{"id":8591,"date":"2024-11-19T00:18:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8591"},"modified":"2024-11-19T00:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:18:39","slug":"the-stupids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/19\/the-stupids\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stupids"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Stupids <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brent Forrester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Manfred Guthe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 30, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Arnold, Jessica Lundy, Bug Hall, Alex McKenna, Mark Metcalf, Matt Keeslar, Bob Keeshan, Frankie Faison, Harvey Atkin, Christopher Lee, David Ferry, Rolonda Watts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0It says it right in the title, The Stupids<\/strong> is stupid. But like Forrest Gump says, stupid is as stupid does. At least I think it applies here. Oh, what does it matter? Let\u2019s get on with it, shall we?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Based on the children\u2019s books by Harry Allard, The Stupids<\/strong> is about a family named Stupid whose behavior and actions are synonymous with their surname. Directed by John Landis (Animal House), it came out the final weekend of summer \u201996 to critical jeers and poor box office. It wasn\u2019t screened in advance which is the biggest tell of all. New Line, which acquired The Stupids<\/strong> along with four other titles when Savoy Pictures went under*, felt they had a stinker on their hands and acted accordingly. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised when The Stupids<\/strong> didn\u2019t meet them. Instead, it exceeded them. This movie is a freaking riot!<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Stupid family consists of father Stanley (Arnold, True Lies), mother Joan (Lundy, Caddyshack II), son Buster (Hall, The Little Rascals) and daughter Petunia (McKenna, Campfire Tales). They also have a Claymation dog and cat named Kitty and Xylophone respectively. Stanley is determined to get to the bottom of who\u2019s been stealing his garbage every week when he puts the can on the curb. He follows the garbage truck to the local dump and finds himself in the middle of an illegal arms deal being conducted by Col. Neidermeyer (Metcalfe, Animal House). Thinking Stanley is a secret government agent, Neidermeyer repeatedly tries to have Stanley killed only for him to inadvertently foil each attempt on his life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Joan, believing her children have been kidnapped by the police, goes out to look for them. Buster and Petunia, believing their parents have been kidnapped by a Chinese restaurant, go out to look for them. When the family finally reunites, Stanley concocts this elaborate conspiracy built around an evil villain named \u201cMr. Sender\u201d (played by Christopher Lee in a hilarious cameo) who steals everybody\u2019s garbage and mail. A former postal worker, he believes the \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d stamp on undeliverable mail means something nefarious. When he brought it up to his supervisor, he got sacked. The Stupids take it upon themselves to end his reign of terror while Neidermeyer keeps trying to kill Stanley so his illegal arms deal can go through. Oh, there are a couple of aliens in a spaceship targeting the Stupid patriarch too. Of course, the Stupid clan never understands what\u2019s really going on thus living up to their last name.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not sure if The Stupids<\/strong> is the kind of movie that can be defended. Watching it is an existential experience. There\u2019s nothing rational or empirical about it. It simply is. The beholder has the choice to accept or reject it and its philosophy of….. I don\u2019t rightly know. All I know is that it made me laugh out loud and often. It gets more and more outlandish as it progresses. One of my favorite bits is Stanley and Petunia encountering The Lord aka \u201cThe Lloyd\u201d (Faison, The Silence of the Lambs) during a visit to a planetarium. They believe he has the answers to all life\u2019s questions. It\u2019s a great scene. Not only that, it makes clear the Big Guy\u2019s position on not properly disposing one\u2019s chewed gum (Lloyd\u2019s against it).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Landis was in a career slump when he made The Stupids<\/strong>. After giving the world comedy classics like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places and Coming to America, he went downhill with flops like Oscar (which I like), Innocent Blood, Beverly Hills Cop III and The Stupids<\/strong> which he followed with another flop, Blues Brothers 2000. It bears the usual trademarks of the director\u2019s work including his customary \u201cSee You Next Wednesday\u201d reference and a host of celebrity cameos including filmmakers Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers), Norman Jewison (Moonstruck), Robert Wise (West Side Story) and Costa-Gavras (Missing). The antagonist\u2019s name is obviously a reference to his character in Animal House. Clearly, Landis and everybody else are having fun. Why shouldn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Stupids<\/strong> has plenty else going for it. It has Bob Keeshan aka Captain Kangaroo as a museum curator who becomes a person of interest to the Stupids. Could I be because his name is Charles Sender? It has Harvey Atkin (Morty from Meatballs) whose very presence lets us know that The Stupids<\/strong> was filmed in Canada. He plays a delivery guy from \u201cFloyd\u2019s Deli\u201d. Hmmm, Lloyd and Floyd, that could get complicated…. or not. Oh yeah, Arnold belts out an amusing little ditty called \u201cI\u2019m My Own Grandpa\u201d on a trashy TV talk show.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Speaking of Tom, The Stupids<\/strong> is the third cheesy comedy in which he starred in \u201996 following Big Bully and Carpool (which came out the week before). He\u2019s pretty good in it. I love how he just goes with the flow in scene after scene of gleeful obliviousness. One funny scene has him trying to start his car by giving it mouth-to-mouth which results in an electric shock that gives him a rare moment of clarity. Meanwhile, the dog has the keys in his paw. Yes, the pets are the smart ones in that suburban household. Lundy has some good moments as the wife. Hall and McKenna are great as the Stupid offspring.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The overall look of The Stupids<\/strong> is eye-catching. The production design by Phil Dagort leans heavily on primary colors resulting in a pristine universe. The costumes by Deborah Nadoolman are a mess of gaudy floral prints and huge petticoats. I love the look of the movie as much as its scattershot narrative and total randomness. It\u2019s a highly imaginative comedy filled with jokes and gags that work precisely because they\u2019re aimed at 10YOs and those with IQs lower than their body temperature. Like I said, it simply is and content to be such.<\/p>\n

*= Faithful, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Heaven\u2019s Prisoners and The Adventures of Pinocchio (the live-action one with Jonathan Taylor-Thomas).\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Stupids (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brent Forrester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Manfred Guthe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 30, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Arnold, Jessica Lundy, Bug Hall, Alex McKenna, Mark Metcalf, Matt Keeslar, Bob Keeshan, Frankie Faison, Harvey Atkin, Christopher Lee, David Ferry, Rolonda Watts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Stupids-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8881,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions\/8881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}