improbable fiction

So one of the requirements for my French class is that we watch a foreign film. I personally have seen my fair share of foreign films, some of which include Amélie (which I am planning to blog about SOON), Paris Je T’aime (a fabulous film), Hors de Prix (which I blogged about here), I’ve Loved You So Long (quite sad but very moving) and Very Annie Mary (an absolutely fantastic film that everyone should see), to name a few. The foreign language department didn’t want us to miss “valuable” class time to watch a movie, so they required us to show up at 6:00 in a lecture hall and watch this as a class. Forced fun? I’m there!

I didn’t know what this movie was about before seeing it, because our professor refused to tell us. He just said, “trust me it is very funny” so I showed up with little to no expectations. Now, I should preface this review with the disclaimer that it WAS a romcom, which happens to be my favorite genre, so of course I was going to like it. I just didn’t realize how much.

PLOT! The basic, straight-to-the-point plot of the movie (thanks to IMDB) is this guy named Antoine saves this guy Louis from hanging himself, and though in his attempt to get Louis back on his feet, Antoine gets caught in a romantic triangle. SOUNDS LIKE FUN!

CHARACTERS! I would say two and a three-fourths of the characters (out of the four main characters) in this movie were fantastic. The other one and one-fourth were merely tolerable. Our main man Antoine was such a sweet and kind person (general qualities needed to save someone’s life) and Louis was an adorable, overly sensitive, dramatic and crazy person. By the end of the movie I was not sure who I liked more, or more importantly, who I was rooting for to win the girl. Speaking of the girl, Blanche (the lady in our love triangle) was three-fourths tolerable. This is totally possible because a couple times in the movie I wanted to slap her and tell her that you don’t go back to lying, cheating, bastards (hence the one-fourth)! However she too won me over in the end (hence the three-fourths). The only character I didn’t really care for was a gal named Christine. She always seemed a bit angry and too practical for an unrealistic romcom.

ACTORS! Is it a stretch to say that every single actor is this movie was fantastic? Ah, I don’t care; they were. I didn’t recognize any of the names so I had nothing to previously judge them on. All the actors fit their roles, and each was not only convincing, but very entertaining to watch.

BASICALLY! Basically if you enjoy foreign films you should definitely check this one out. Please take note that while this *is* a romcom it is NOT a chick flick. The guys in the lecture hall were laughing just as loudly as us womenfolk. I really recommend this movie; it’s funny, sad, crazy, silly, and the ending is not one you would expect. I can’t wait to add it to my foreign film collection.

So Bullshish has been taken over by horror movies, and while that is all fine and dandy, there are only two-three “horror” movies that I will watch. I just don’t do horror movies. At all. I mean, I recently watched the “horror” episode of Psych and I got scared walking back to my dorm, alone, at night, and Psych is a freaking comedy. But fear not! I have decided that horror musicals are okay, because even if they are scary (which, to be quite honest, this movie was NOT) they still have dancing and singing.

PLOT: A nerdish florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed. (Thank you IMDB.) The basic point to this story is that this nerdy guy has this exotic plant and the only way the plant will grow is to be fed human blood. (oooh! scary!) Now here are some important details. The plant shop where everyone important to the story works is losing more money than it is making. Mr. Mushnik (the owner) is out of luck and when the threat of closing the store reaches his ears, Seymour has to do something! Enter the plant he cleverly names Audrey II. The fact that this plant grows at alarming rates interests apparently everyone in the state, and soon the plant shop is BOOMING with business. Seymour is a hero! But as Audrey II begins to grow, the fate of mankind is pushed to the limits. (Cue scary music.)

CHARACTERS: Rick Moranis plays our lovely protagonist Seymour, a nerdy little wimpy kind of guy who is 1) in love with the ditzy, leggy blonde Audrey (Ellen Greene) and 2) growing some sort of scary, evil blood drinking plant. Both these crazy kids work in a plant shop run by the (insane) Mr. Mushnik played by Vincent Gardenia. I must say that the best character by far is Audrey’s boyfriend, a dentist who goes by the name of Orin Scrivello, DDS played by the always amazing Steve Martin. He really is one of the best characters in the movie. And lastly, we have the crazy plant, Audrey II. So remember like… 30 seconds ago when I said this movie was not scary? I’m correcting that statement. The overall movie is not scary in the slightest, EXCEPT for Audrey II’s voice (by Levi Stubbs). That voice is simply terrifying!

MUSIC: The title song is by far my favorite of the movie. The rest were good, but honestly none of them (save two) really stayed with me. The first being Little Shop of Horrors, and the other awesome one Suddenly Seymour! Sometimes I will just be sitting there and I will belt out SUDDENLY SEYMOUR!!!! because in the song he tends to just shout it out. I thought the voices weren’t very strong, and I think that is another reason I wasn’t in a rush to learn the songs. (As I usually am with musicals.) I actually really dislike Audrey’s voice. A lot. And she was in the original stage version of the musical! Insanity, I know.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I liked the plot of the movie and for the most part enjoyed it. It was a little long and the resolution was absolute insanity. The music was good, but nothing earth shattering as far as musicals go. The actors were great, but sometimes I feel like movie studios tend to cast actors not singers and this is definately a case where they could have found other people. I’d watch it again, probably, but I’m not exactly in a hurry to do so. And don’t let the “horror” in the title fool you; while the thought of a plant feeding off blood to survive is terrifying, the movie was not.

Yes, this totally counts as a Musical Monday. My Musical is found in season 6, episode 6 in case you want to know.

Anyone in my family can tell you how obsessed my brother and I are with Scrubs. I mean, I have seen every single episode so many times, a large majority of them I could say the line before the characters. And seeing as my schedule doesn’t allow for me to watch a full length musical, this will simply have to suffice. Besides… it is SCRUBS. How could it NOT be awesome?

Now, let us get on with the show.

PLOT: For this episode the only important things to know are 1) JD’s pregnant girlfriend moved away and 2) Carla quit her job as a nurse to stay home with her new baby but now wants to go back to work. JD and Elliot are in a park and a random lady passes out. When she regains consciousness everyone is singing. And dancing.

CHARACTERS: Seeing as this is a cast you see on a weekly basis, let’s start with the guest characters. First, the woman (Stephanie D’Abruzzo) starring as the patient is absolutely fantastic. For any avid Broadway lovers out there, you may recognize her as Kate Monster from Ave. Q. She defiantly doesn’t disappoint. Now as for the regular cast, how can you not love any of them? From the borderline completely psycho janitor to the sad sap Ted the range of characters are utterly fantastic.

MUSIC: The songs in this episode are pure Scrubs genius. I think my favorite is definitely “Guy Love”, sung by the most romantic bromance in television history. I still break out the line “That’s why our matching bracelets say Turk and JD” in pure JD voice at the most random moments. I’d say my second favorite song is “Friends Forever / What’s Going to Happen” because (at least the first part) sounds like something straight out of Grease, only you know, all doctory and stuff. I love how they worked in the most random medical stuff into that song. Also, does anyone else notice Bob Kelso do the whole imaginary piano playing when the song shifted into a more serious tone? It cracks me up every single time. I guess my least favorite song is “Everything Comes Down to Poo” because, well, it is just gross. Although it wouldn’t be Scrubs without the gross humor, so I suffer through it.

I can’t say the rest of the songs are bad; I loved them all and know the words to all of them (except “The Rant Song” but I’m getting there). I really do wish that Ted’s band and/or Laverne could have had a solo, instead of a joint song, however considering the time issues (30 min) they had to combine and cut and whatnot. I still love how it turned out.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I really, really, really, REALLY love Scrubs so of course I think this episode is amaazing. If you just like Scrubs, or don’t like it (the horror!) or have never even seen it before you may not be as into this episode as I am, but it is still a nice break from the usual routine. The good thing is you don’t really have to see any episodes before or after it (just read the plot description above and you should be good) so if you wanted to watch this episode in particular, you don’t have to sit through six seasons and five episodes just to see it. Although you should. This show rocks.