Rating: PG13
Genre:
Comedy
Theatrical Release: 12/19/1986(USA)
Release Date: 05/23/2000
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: 5.1/2/1
Run Time: 94 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
It started as a 1960
Roger Corman horror comedy, filmed in two days; it then inspired a lavish 1982 Broadway
musical with music and lyrics by
Alan Menken and
Howard Ashman. Finally in 1986,
Little Shop of Horrors (1960) graduated into a multimillion-dollar, all-star film
musical.
Rick Moranis plays nebbishy
Seymour Krelborn, who works in a rundown flower shop on Skid Row. While his boss (
Vincent Gardenia) bemoans the lack of business,
Seymour seeks a way of bringing the shop -- and himself -- fame and fortune. He purchases a strange plant from an even stranger oriental street vendor (
Vincent Wong), naming the plant after his girlfriend
Audrey (
Ellen Greene, one of the few carry-overs from the Broadway version). Gradually,
Seymour learns to his horror that "
Audrey II" (given the voice of
R&B performer
Levi Stubbs) craves blood and flesh. With each of
Audrey II's "FEEED MEEE"s,
Seymour must scare up human food to satisfy the plant's appetite. One such victim is dentist
Steve Martin, a leather-jacketed
Elvis type (the dentist's ultra-masochistic patient played by
Jack Nicholson in the 1960 original is here impersonated by
Bill Murray). The lighthearted tone of the film darkens as
Audrey II grows in monstrosity, but the unhappy ending of the Broadway version is avoided herein.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
;)
