Steve Martin

Little Shop of Horrors

Hilarious, cheapie black comedy from 1960 that may be the best film by B-picture master Roger Corman, other than Bucket of Blood, made about the same time with the same writer, Charles Griffith. Seymour (Jonathan Haze) is an assistant in a skid-row flower shop who's on the point of losing his job when the unusual plant he's developed turns the store into a major attraction. The only problem is that the plant needs human blood to live, all the while crying, "Feed me! FEED ME!" Luckily, Seymour causes a series of inadvertent deaths that more than make up for the food shortage. Jack Nicholson provides a comic sidebar as a nutjob masochist visiting a dentist's office. Giggling and wild-eyed from the same impulse that might lead others to read scandal sheets, he can be seen in the dentist's waiting room reading aloud from Pain magazine. Famous for having the shortest shooting schedule on record (two days and a night), The Little Shop of Horrors spawned an off-Broadway musical that was in turn made into a successful film in 1986, starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. It was in just this quick-shoot atmosphere that Corman nurtured the careers of many of America's most celebrated film directors; this little shop of honors included Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, and Jonathan Demme. The DVD has optional Japanese subtitles, very generous bios of the stars and filmmakers, and a clean, crisp transfer. --Jim Gay

A skid-row florist's "mean green mother" of a monster plant is the center of "the looniest nuttiest most outrageous movie musical comedy in years" (Jeffrey Lyons Sneak Preview). Rick Moranis Steve Martin Ellen Green Billy Murray and other comedy greats star.Running Time: 95 min.System Requirements:Running Time: 94 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391832522 Manufacturer No: 18325

Father of the Bride (15th Anniversary Edition)

This '90s update of the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor hit is a mix of the pleasant and the silly, a nice enough movie but a little too controlled to become particularly interesting. Steve Martin plays the aging patriarch who is threatened by his daughter's engagement and not-quite-willing to let her go. The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers provides Martin's character with a perhaps too-broad range of comic responsiveness to the situation, some of it gentle (a ritual game of basketball between dad and his little girl) and some of it slapstick (Martin sneaking around his prospective in-laws' house and encountering a guard dog). Martin Short turns up as a wedding coordinator--which has deliriously delicious possibilities--but his inventiveness doesn't quite strike the chord this time. --Tom Keogh

A befuddled father has a hard time letting go of his young daughter as she plans her wedding.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

The Muppet Movie - Kermit's 50th Anniversary Edition

This simply irresistible first feature from the Muppets has Kermit the frog going from the swamps to Hollywood to be a star. As he travels and picks up his usual friends (Miss Piggy, Fozzie the Bear), Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) is in pursuit, looking for Kermit to be the spokesman for his frog-leg cuisine. A loose rendition of The Wizard of Oz, the film incorporates the same cagey humor as their breakout syndicated TV series The Muppet Show. This is one of the few times that a human cast (notably Steve Martin, Orson Welles, and Carol Kane) are integrated seamlessly with nonhumans. Worth noting is Paul Williams's score, which includes the Oscar-nominated "The Rainbow Connection." Williams's music, much like Howard Ashman's work on The Little Mermaid and other Disney films, provides more than atmosphere; there's a degree of magic here. Williams did not work on the future Muppet films until A Muppet Christmas Carol. His contributions made these films the best of the Muppet series. --Doug Thomas

Jim Henson vaulted Kermit, the famous floppy-armed frog, and his Muppet pals to the big screen with this charming 1979 musical adventure. Like the TV show that inspired it, Henson and director James Frawley playfully acknowledge movie clichés and conventions and allow the characters to address the camera in asides, like a Hope and Crosby road film for the 1980s. The ambitious singing frog decides to leave his swamp and conquer Hollywood, gathering a group of friends along the way (Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and more) and bumping into oodles of guest stars making tongue-in-cheek cameos (my favorite is the tip-of-the-hat appearance by Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy). Meanwhile, despicable fast-food king Charles Durning pursues Kermit, hoping to make him the spokesfrog for his Frogs-Legs restaurant franchise. Austin Pendleton costars as Durning's sad sack henchman while guest stars include James Coburn, Dom DeLuise, Madeleine Kahn, Steve Martin, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Carol Kane, Cloris Leachman, Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould, Orson Welles, and Big Bird. Paul Williams penned the bouncy, song-filled score. You'll believe a frog can sing! --Sean Axmaker

They're irreverent, irrepressible, and downright irresistible. They're the Muppets! -- starring in their first full-length movie. See how their meteoric rise to fame and fortune began: with a rainbow, a song . . . and a Frog. After a fateful meeting with a big-time talent agent, Kermit the Frog heads for Hollywood dreaming of showbiz. Along the way, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo, and the dazzling Miss Piggy join him in hopes of becoming film stars too. But all bets are off when Kermit falls into the clutches of Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), a fast-food mogul seeking to promote his French-fried frog-leg franchise! Featuring Oscar(R)-nominated music (1980, Best Original Song "The Rainbow Connection," Best Original Score) and side-splitting appearances by some of the biggest names on the silver screen -- including Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Orson Welles, and more! --this fully restored and remastered 50th Anniversary Edition of THE MUPPET MOVIE is a critically acclaimed comedy classic your family will treasure for all time. (c) The Muppets Holding Company, LLC and BVHE. MUPPETS characters and elements are trademarks of The Muppets Holding Company. All Rights Reserved.

Three Amigos

Three Western stars (Martin Short, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase) from Hollywood silent films go to Mexico for what they assume will be a publicity appearance, and find they've actually been summoned to fight a local bandit. John Landis directed this 1986 comedy with self-conscious artifice, and it's hard to get into his self-congratulatory joke. Even the three main stars, brilliant comics all, can't sustain anything funny in it. --Tom Keogh

Father of the Bride 2

Everybody important from the first film, including the writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, regroups for this sequel involving a pair of pregnancies. Steve Martin's patriarch has a crisis when his married daughter (Kimberly Williams) is with child, and an even bigger one when his middle-aged wife (Diane Keaton) announces that another bambino is on the way. Martin Short is more effectively used this time around (he played the wedding coordinator in the first film), and while this movie's inevitable climax has both women giving birth on the same chaotic night, the overall effect of the film is less contrived than its predecessor. --Tom Keogh

Just when a father is getting used to his daughter being married, he finds out that he will become a grandfather for the first time as well as a father again!
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

One s got a sophisticated suave and debonair con act. The other s got...well an act. Together Steve Martin and Michael Caine are Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and they re absolutely ruining the Riviera in this hilarious battle of wits and double-crosses (Boxoffice) that couldn t be more delightful (The Wall Street Journal)! Martin is Freddy Benson a small-time con man sleazing his way through Europe on whatever handouts he can scam. Caine is Lawrence Jamieson an impeccably dressed and high-minded artiste who thinks Freddy is giving him -- and all con men -- a bad name. At first Lawrence agrees to help Freddy spruce up his talents and his wardrobe. But when it becomes apparent that the Riviera isn t big enough for the both of them they make a winner-take-all wager over the fortunes of a naive American soap heiress (Glenne Headly): The first one to clean her out can make the other clear out -- and keep the Riviera and its unsuspecting tourists to himself!Special Features:Audio Commentary with Director Frank Oz Behind-The-Scenes FeaturetteTeaser TrailerOriginal Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements: Running Time 110 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 027616869272 Manufacturer No: 1002729

Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) is a crass, loud American. Laurence Jameson (Michael Caine) is a suave, urbane European. Their common ground is that they both are confidence men, and they meet in a train compartment as Benson is scamming his way across Europe, taking advantage of women's generosity. The two are forced into a rivalry, which culminates in a wager to see who can be the first to bilk $50,000 out of American heiress Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly). Their game of one-upmanship is, of course, brought to ridiculous heights as things progress. Written by Paul Henning (the mind behind such TV shows as Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is an uneven but funny mix of Martin's physical comedy and Caine's oily charms. Martin's first role as cohort is to assume the persona of Ruprecht, the "special" younger brother intended to scare off potential brides. As Ruprecht, he comes off as a cross between The Andy Griffith Show's Ernest T. Bass and Jerry Lewis; hilarious as it is, it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the film. Once the wager is on, though, Martin slips into his overly earnest mode as an American military man suffering from hysterical paralysis, with Caine as a psychologist who takes on his case. All in all, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (a loose remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story with David Niven and Marlon Brando) is a droll, intelligent comedy, short on knee slappers but long on comic situations and characterizations. --Jerry Renshaw

Housesitter

The teaming of Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn would seem to have been sure-fire casting, but Housesitter's writing is never strong enough to sustain it and the film's hit-and-miss quality has more misses than hits. Martin plays an architect who builds his dream house for his high school sweetheart (Dana Delany), then surprises her with a marriage proposal--both of which she rejects. Distraught, he goes back to New York and pours out his heart to a woman he meets in a bar and beds (Hawn), not realizing she is a flaky con artist. She knows a good thing when she hears it and heads for his hometown, moves into the empty dream house, and begins passing herself off as Martin's new wife. Though the writers build in a variety of complications (involving Delany, as well as Martin's parents and boss), the film finds its jokes only in fits and starts, though Martin has a particularly hilarious moment when he must sing to his father in front of a crowd of strangers. --Marshall Fine

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 3-JUN-2003
Media Type: DVD

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

If it weren't for a couple of inspired performances, as well as the time-capsule weirdness of it all, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band would be definitively unwatchable. This misguided effort to dramatize the classic Beatles album (the Fab Four had nothing to do with it, thank goodness) also includes tunes from other Beatles LPs, strung together in lumbering '70s rock-opera style. Peter Frampton, then at the crest of his brief run at the top, stars as Billy Shears, with the Bee Gees wearing the glossy day-glo band jackets from the Pepper album cover. Earth, Wind & Fire turn in a spirited revamp of "Got to Get You into My Life," and Aerosmith thrash their way through "Come Together"; but most of the performances are pretty awful. Out-and-out novelties include Steve Martin doing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and George Burns (but of course) warbling "Fixing a Hole." This high-profile 1978 flop helped kill the hot streak (Saturday Night Fever, Grease) of record and movie producer Robert Stigwood and sink his RSO movie-music empire. --Robert Horton

The Jerk (26th Anniversary Edition)

Martin's screen debut, as the adopted son of a poor black sharecropper family, whose crazy inventions take him from rags to riches to rags.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: JERK
Title: JERK 26TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (DVD)
Street Release Date: 05/22/2007
Domestic
Genre: COMEDY VIDEO

Carl Reiner (Where's Poppa?) brought comic Steve Martin to the screen in this mostly funny 1979 movie about a relentlessly stupid but innocent man, whom we get to know from childhood (where it never occurred to him that he was white as he was raised by a family of black sharecroppers) to romance (where he doesn't quite know what to do with Bernadette Peters). Martin is game as the moron, and this is the kind of film with funny moments people still talk about. --Tom Keogh

Saturday Night Live - The Best of Phil Hartman

Phil Hartman was one of the most versatile comedians of his time: whether he was playing the voice of Troy McClure on The Simpsons or portraying the pompous Bill McNeal on NewsRadio, his comedy was always fresh and outrageous. His breakthrough was as a cast member of the late-night program Saturday Night Live, where he satirized everything from politics (Bill Clinton, Admiral Stockdale--Ross Perot's misguided running mate--and Barbara Bush) to entertainment (Frank Sinatra and Phil Donahue), creating unforgettable characters along the way. This "best of" video captures his funniest SNL moments and includes the TV special Saturday Night Live Remembers Phil Hartman plus more. Among the highlights are the commercial Compulsion; Bill Clinton jogging to a fast-food joint (which, filmed long before the Lewinsky incident, seems surprisingly prescient as Clinton comments, "There's gonna be a whole bunch of things we don't tell Mrs. Clinton. Fast food is the least of our worries."); Discover the World of Science, where Hartman portrays an annoyingly daft TV host to Jon Lovitz's scientist; Barbara Bush hosting Nancy Reagan at tea in the White House; Cooking with the Anal Retentive Chef; and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. Brief snippets of Hartman in a variety of his roles show some classic moments without slowing down the pace of the collection. This video also features SNL cast members Dana Carvey, Jan Hook, Chris Rock, Chris Farley, Victoria Jackson, and more. Of all the Saturday Night Live retrospectives, this is one of the most consistently funny compilations and truly showcases the best of Phil Hartman. --Jenny Brown

They called him "the glue" of Saturday Night Live the man who held it all together. Phil Hartman was one of the most respected performers ever in SNL history. See why in this hilarious look at his eight memorable years on the show. You'll see the best of Frank Sinatra Bill Clinton Anal Retentive Chef Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer and many more. Plus there's extra material including scenes that were cut after Dress Rehearsal and never seen until now.System Requirements: Running Time 84 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 031398115045 Manufacturer No: LG1150D