Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Cast: Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, William Fichtner, Will Farrell, Brian Doyle-Murray
Credits:
Director - Nick Gomez
Producers - Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt, Eugene Musso
Executive Producers - Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Jonathan Weisgal
Screenplay - Peter L. Steinfeld
Director Of Photography - Bruce Douglas Johnson
Editor - Richard Pearson
Production Designer - Richard Toyon
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
I'm sure sometime during the course of your life you've had to deal with one rude neighbor, if not more. But you've never had a neighbor like Mona Dearly, her husband Phil, and son Jeff, who are driving the property values down faster than the stock of a dot com company.
Solely intent on making everyone's life hell, Mona Dearly became the one person everyone wishes was dead... until it actually happened. Now it becomes a case of "whodunnit" and everyone is stabbing each other in the back to prove their own innocence. Everyone's a suspect, and the chief of police, Chief Rash, won't rest until he finds her killer.
Whew, wow, what a concept for a movie. Unfortunately, the end result is tame, light-hearted, and happy enough to be shown on Lifetime, Television For Women, instead of being the spooky, twisted, dark comedy it presented itself to be.
In a positive light, however, all the actors have done an absolutely teriffic job with their roles, not just playing the character, but being the character. Unfortunately, stellar performances by top name actors can't save this flick from being one mediocre comedy. The movie itself isn't so bad, as long as you're not expecting a laugh riot or even belly laughs.
You'll have an average good time with this movie that would have fared better as a made for HBO or Showtime film.
See also: Dude, Where's My Car?