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Author
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Topic: Duplex
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 09-26-2003 04:31 AM
The advance word on the streets says "this film sucks". With the current track record of Hollywood this year, does that really suprise anyone? Well I've got news for you, I enjoyed this film a lot! Not being a huge Ben Stiller fan, I thought this would be a dull and predictable hour and a half, but not once did I find myself looking at my watch. In fact, I had to quickly run upstairs during the test screening tonight just to see what reel I was on when right after the changeover to reel 4 a lab scratch appeared (later double-checked to be on the leader too). Rarely do I watch a movie and not keep track of the reels.
In a nutshell, this movie's plot is simple. Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore buy a duplex. Upstairs is a really old woman who lives there, and unless she dies or willingly moves out, Ben and Drew cannot evict her. She pays a whopping $88 a month rent and is the most annoying, sweetest and let's be honest here...pure evil woman to ever walk the face of this earth. This woman singlehandedly destroys their lives, all the while they try and be friendly and accommodating. Of course after a certain amount of torture they start to plot on how to outright murder the old hag, and that's where the real fun begins. (I wish the director had've taken more time on the "stairway scene/montage".)
All in all, this isn't a classic piece of comedy, but it's pretty darned entertaining. Of course this also falls into the horror category, because this woman really is nightmare. While I think it will hold up fine on DVD, I believe this movie will be much more fun in the theater. Try and see it on a weekend with a crowd. Just don't run up and slash the screen in an attempt to kill the old witch during the show.
4 stars out of 5
Special thanks goes to Deluxe Hollywood lab for my lovely scratch on reel 4, the lousy registration on my print, and also for the entertaining CRAP code marks from the bowels of hell on reel 3. Could you guys suck any worse? I think not.
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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 10-13-2003 10:01 PM
Attendance: 2003/10/10, 19:20, Regal River Oaks Cinema 8, Decatur, AL, Auditorium 4 (Flat)
I really enjoyed this movie. It was a somewhat different type of comedy and I was really in the mood for it. I wanted to wring that old lady's neck many times while watching the movie, and can appreciate the pure hell it was living downstairs from her. Although the couple's plotting turned quite evil and in a way, they were becoming the villians, I was pulling for them 100 percent.
The "clapper battle scene" was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing during that one. It's almost a cartoony type of movie where, like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the roadrunner, you know that Alex and Nancy's scemes aren't going to work. There were some scenes that were just too far out to be believable, but for this type of movie, I find that acceptable.
This movie did lackluster business, and it seemed that only 10 to 15 people total were in this auditorium with me, on a Friday night at a 7ish showing (typically the busiest of the week).
I highly recommend the movie.
This presentation set a record: 10 commercials were played before the movie! That's 10 -- T E N -- counted on my fingers as they played so I wouldn't lose count! This shattered the previous record of 4 which is the most commercials I'd seen before the previews. 5 movie previews were shown before the movie. Previews are great (they educate me on what movies are coming in the future so I'll know what I might want to come back to see), but commercials provide nothing useful. A trailer about piracy (which I've seen too many times), the Marines, a commercial for some TV show (video resolution blown up to film), 3 Coke commericals, Fandango, a jeans commercial where a stunt guy repeated gets thrown off a car into a parking meter pole -- in the crotch, and 3 more that I can't remember off the top of my head. I don't see that this is going to make more people want to go to the movie theatre. Give me previews of coming movies -- not commercials.
The only other problem was a small but very noticeable wiggly black scratch going all the way through the commercials, previews, and entire movie. During the first 10 minutes, my mind was drawn to the scratch more than to the movie itself. It was vertical and roughly 0.2 screen width from the left side. This is the first such print damage I've ever witnessed at this location in 72 visits, so I'm assuming it to be a rare anomaly at this point.
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