Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Frank Oz directed this film adaptation of the musical based on the 1960 tongue-in-cheek B-movie about a killer plant. There are a fair number of changes from the original film, the location is shifted from Los Angeles to the New York City area, the character of Seymour's mother is eliminated, Audrey II is explicitly made an alien plant, and a number of other changes though it remains true to the sprit of the original. This is a fun movie, with some enjoyable songs by Alan Menken and a great supporting cast including Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, John Candy, and Steve Martin (whose dentist musical number is inspired). Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene are the leads, and competent enough singers, R & B vocalist Levi Stubb's work as the voice of giant killer plant Audry II, well its iconic, just fantastic.

The version I saw was 'the directors cut' and apparently it is about 23 minutes longer then the version released in theaters. This version of the film contains the original ending, it is the ending that comes from the musical and in it the killer plants get out of control and start taking over the country like in a period horror movie (like the original film the story is set in the early 1960's, hence the doo-oop music). It's one of those endings that you almost can't believe your seeing what your seeing it's so crazy, but apparently it didn't test well with audiences so they went back and filmed a more conventional ending, which is about the only thing I remember seeing from the theatrical cut, which I caught the very end of on TV 25+ years ago. I'd kind of like to see that version at some point, and would definitely be willing to watch this one again, it's a fun movie, I can't believe it took me so long to see it. ***