DVD Review: Ruthless People
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: A
DVD Special Features: N/A
Disk Ratin: F

"I've been kidnapped by K-Mart!" Barbara Stone (Bette Midler)

When it comes to the ultimate in mean-spirited comedies that take place
outside of high school, nothing can compete with "Ruthless People"!  Bad
people turn good, good people turn bad and everything turns upside down.  
It's hard not to fall in love with this movie, especially under the direction
of the same people who brought us "The Naked Gun" and a huge cast of comedic talent.   

Sam Stone (Danny DeVito, "Romancing The Stone") is an extremely successful businessman with one major block standing between his happiness and eternal misery; his wife.  He married Barbara (Bette Midler, "Beaches") for her money and has been taking advantage of her and everyone around him for as long as he can remember.  When Sam finally hatches a plan to get rid of Barbara, Carol (Anita Morris, "Radioland Murders"), his mistress, decides to double cross him and have her lover (Bill Pullman, "ID4") videotape the event.

Unbeknownst to Sam, Ken and Sandy Kessler (Judge Reinhold, "Beverly Hills Cop", and Helen Slater, "The Legend Of Billie-Jean") kidnap Barbara before he can off her.  Instead of having to do the dirty work himself, he'll just let them kill her by ignoring their ransom demands.  Much chaos ensues and
several questions arise.  Was Barbara really kidnapped?  The police aren't
certain after a while.  If so, then who did Carol's boyfriend videotape and
why is the chief of police acting so oddly?  Furthermore, why won't Stone pay
the ransom and why did Ken and Sandy kidnap Barbara in the first place?

Bette Midler is perfect as the total bitch who begins to suspect that her
husband would rather stick landmines on the ground she walks on instead of
worship it.  Judge Reinhold grows up and doesn't repeat the same performance he gave in "Beverly Hills Cop".  Both he and Helen Slater work well together on screen and their chemistry with Bette is wonderful.  Danny DeVito outdoes himself too playing one mean and nasty SOB and Bill Pullman is hysterical as possibly the stupidest man on the planet.  There couldn't have been a better cast assembled for this film and the ending is a very pleasant surprise.

Okay, that's the good news.  Ready for the bad?  Touchstone delivered a
Widescreen transfer (which is most definitely appreciated), but the picture
is total crap.  There is grain visible as well as specs and other flaws from
the beginning of the film all the way to the end.  It's horrible looking.   
The audio is fine, but that doesn't make up for the picture by any means.  As
for extras, there are none, not even a trailer.  What is up with that???  The
movie grossed over $71 million in the US alone, has huge names attached to it
and we aren't even given a trailer?  To add insult to injury, Touchtone
socked us with a $19.99 price tag.  You have GOT to be kidding me?  I just
fired off a letter to HBO requesting an explanation as to why they are
delivering Pan and Scan transfers with few extras for the same price, so I
think an e-mail to Touchtone is in order too.  Unbelievable.

"Ruthless People" is one of my personal favorite films.  I hadn't laughed
that hard in a very long time and the movie still stands up.  Unfortunately,
even based on the strength of the film itself, I cannot recommend spending
the money on this disc.  It would be a huge mistake to send Touchtone the
message that we are willing to buy an inferior product and this is damn
inferior.  The only way it could have been worse is if they'd delivered a Pan
and Scan transfer.  "Ruthless People" deserves better treatment and so do we.

Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies, been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com This site is a