Let me not get cheesy on this one. I had the opportunity to watch this one day and jumped on it. I've heard of it but didn't really know that this was a full-on musical. Now, when I heard that Mr. America's Ass himself is campaigning to be a part of the production, I had to see it.
Dude, this was not what I was expecting. I think I say that a lot. Rick Moranis is one of my favorite 80s-90s actors. He starred in many of my childhood favorites, like Little Giants and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He was an amazing, flawed dad.
His character in LSOH is Seymour, an awkward, nerdy young man pining after his soft-spoken, beautiful coworker, Audrey, played by Ellen Greene. I didn't love her voice. To be honest, I hated her voice. Made me unusually upset and irritated. But, I trekked through the movie. Seymour and Audrey work at a pitiful florist shop that is damn near out of business. Luckily, Seymour finds a talking/singing plant that feeds off blood. The plant garners a lot of attention to the shop and has the whole city excited about it.
The city itself is dark and tiring, filled with those less fortunate. Skid Row looks like every bit of the mess that people have described it as. There's not a happy spot in the whole place. Unless you hear the beautiful voices of the "Greek chorus", Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon, who move along the story by narrating the situation. I was surprised to see Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold as the Greek chorus. You may know the two from Martin. Those ladies have amazing costumes and smooth voices.
Okay, I'm getting off track. What I was not expecting was that it would be such a twisted story that actually had a few murders. Another favorite of mine was Steve Martin as the wacky, crazy dentist Orin Scrivello. I like the actor but the character itself made me bulge my eyes out. It was different from what I have ever seen him do. He's abusive towards his girlfriend, Audrey, and gets a high from torturing his patients. His death is a relief.
Look here, I'm not gonna go into the full breakdown of this movie. It's a cult classic but I can only stand hearing "Suddenly Seymour" per viewing. Many talented actors and voices, the story is pretty decent but I'm probably will watch it less than ten times in my life. If a remake comes along, I will be interested to see how the new round of actors portray these characters.
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