Change Your Image
nagol55
Reviews
Stella (2005)
I hate this show.
I'm at a loss as to what people see in Stella.
I love absurd, surreal humor (Kids In the Hall, Aqua Teens), but I hate this show with a passion.
Maybe the difference is that those shows were funny (most of the time). This one is not.
Why are jokes like, "Why are you dressed as skunks?" "We're not dressed as skunks, we're skunk-people," followed by interpretive dancing considered funny? Am I missing something?
Maybe it's success comes from airing after the superior Reno 911. After all, it worked for Friends.
Unfortuneatly, I have heard this has been renewed for another season. I guess I'll just have to keep not watching and hope CC or the viewers come to their senses and can this show.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Good, but doesn't live up to potential
This movie, adapted from the off-Broadway play, has loads of potential but is often defeated by celebrity cameos and and ill-conceived changes in the storyline.
After seeing it on the stage, I felt that the Greek chorus, a brilliant part of the stage show, was underused and underdeveloped, and could have replaced the bad celebrity cameos had they been given more screen time. The cameos I didn't like were mainly Jim Belushi and John Candy, popping up to spout unfunny jokes and adding nothing to the movie. However, Bill Murray was very funny as the masochistic dental patient. Also, songs were cut and shortened. I miss the full version of "The Meek Shall Inherit," and completely cut songs like "Now," and "Mushnik and Son." A lot of them could have fit right in with minimal problems.
But my biggest problem is the new ending. Changed after a bad test-audience reaction, it is somewhat implausible and doesn't match the tone of the rest of the movie. It just feels tacked-on at the last minute, which it was, shot over-budget after production had wrapped. Unfortuneatly, the original ending has been pulled from the DVD's and is very hard to find, so the footage will probably never be seen.
Nevertheless, the movie is worth checking out, at least for the performances and the monstrous plant alone.
Rick Moranis does what I think is his best work here, along with Ellen Greene, wonderful as the squeaky, big-boobed Audrey. Steve Martin is hilarious as the sadistic dentist and Vincent Gardenia is solid as Mr. Mushnik. But the standout is Levi Stubbs as the ever-growing, foul-mouthed Audrey II. Every note he sings and every word he speaks bends and twists into something original, fun, sinister, and never heard before.
The special effects bringing the villainous pod to life still hold up after nearly 20 years and are amazing, but the methods used to create them seem a little difficult and outdated after seeing how they were made. The whole thing was a huge puppet, operated by hundreds of people at a time and only able to move very slowly, forcing the actors to perform at the same speed so the film could be sped up later. Nowadays, it would probably be CGI, but the texture and organic look of a live creature might be lost.
Recently, the play was brought to Broadway to great reviews and perhaps one day they will take another crack at transferring it to film and learn from the flaws of the first try. In the meantime, this version has a wonderful cast and special effects, buoyed by the great, inventive songs of Menken and Ashmen and grungy production design, but suffers from bad cameos and too many changes in the story.