Little Shop of Horrors.

Review #1482: Little Shop of Horrors.

Cast:
Rick Moranis (Seymour Krelborn), Ellen Greene (Audrey), Vincent Gardenia (Mr. Mushnik), Steve Martin (Orin Scrivello, DDS), Levi Stubbs (Audrey II), Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha Campbell (Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon), Jim Belushi (Patrick Martin), John Candy (Wink Wilkinson), Christopher Guest (The First Customer), and Bill Murray (Arthur Denton) Directed by Frank Oz (#521 - The Muppets Take Manhattan, #795 - Bowfinger, and #1468 - The Dark Crystal)

Review: 
"I'm not making art, I think that's too highfalutin'. I'm just doing my best. Someone else can tell me whether it's art or not. In the meantime, I just want everyone else to enjoy it."

Most directors usually don't have puppetry to go alongside their talents, but Frank Oz is a good example of both. He started with apprentice work in Oakland, California with the Vagabond Puppets before he soon met Jim Henson that led to a decades-long collaboration on several projects, with plenty to note of his work with the Muppets, such as Sesame Street, where he served as puppeteer and voice for numerous roles such as Bert and Cookie Monster when the show started in 1969, serving on the show for over three decades. While he kept busy with puppeteering and voice work, he gradually shifted focus onto directing (being inspired by Orson Welles' Touch of Evil) where he debuted with co-director Henson in The Dark Crystal (1982).

The film is adapted from the musical of the same name, which was first performed in 1982 with music by Alan Menken and lyrics/book by Howard Ashman that was loosely adapted from The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). If you are making a remake of something, you better make sure it is better than the original material. The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) was made incredibly fast with an interesting killer plant and good dark humor to make a solid little piece in the lineup of Roger Corman. When it comes to a film like this, what we have here is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I do admire the effort it took to create Audrey II as a presence to admire in its craftsmanship and some of the acting really does generate some laughs. On the other hand, the film simply drones in its first half with a pace kneecapped by its staging of songs that are never as catchy as they think they are, a film that thinks it needs a Greek chorus type of trio when what it really needs is to just take a breath and shut up. Feed the plant, feed the dialogue, but please don't feed me another conversation turning into a song: be seen, not heard. Moranis does a fine job with what he has to go with, warm and completely holding a well-lit candle to Jonathan Haze from yesteryear. Greene (reprising the role done on Off-Broadway) doesn't have as much to go on, seeming to grasp too hard to really make me care for her high-pitched and passive character beyond what you see on the surface. Gardenia is nice in brimming coarseness, even with a segmented role. Stubbs, a Motown singer with The Four Tops making his one film voice appearance, is a delight. He reaches the soul of a carnivorous plant with conviction that extends to the one key song highlight, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space". When it comes to the rest, Martin and Murray really nearly steal the whole show away, even if they are making small appearances, but the sequence at the dentist's office, with a comedic show of a sadistic dentist with glee in Martin and a glutton-for-dental-punishment in the bright Murray. Candy and Guest are fine in one-scene appearances.

Look, there are fifteen musical numbers in this 94 minute film. One might think this might be a silly statement, but jeez is that too many to listen to. On a lark, I looked up a random musical and saw how many number there were in say, Gigi (1958) - that had fourteen, and it didn't feel as ridiculously overdrawn as this seems at times. There exists two versions of the film, differing on the ending. Keep in mind, the musical ended on a downbeat note, so the film ending on something similiar seems fair: we are talking about a plant that actually springs for domination of the whole Earth and eats everybody. How could you not resist that? Preview screening audiences did not see it that way, however, and it led to a re-shot happier ending. Personally, I find it more amusing to have a darker ending, since it wasn't like the original film was that happy anyway, and I admire the idea of subverting the expectation that these two normal loonies will live on to greener pastures after escaping a plant that ate people they knew.. But there's the rub: this just doesn't reach the heights of the earlier film. It has mostly better acting than before and a more developed plant, but it is just an average film with pretty window dressing that sings to you - if you buy into it, all power to you. It is meant to be fun and offbeat, but all I can feel is a loose jangling that only just reaches interesting moments when it is about that massive puppet in Audrey II - the cheesy stuff nearly chokes itself blue in self awareness that modern films would probably bow down to. By goodness, you have to really go for the throat in dark comedy to really make me believe this needed to exist, and all they did was make a passable effort. What is different between this and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)? At least this isn't so incessant about singing and degenerate actions while working on some way as horror. On the whole, this is an adequate showcase in some of its comedy alongside a showcase for its puppetry that will likely serve itself well to singalongs or some sort of enjoyment - I may not have had as much as I thought I would, but it still wins out anyway.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.