Little Shop of Horrors: A Quick Review

First of all if you hate musicals to begin with then avoid this movie at all costs and stop reading this review right now because it will be of absolutely no interest to you whatsoever.  Musicals happen to be one of my favorite movie genres.  And in my opinion "Little Shop of Horrors" is one of the best.  It is a dark musical comedy that came out in 1986 and was directed by Frank Oz, yes, that Frank Oz, of "The Muppets" fame.  "Little Shop of Horrors" was based off the off-Broadway play of the same name which was in turn based off of an old movie, non-musical, also of the same name.  This version stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, and Steve Martin.  Christopher Guest, Bill Murray, John Candy, and James Belushi each show up for brief, but hilarious appearances.  The majority of the movie takes place in a flower shop on Skid Row in New York City, run by Mr. Mushnik, played by Vincent Gardenia.  Seymour (Rick Moranis) and Audrey (Ellen Greene) work for him.  At first the flower shop is about to close because it doesn't get any customers.  However, this all changes when Seymour finds an exotic plant and puts it on display at the store, prompting lots of business.  Of course that all goes horribly awry (first time in my entire life that I've used that word), since as it turns out the plant feeds on human blood.  And when it starts to get a little of Seymour's it begins to grow quite a lot and can't stop the craving for blood.  In case this isn't already obvious, everyone in the movie is in for quite a predicament. In Seymour's defense he didn't know the plant was a "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space," as Audrey II (the plant) so helpfully tells us in a song.  Somehow that song got an Oscar nomination.  It really isn't that great in my opinion though, and it probably my least favorite in the movie.  Well, this movie is just an incredible amount of fun.  The sets are beautiful, reminiscent of play sets.  The lighting is dark to make for some dreary atmosphere.  The lead actors are great.  Who knew Rick Moranis could sing?  Not exceptionally well, but he gets the job done and his duet with Ellen Greene of "Suddenly Seymour" is among my favorite parts in the movie.  Steve Martin as a demented dentist who enjoys inflicting pain on people is hilarious as is Bill Murray's character who happens to love pain.   The special effects are also really well done.  By the end Audrey II is massive and whoever was in charge of special effects created a fully functioning plant.  This is one of those movies that proves that real visual effects are better than those created using computers...yep I do in fact still hate CGI in almost all cases.  The fun thing about quick reviews is that I can ramble on and on and not feel at all obligated to separate into paragraphs because that would be way too formal.  Well I guess I could go on, but that's probably not ideal.  I find this movie very entertaining.  It's good comedy with memorable music and performances.

-Joseph Sbrilli