Ruthless People

Well, this could be a prejudiced review. Sometimes it's hard to tell where objectivity leaves off and subjectivity takes over. And I find there's something about Danny DeVito which makes it extraordinarily hard to be objective - I'm a sucker for just about any of his movies. I mean, in Twins he even achieves the amazing feat of making a Schwarzenneger movie appealing.

Ruthless People doesn't carry with it the handicap of Arnold Schwarzenneger, so it's ahead on points before it begins. This amiable black comedy, which pairs DeVito with the manic Bette Middler, starts with a simple premise - how does a man who hates his wife so much that he is planning to have her murdered react when she's kidnapped?

Well, he celebrates. And as for coughing up a ransom? Fat chance! The kidnappers (a very likeable young pair played by Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater), faced with the super-hyper and aggressive Bette Midler, have to progressively cut their demands from half a million to almost zilch. And ultimately, they have to beg Danny DeVito to take her back.

None of that is a spoiler. It's just the opening premise. What happens after that is a laugh-a-minute celebration of frenzy and mayhem. Bette Midler can be very up or very down in her roles. In this one, she's up. Danny DeVito only knows how to be up. And we get one of his quintessential performances as the little S.O.B. who gets everything he deserves.

Ruthless People was pretty clearly made as a disposable movie; there's no looking towards posterity here. But the warmth which underlies its manic blackness has pretty well guaranteed that this will be around to please for many years to come. It's not a great, great movie; it's an audience-pleaser which was fun first time around, and is pretty well just as good as we remembered.

This is a 1986 movie which, thanks to a crystalline anamorphic transfer, looks as if it were shot yesterday.

The image has the best Hollywood glossy quality of that era. Colour and tone are finely delineated with no smearing and with good deep detail and hue. There are no obvious artefacts.

The refreshed Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack is strong and clear, with good dialogue emphasis and exhibiting a very natural soundstage. Again, for a movie of this era, this is as good as we could expect in a DVD transfer.

Total bare-bones; there are no extra features. I don't define chapter indexes as extra features!

I would think it's a renter rather than a keeper - it would be hard to justify viewing this amiable but not exactly superlative movie more than once a decade.

But what a pleasure when the decade rolls by and it's time to watch Danny at his best, abetted so well by Bette, Judge and Helen.