." I've never been a Miracle on 34th Street kind of guy. Call me nuts, but I've always preferred the crazier Christmas movies. That's why, for 2010, I chose to review Gremlins. Because when you think of Christmas, you think of evil little monsters.

Seriously, though, Gremlins totally counts as a Christmas movie. I dare you to try and convince me it's not. It's also one of the quintessential movies of the '80s. Gremlins is a perfect blend of horror and comedy, and if you're one of the poor souls who've never seen it, allow me to tell you why you should.

It's Christmastime in Kingston Falls, a cozy suburban town called home by amateur inventor Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton). I say "amateur" because the gadgets he creates are mostly crap that don't work right. While visiting a curio shop in Chinatown one night, Rand finds a small, furry creature called a Mogwai (voiced by Howie Mandel). However, the shop's elderly owner refuses to let him buy it despite needing the money. The owner's grandson goes behind his back and sells it to Rand in secret, telling him that owning the Mogwai comes with three rules:

1. Never expose it to bright light, especially sunlight.
2. Never get it wet.
3. Never feed it after midnight.

Rand brings the Mogwai home to his adult son, Billy (Zach Galligan), who is thrilled with his new pet. Naming it "Gizmo," Billy forms a quick bond with the little furball. But because of how movies like this go, you know those rules will be broken.

A random accident causes Gizmo to get wet, resulting in several more Mogwai spawning from his back. These Mogwai prove to be far more devious than Gizmo, which is further evidenced when they trick Billy into feeding them after midnight. This causes them to metamorphose into green-skinned creatures with a thirst for anarchy and mayhem. But what began as a few becomes an entire army of gremlins, one focused on creating as much chaos as possible in the streets of Kingston Falls.

I can summarize Gremlins in one word: awesome. It's a spectacular flick that is nothing but fun from start to finish. It's one of those classic '80s movies that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Well, kids above a certain age, that is. Let's not forget that Gremlins is a blend of both comedy and horror, and it doesn't skimp on the horror. Younger children probably shouldn't be watching the movie, even if it does have a PG rating. But nevertheless, Gremlins is still a fantastic movie with a little something for pretty much everybody, and I can't recommend it enough.

At the helm is Joe Dante, who does an admirable job with Gremlins. His direction is great, building an atmosphere that's strangely both dark and lighthearted. I know that sounds conflicting, but it works. It works and it actually makes the movie better. Dante has a ton of elements at his disposal, and he puts all of them to excellent use. Whether it be the moody lighting, John Hora's awesome cinematography, or Jerry Goldsmith's absolutely fantastic music, Dante performs well with what he's got. He uses each of those to build suspense and make the movie pretty darn frightening at times, though he often follows the scares with a bit of humor to lighten the mood. And it boasts a certain sense of adventure and whimsy to it on top of all that, but I guess that's to be expected. Pretty much all of the movie Steven Spielberg produced or directed during the '80s were like that.

The movie was also written by Chris Columbus, who's had a lengthy career writing family movies. I even reviewed two of them during my marathon of Christmas reviews last year. But we're to talk about Gremlins, not Home Alone or Home Alone 2, so I'll say that Columbus's script is quite good. The characters are all likable and amusing in their own ways, with the exception of the evil Mrs. Deagle. She's basically as close to a live-action Cruella de Vil as anyone got before Glenn Close was hired for the 101 Dalmations remake. Mrs. Deagle is a vile, nasty woman who could have made a credible villain on her own. But once the gremlins show up, her story arc pretty much stops, having gone nowhere. I think the only reason Columbus included her in the script at all was so you'd be able to cheer for at least one thing the gremlins do.

I also thought the rules of Mogwai care were a bit too loosely defined, specifically the "no eating before midnight" one. How much of a window past midnight is there before you can feed them? You could make the argument that you couldn't feed them until at least noon, or even at all (since it's technically always after midnight). And which midnight is it? With the different time zones, it would have been after midnight in the rest of the world before it was in Kingston Falls. And what if you cross a time zone line after midnight? Go ten feet across that line and it's still 11:00, so what if you feed a Mogwai there and cross back into the midnight time zone? It's all complicated and weird, and I still get a laugh out of how it was parodied in Gremlins 2.

Speaking of things parodied in the sequel, how about Phoebe Cates's character's monologue about why she doesn't like Christmas? It doesn't serve any sort of purpose, either for the plot or for character development. And it's a real buzzkill, too. The movie was rolling along at a pretty steady pace, making sure everybody's having a good time, then BOOM! This scene happens and kills the momentum dead. It's no fault of Cates's, because she's good in the scene. It's just that it's not only completely irrelevant in regards to the rest of the movie, but it's just too morbid. Gremlins is simple scary fun outside of that one scene, which is just too depressing to fit in with the rest of the movie.

I could spend all day ranting about that scene or the flaws in the three rules, but I don't want to bore you to death. So let's move along to the cast. I really liked Zach Galligan as the movie's primary protagonist; he plays the role with a down-to-Earth charm that makes you like him as soon as he appears onscreen. The same can be said for Phoebe Cates, who was two years removed from her star-making role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She plays Billy's girlfriend Kate in Gremlins, and her performance is sweet and engaging. I don't know if her character is really that important to the movie outside of being the token love interest, but Cates is great all the same.

Hoyt Axton also provided a lot of humor as Rand Peltzer, the inventor who constantly tries peddling his creations to people yet fails to realize none of them work right. Axton's earnestness in the role makes him that much more entertaining. Also appearing in the movie is Dick Miller, a character actor who's been in more movies than I could probably count. Of all the movies he appeared in, I believe Gremlins marks his best performance. Miller only has three or four scenes in the movie, but he's a lot of fun in all of them. The rest of the cast have small, thankless roles (including Corey Feldman, of all people), but they're all fantastic too. They each make fine contributions to the movie, and Gremlins is better for them.

And before this review ends, I've got to touch on the special effects it took to create the Mogwai and gremlins. I mean, how could I review a movie about little monsters and not actually talk about the little monsters? Designed by Chris Walas, the creatures were a combination of puppets and animatronics, and they're all amazing. The effects are convincing and believable, even in the brief instances when they look kinda fake. There's just something about the fact that the gremlins and Mogwai are actually on the set interacting with the props and actors that make it that much cooler. I'm not knocking CGI, but I just wish movies would lean towards practical effects whenever they can. There's just something about it that CGI can't touch.

Twenty-six years after its release, Gremlins still holds up as a truly great movie. There's no arguing that at all. Every time I watch it, I come away with a smile on my face because I'd had an hour and 45 minutes of straight-up fun. Each second, from the first to the last, is pure entertainment. And because of that, I'm giving Gremlins four stars and a proud recommendation. I'm still upset, though, that its success led to Hobgoblins. That's just something I can't stomach. 

Final Rating: ****

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Over the last few decades, it seems like quite a few movies have been turned into stage musicals either on or off Broadway. Let's take a look at the list: The Lion King, Shrek, Elf, Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Carrie, and even The Evil Dead. And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. But the one that always comes to mind for me is the adaptation of Roger Corman's movie The Little Shop of Horrors.

Brought to life by song composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, Little Shop of Horrors began in 1982 as an off-Broadway production that would eventually prove popular enough to move to the big leagues of Broadway. Its success even led to The Geffen Film Company making a cinematic version of the musical in 1986. A movie got turned into a play that got turned into a movie. Yeah. Whether it counts as a remake of Corman's original movie would probably be a matter of personal opinion, but either way, the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors is one hell of a great movie.

This time around, the story takes us to New York City's Skid Row, where Audrey Fulqward (Ellen Greene) and klutzy Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) work in a flower shop for Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia). After an unexpected solar eclipse, Seymour finds a mysterious plant that looks like a Venus Flytrap. He buys the plant and names it "Audrey II" in honor of Audrey, with whom he is secretly smitten (and who is secretly smitten with him). However, Audrey II is wilting, and refuses any traditional plant food. It is only after he accidentally pricks his finger on some thorns that Seymour discovers the plant's appetite for blood.

He displays Audrey II in Mr. Mushnik's shop, which causes the previously failing business to thrive. People come from all around just to see the bizarre little thing. The plant's success even makes Seymour a celebrity, but feeding Audrey II his blood every night has left him weak. Having grown to enormous size and developed the ability to talk, Audrey II (voiced by Levi Stubbs) begins demanding more blood than Seymour can provide. His only other recourse: to feed Audrey II dead bodies. It starts with Audrey's abusive boyfriend (Steve Martin), and snowballs after that. Soon the scope of Audrey II's appetite becomes apparent, with world domination on the menu.

If you want to go ahead and just label Little Shop of Horrors a remake like I choose to, then it serves a proof that remakes don't necessarily have to be bad things. It's personal opinion, of course, but I thought that the musical was an infinitely better movie than Corman's original. It's funnier, more entertaining, better written and acted. I really like the Little Shop of Horrors musical, and would definitely suggest that you run out and rent a copy right now if you have yet to see it.

The movie musical was directed by Frank Oz, who you'll probably recognize as the voices of Yoda, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie Bear. Little Shop of Horrors was his third directorial effort, following The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Dark Crystal (the latter of which he co-directed with Jim Henson). This was Oz's first movie to have no involvement whatsoever from Henson, and I've gotta say that I thought he did an awesome job. This movie has kind of a Tim Burton vibe to it, something that makes it incredibly charming and fun. Oz establishes early on that the movie's not going to take itself seriously, and that silly tone he takes with the movie goes a long way.

I also liked his choice to keep the movie's look tighter and more intimate. Combining Robert Paynter's cinematography with the modest-looking sets on the Warner Bros. backlot, Oz makes his version of Little Shop of Horrors stay true to its off-Broadway roots while adding a cinematic flair to it. The way Oz handles it really makes the movie a lot more entertaining.

But that's not the only thing that makes the movie so much fun. Every element of the movie's production makes its own contribution to the fun. Take, for example, the screenplay penned by Howard Ashman. Ashman originally wrote the script for the off-Broadway production, and his cinematic update of that script is actually really good. It's a drastic improvement over the original movie, with characters that are actually likable. I actually didn't want to crawl into the movie and hit Seymour this time around.

And while I've always liked the 1986 movie's ending more than the original movie's, the movie would have kept the stage production's ending if I'd had my way. It was actually shot and was originally going to conclude the movie, but thanks to meddling executives and unsatisfied focus groups, it was cut. Warner Bros. even recalled the first printing of the DVD because the original ending had been included as a special feature (though that was more due to some legal red tape than anything else). It's a real shame, because giant man-eating plants taking over the world would have been a really memorable (and, dare I say, awesome) way to end a movie.

And as good as the movie is, it helps that the cast is tremendous. The actors are actually one of the movie's strongest parts, to tell you the honest truth. Playing our protagonist is Rick Moranis, whose Seymour is a complete 180-degree turn from the one Jonathan Haze played in 1960. Seymour retains his rather dorky nature, but Moranis's performance is nowhere near as insufferable as Haze was. Moranis is amusing, funny, and entertaining as Seymour, and I can't imagine anyone doing a better job.

Appearing as Audrey is Ellen Greene, reprising the role she played in the stage musical's original production. Greene is wonderful, giving Audrey a likability she was lacking previously. Her squeaky voice — what I'm guessing is a shout out to how Jackie Joseph talked in the '60s Little Shop — might get a wee bit annoying after a while, but it's easily forgiven. Greene's got one hell of a singing voice too. That voice has some power behind it. If I'd been watching the movie with a high-end surround sound system, she'd have probably rattled all the walls in my house.

The rest of the cast is great too, with funny cameos from John Candy and Bill Murray being among the highlights. Vincent Gardenia is also good, and I loved Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist. His overacting here is absolutely hilarious, and it's a real bummer that he only has three scenes, because he's a blast to watch. And in the role of Audrey II is Levi Stubbs from the legendary Motown group The Four Tops. Stubbs plays the role with attitude, making Audrey II both evil and cool. His voice acting is superb, and I'm happy he was hired.

And last but far from least are the songs, composed by Ashman and Alan Menken. All but two or three songs appeared in the stage musical, which is a shame since it left "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" as the one that got a Best Original Song Oscar nomination when it's not even the best song in the movie. But anyway, Ashman and Menken's songs are fantastic. They're all really catchy, and can easily get stuck in your head. And considering that the movie's a musical, I'd say that's a pretty big compliment. The cast also does a great job with the singing parts, each of them sounding fantastic.

If this review hasn't made it glaringly obvious yet, I love Little Shop of Horrors. I can't say enough good things about it. Even hearing the songs is enough to put a smile on my face. With its fun attitude, catchy music, and engaging acting, it's a movie that's hard to hate. So on the usual scale, I'm going to give Little Shop of Horrors four stars and my seal of approval. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you have yet to, because it's all kinds of awesome.

Final Rating: ****