Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’m hoping I make it to the set of a certain unnamed comedy in time to see Ben Stiller working today. I’ve liked Stiller since his show on Fox, and even if he has grown a little familiar in terms of the choices he makes, he still manages to make me laugh a lot when he’s used properly. Combine his talent with Danny De Vito working in black comedy mode, and DUPLEX might just be worth seeing... right?
Hi, I know you had one previous review of this movie but I thought I might put my two cents in about it - who knows if I actually have anything to say about it though, so I won't be hurt if you don't use it! If you do, you can call me Cerulean Lily.
I went to my first test screening in Burbank last night of Danny DeVito's latest, DUPLEX, with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Apparently this movie has been sitting around for a while so I had my doubts when the studio lackey at the screening told us we were some of the first people to see it. The basic idea of the movie is that Ben and Drew (Alex and Nancy) are a New York couple that buy a beautiful duplex on the condition that they keep the old lady that lives upstairs as their tenant. She manages to usurp their time, get them in trouble with a cop, and basically make their lives a living hell, so they eventually turn to the idea of killing her. I won't give too much away, though the movie is pretty predictable, so it's probably not hard to imagine.
Apparently Stiller has been cornered into only making one kind of movie - slightly dark but mostly full of gross out humor that isn't that funny. The movie takes much too long to get to the idea of killing her and is really fairly frustrating, with moments of DeVito's direction shining through a pretty pat script. The first reel was the best and I have a feeling has had the most work done on it, as there were tape splices between almost every shot in the first reel. They managed to rip through the set-up economically but keeping a good amount of humor and quirkiness in it. Unlike your previous reviewer of this movie, I wanted it to be a whole lot darker because that's where the interest and quirk lies in my opinion. But really, it's just going to be another comedy - the rest of the audience seemed pretty pleased, but vomit and mouse droppings only do so much for me humor-wise.
Hmmmm... as far as comedies about trying to kill little old ladies go, I’m betting that next year’s LADYKILLERS, as reimagined by The Coen Brothers, is going to be the one to beat.
"Moriarty" out.
