Directed by:
Danny DeVitoScreenplay:
Larry DoyleCinematography:
Anastas N. MichosComposer:
David NewmanCast:
Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Eileen Essell, Swoosie Kurtz, Robert Wisdom, Michelle Krusiec, John Hamburg, Maya Rudolph, James Remar, Wallace Shawn (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Comedy directed by Danny DeVito, starring Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore as Alex and Nancy, a young professional New York couple who have bought the home of their dreams. But the house, though exactly what they dreamed of in almost every respect, turns out to have one major disadvantage: the tenant on the rent-controlled top floor. Mrs Connelly (Eileen Essel) is a cranky old woman who spends her days watching TV at full volume, practising for her brass band, and constantly interrupting the couple's lives with various outrageous demands and requests. Alex, a writer, is struggling to finish his novel for a pending deadline when Nancy loses her job, leaving them both stuck at home with their neighbour from hell. Eventually their frustration turns to homicidal fantasies as they dream of a way to get rid of Mrs Connelly once and for all. (StudioCanal UK)
(more)Reviews (4)
A would-be black comedy with hackneyed, often predictable and only occasionally funny jokes. Danny DeVito’s usual black humour is absent, replaced by the cheap, shitty kind.
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Everybody has a different sense of humor... For me, the filmmaker got it right! Slightly sarcastic humor and a bit of situations that happen "as if on purpose"...that lady truly is insane!!! I want more movies like this!
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I really didn't expect something so stupid from a comedy with Ben Stiller. Unfunny situations alternate with unfunny disgusting situations, and there are very few moments to laugh or smile.
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In my opinion, DeVito's specific and far from digestible humour is the only thing that pulls this film out of the grey of mediocrity. The whole story is one massive cliché and the behaviour of the sweet grandmother is utterly absurd, but the presence of a director of undeniable qualities is nevertheless noticeable and all the humour, especially its black side, is first of all amusing enough, and only then a bit sick and perverse. Moreover, if you successfully push aside thinking and logic, which is necessary in these comedies, you can enjoy 80 minutes of easygoing American entertainment with a fairly effective twist that definitely doesn't deserve to be thrown into the garbage.
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