Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Uh Oh. A musical movie based on a stage musical based on a non-musical movie. Crazy Stuff. The stage musical is one of my all-time-favourites, so the movie version always feels a little lacking because of the songs that were cut and the Hollywood-esque ending (apparently the original unhappy ending didn't test well with preview audiences). However, it's still a good time with great performances by everybody involved plus extremely well-done puppetry (it was directed by Frank Oz, after all).

This is a story of the meek inheriting the earth, and unknowingly setting themselves up to be eaten by it. Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis, perfectly cast) is a mild-mannered, super-geeky flower shop employee. He pines after his coworker Audrey (Ellen Greene, who also starred in it off-Broadway) but unfortunately she's got herself into an abusive relationship with Orin Scrivello, DDS (Steven Marten, best part of the movie), feeling she's not good enough for a nice boy like Seymour. Their shop is on the brink of bankruptcy, mostly due to its location in the poor side of town, and Mr Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia- flower name? spooooky) is ready to shut it all down. Luckily, Seymour has discovered a strange and interesting new breed of plant whose size and fame grow symbiotically, soon making Mushnik's the most frequented flower shop in the area, and Seymour the most sought-after botanist. The problem for humankind is: the plant only wants blood, and finds its keeper gullible and diffident enough to kill in an effort to keep everything from becoming awful again. Pretty soon there'll be no stopping it! Or will there...?

Anyway, it's a classic guy-seeking-success-only-to-have-success-be-his-downfall-and-also-he-learns-that-love-is-all-he-actually-needs story. The music is really swell- sort of doo-woppy 50s rock composed by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. The whole story is narrated/commented on by a Greek Chorus: three "street urchins" named after 50s/60s girl groups, who change costumes and dance around like crazy. Rick Moranis and Steve Marten do pretty good singing jobs, and while Ellen Greene sounds more professional, I have mixed feelings because she has an awkward switch from high pitched speaking voice to deeper singing voice. The cameos are great- look for John Candy, James Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray! Overall it's a really fun movie and they did a decent job adaptation-wise, but don't expect the spectacular musical performances or badass destructive ending of the stage version.

Addendum written 2.5 years later: I will say it gets better every time I watch it, and by now I can kind of act out the entire film. No big deal.

4/5

"Suddenly Seymour"- Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler, from the Broadway revival in 2003 (I don't have the film soundtrack)