Ruthless People

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Ruthless People

R

1986

1h 33m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

46 Reviews

72%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) hates his wife, Barbara (Bette Midler), so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers (Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater) have to figure out how they're going to get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.

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Critics Consensus

It's sometimes crude and tasteless, but Ruthless People wrings acid-soaked laughs out of its dark premise and gleefully misanthropic characters.

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Jay Carr

Boston Globe

07/30/2024

The summer's best vulgar Hollywood farce.

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Kathleen Carroll

New York Daily News

04/20/2021

2.5/4

One tires of the movie's relentlessly shrill tone and its excessively raunchy jokes.

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Michael H. Price

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

04/20/2021

7/10

Bette Midler's mastery of lovably obnoxious mannerisms has never had such deliciously wicked exposure, Danny De Vito brings his trademark sleazoid to full seriocomic flower, and Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater approach perfection...

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Sean Burns

Crooked Marquee

Jun 29

A raunchy screwball comedy that improbably became the Walt Disney Company’s highest-grossing movie of 1986, ‘Ruthless People’ is dirty but not smutty, naughty yet never nasty.

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Dan Webster

Spokesman-Review (Washington)

07/27/2024

3/4

DeVito is superb and Judge Reinhold as one of the kidnappers remains a comfortable presence on screen. But Midler nearly steals the show.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

12/05/2021

4/5

...the narrative offers the kinds of twists and turns that wouldn't disgrace a Coen brothers thriller...

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Alain E

@AlainE Jun 16

Not perfect. Maybe if they had recruited a fourth director the result would’ve been better. Still we can admire the interior decorator of DeVito’s house. A watchable silly comedy. On Prime.

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Jason H

@RT50328122 Jun 3

From the directors of Airplane!, Top Secret!, and The Naked Gun. Those movies are hilarious. This movie is not.

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James B

@Madstylesnz Dec 26

Hilarious 80s film that wouldn’t have been near as good without Danny DeVito as the lead, a role he was perfect for. Bette Midler was also very good as ruthless and vindictive as he was. I love the crazy twists and turns and everyone getting their wires crossed and tripping over them. Pure 80s gold this one.

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Dwayne W

@Dwayneee Nov 30

Much of the fun of this comedy is in watching what happens as virtually everyone in the movie tries to double-cross or otherwise take advantage of everyone else.

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Oggie B

@OGDawg Oct 29

Screenwriter Dale Launer makes the film earn every laugh with well-crafted cleverly set-up situations. This sophisticated handling of the comedy is definitely Ruthless People's strongest asset.

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Jen N

@Jennever Oct 17

Bette Midler's mastery of lovably obnoxious mannerisms has never had such deliciously wicked exposure, Danny De Vito brings his trademark sleazoid to full seriocomic flower. Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater approach absolute comic perfection

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Jim Abrahams

Director

David Zucker

Director

Jerry Zucker

Director

Danny DeVito

Sam Stone

Bette Midler

Barbara Stone

Judge Reinhold

Ken Kessler

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Synopsis

Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) hates his wife, Barbara (Bette Midler), so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers (Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater) have to figure out how they're going to get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.

Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Producer: Michael Peyser
Screenwriter: O. Henry, Dale Launer
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
Production Co: Touchstone Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 27, 1986, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $70.9M
Runtime: 1h 33m
Sound Mix: Surround
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)