REVIEW DATE:12:9:9:9
Do you have any idea how long it's been since an excellent movie crossed paths with 
this site? I don't mean just a
good movie, or very good movie but an honest to God, full tilt, excellent movies?
The kind that make you laugh, cry, or do a Keanu Reeves impression?
To long, I say. Enough of this childish, 1950s-60s, giant monster crap. Time to start telling you what to rent instead of what not to rent.
Oh, who are you kidding? You'll be reviewing another King Kong movie before the week is out. And just how many Silent Night, Deadly Night movies are out there, begging to be reviewed for the holiday season?
Quite, you! Or no more pizza binges.
I'll be good.
A long time ago, in a review far far--oh, actually a review which is right here I mentioned my hatred for musicals. A special, grade "A" sort of hate reserved only for those cursed by Oliva Newton John-John. I now official contradict myself as I declare my love for the musical/comedy version of Little Shop of Horrors.
A little history. Even if Corman fumbled the ball with 1960's Shop the movie still managed to get itself a cult following (damned If I know why). Then, in 1982, writer Howard Ashman turned the story into an off-Broadway play with music by one Howard Menken. The play ran for 5 years and, half way through, director Frank Oz stood up and said, "Give me money, I want to film this damn thing. Feed me, you God damned producers! Feed me!"
Just think: you can start a website and put all that useless movie trivia in your head to good use, too. Don't 'choo wanna grow up to be just like me?
A word of warning: this review will be more of a comparison betwixt the two versions so don't expect a retelling of the plot. Why should I be redundant? Why should I be redundant?
We still open in New York City's Skid Row, 1960-something. Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis, this time) is still the janitor/slave of Musnik (Vincent Gardena)'s flower shop. He still works with and has a crush on, Audry (Ellen Greene, continuing her roll from the stage), and he is still the first to know of the Audry 2's speaking power and carnivorous tendencies.
But the differences are as wide as Bill Clinton's thighs. Seymour is no longer a sweetly retarded moron. Instead, he is simply socially inept. The boy has a brain in his head. And he's consistent. His conscience doesn't decide to catch some rays in Brazil when he kills someone. Every time he kills for the plant, he gets steadily guilty. The only reason he keeps his mouth shut is that the plant convinces him that it holds the keys to his happiness. Moranis slam-dunks this roll like a pro.
Yes, friend, Audry 2 (Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops) is a mindless eating machine no longer. Instead it is a manipulative, intelligent villain, using Seymour for it's own ends (and it does have ends--big ones). It convinces him that it and it along can bring him happiness. Love, fame, fortune, all will be char broiled and served just the way Seymour likes it if he can rustle up some grub.
Ellen Greene's Audry 1, though she has the nasty and annoying habit of "sluwing" her "R"s and "S"s, rises above her "ditz queen" character to become something close to actually human. Must be her abusive relationship with Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. (a wig wearing, but still funny as hell Steve Martin) the 1986 module sadistic dentist.
Hey, how can this character not be funny? It's Steve Martin, for God's sake. And, unlike 60's writer Griffith's take on this character, 80's writer Howard Ashman's is (like most everything else in the movie) carried to a ridiculous extreme.So extreme that the movie is (finally) rendered funny.
You see, the original Little Shop tried painfully hard to be a comedy, while throwing in elements of horror. What Corman wound up with was something to serious to be funny, and to stupid to be serious. Here, thanks to the great performances, great songs (that actually help the plot instead of handcuffing it--are you listening, Disney?), Ashman's bitchin script and Frank (Yoda) Oz's direction we have a movie I've watched dozens of times, yet still laugh in all the right places. And longevity is the surest sign of movie excellence.
Here's one for the Christmas lists.
