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Little Shop of Horrors (1961)

Little Shop of Horrors (1961)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Offbeat, engaging and delightful
Review: "Little Shop of Horrors" is a movie like no other. You're slyly drawn in by a cute little musical that progressivley gets more and more "weiEIeiEIerrRRrd" (to quote Wink the radio guy, played by John Candy.)

Candy, Jim Belushi, Steve Martin and Christopher Guest show up here to add their talents to outstanding performances by Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene.

The music is great! I'm not a huge fan of 50's and 60's style do-wop stuff, but if your feet can stay still during the tunes in this show, forget it--you're dead already and it doesn't matter.

The arrangements are excellent. The Greek Chorus Girls add style, panache and polish as well as harmony.

One of my favorite things about this film is finding someone who hasn't seen it yet and sharing it with them. They always say, "When was this made? How could I not hear about this movie? It's great!"

The DVD version is excellent. I've owned the VHS for years, but the DVD sound and picture are far superior. The documentary on the making of the film is a nice extra and makes you appreciate what you see that much more.

My confession? I've probably watched this movie thirty or more times. If you ask to watch it again tonight, would I do it? You bet.

Just buy it. You won't be sorry. The DVD lets you show off your home theater system with hardly an explosion. It's a gem.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This shouldnt even be in the horror movie section
Review: A musical is more like it, and the humor is jay leno kind of humor. Not funny, not gory, just annoying.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Clean Fun...
Review: As a New Yorker, I remember the original Broadway version fondly. It was based upon the Roger Corman classic which was shot in 1960 in just two days and featured a classic scene with Jack Nicolson in the dentists office (played by Bill Murray in this version).

This particular release is actually a movie version of the Broadway adaptation. It features a great cast, including Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene (who was in the original Broadway version).

It's a silly premise, which was silly enough in the 1960's version, but with the music it's even sillier.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: LoTs of FuN
Review: Didn't know what to expect from this one. I was pleasantly surprised. I remember fondly how much I laughed when I first saw this. The dialogue is wonderfully messed-up, and the situations are totally oddball. Favorite scene is when the two cops talk to each other about their kids. I don't want to give it away; buy this video already and see for yourself!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: possibly the best musical-comedy ever!
Review: Finally! My favorite musical-comedy of all time is available on DVD. A MUST-SEE for anyone who likes musicals and black comedies.
It's about Seymour Krelborn (played to perfecton by Rick Moranis) a nerdy loner working in a florist in downtown skidrow. He spends his time looking after a "strange and interesting" plant, a fly trap, that feeds on blood. When it grows and starts talking (with tremendous special effects)it brings him good fortune, yet Krelborn realizes he has to kill people to keep it alive.

This is one of my favorite films ever! The cast is outstanding, the music is brilliant and when the man-eating plant finds it's voice(thanks to great work by Levi Stubbs) the fun remains,despite sporadic horror.

The cast is brilliant. Rick Moranis is brilliant, Vincent Gardenia is excellent and Ellen Greene is a delight as the squeaky-voiced love interest of Krelborn . Watch out for a few surprise cameo roles too, including the late-great John Candy, James Belushi,Steve Martin and Christopher Guest. Keep a special look out for Bill Murray (one of the funniest men in America) in a hilarious role as a pain-loving patient for the sadistic dentist (played by the always funny Steve Martin)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great musical with a great cast!
Review: Frank Oz did a phenomenal job translating this off-Broadway smash to the screen in 1986. I saw the original show in the fall of 1985 when I first moved to NYC for school. Even if you're someone who doesn't normally like musicals, this one is hard to resist. The songs are great, along with the kitschy 1950's setting. The three street urchins who serve as a Greek chorus, and have some great songs to boot, are excellent. But in the movie as with the original show, the real magic comes from Ellen Greene. I'm not sure why she didn't have a bigger career, especially since she has such an amazingly dynamic and powerful singing voice (at odds with her breathy speaking voice as Audrey).

The transfer on the DVD is pretty good also. But the plus is all the extras that are included. Only the original ending "Don't feed the plants" has been cut. This DVD had an odd production path. The original DVD included the original ending. But David Geffen supposedly made the studio pull it after two days. Unfortunately, the transfer on that 1998 single-layer DVD was not as good as this one.

I just saw the new Broadway revival and would have to say it's not worth the money. It can't touch the memory of this film. The star, Hunter Foster, is quite good. But Kerry Butler as Audrey does not really work at all. Something just doesn't quite gel and she's sort of too much the girl next door for the role. Except for the actual shop, the sets and scenery don't really work either. The surreal sky backgrounds look hideous. The plant effects are sort of cool, though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not available in Britain
Review: I absolutly love this film.
But for some unknown reason its not avaiable in the U.K.
I know i can't buy the DVD here and then play it, so can anyone tell me about release dates in the U.K.
I'd be soooooo happy.
Fab film
Want it Want it Want it

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Right Movie, wrong version
Review: I purchased this item for my friend who speaks fluent Spanish. The description read "dubbed in Spanish". After speaking to my friend after Christmas, he told me that the movie was in English, with Spanish subtitles. I was embarrased, but he obviously didn't want to hurt my feelings, so he just said it was OK. I just let it go but I think the description should be changed. It just was so embarrassing for me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Original Man-Eating Plant Epic is an Absurd Romp
Review: I recently watched the musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors and enjoyed it immensely, and my curiosity about the genesis of that film lead me to its progenitor. I hadn't realised that Roger Corman's original was intended as a comedy--I'd thought that it was a cheapie horror film with camp humor arising from its unintended absurdity. This is absolutely not the case, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The absurdity of Little Shop, and there is plenty, is all fully intended. At times it is almost as if the Monty Python troupe is doing a black-and-white horror spoof, it is so good. I find it impossible to say whether the musical remake or the original is "better"--they are simply different, and each amusing in its own way. I prefered Rick Moranis's Seymour to that of Jonathan Haze, but Jackie Joseph's Audrey had funnier lines and was less pathetic than Ellen Greene's. But what really surprised me was that the comic touches I had thought were signatures of the Saturday Night Live/Second City crowd were all in the original: the sadistic dentist and his masochistic patient; "Pain" magazine, "Feed me!", and more. Futhermore, the original had some more absurd characters that didn't make it into the remake, including a parody of the detectives from Dragnet and Seymour's mother, a hypochondriac whose home cooking is all flavoured with medicine! Although the sound and picture quality of the version I watched was poor, it was worth sitting through if you enjoyed the more recent version. Also worthy of note was the spiky, xylophone-timpani-and-baritone-saxophone-laden score by Fred Katz.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Original Man-Eating Plant Epic is an Absurd Romp
Review: I recently watched the musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors and enjoyed it immensely, and my curiosity about the genesis of that film lead me to its progenitor. I hadn't realised that Roger Corman's original was intended as a comedy--I'd thought that it was a cheapie horror film with camp humor arising from its unintended absurdity. This is absolutely not the case, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The absurdity of Little Shop, and there is plenty, is all fully intended. At times it is almost as if the Monty Python troupe is doing a black-and-white horror spoof, it is so good. I find it impossible to say whether the musical remake or the original is "better"--they are simply different, and each amusing in its own way. I prefered Rick Moranis's Seymour to that of Jonathan Haze, but Jackie Joseph's Audrey had funnier lines and was less pathetic than Ellen Greene's. But what really surprised me was that the comic touches I had thought were signatures of the Saturday Night Live/Second City crowd were all in the original: the sadistic dentist and his masochistic patient; "Pain" magazine, "Feed me!", and more. Futhermore, the original had some more absurd characters that didn't make it into the remake, including a parody of the detectives from Dragnet and Seymour's mother, a hypochondriac whose home cooking is all flavoured with medicine! Although the sound and picture quality of the version I watched was poor, it was worth sitting through if you enjoyed the more recent version. Also worthy of note was the spiky, xylophone-timpani-and-baritone-saxophone-laden score by Fred Katz.


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