Customer Reviews

Duplex

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Everything about this movie I love. I love both Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller too!
They are so endearing and convincing as a newly married couple.
It starts out that this young married couple are having a hard time finding the house of thier dreams in their price range. It seems almost too good to be true when they find a duplex near the big city life in Brooklyn, it is beautiful and spacious, and the downfall is that it comes with a very, VERY old woman who rents the upstairs apartment.

Because of a clause in her rental agreement, they cannot kick her out,but being that she is old, they figure she will die soon enough, So they buy the place and move in.

Suddenly the old lady seems healthy as a horse, and is a constant nuisance to them.
She keeps them awake all night with her blaring TV, Always bothering them for favors etc.
As things continue to go from bad to worse, they decide to have a hit on her, and hire a hit man to do it...Like everything else, that goes terribly wrong, too.

This movie is full of mishaps, one after another, and soon you will be rooting for them to kill the old hag :)
There are a few twists that will surprise you in the end, but I guarantee it will keep you laughing !

Highly reccomended, and one you will want to watch over and over.

Yes, I had never heard of this movie until my girlfriend rented it one night. I loved Zoolander so I wasn't that surprised to like this. Anywho..the whole "Clapper" scene was so stupid I almost puked I was laughing so hard.Honestly we kept backing up the movie just for that scene. Just watching Ben Stillers face contort in agony was great. Great Friday night movie worth watching again!

In Danny De Vito's "Duplex," Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore play a young couple who buy a "dream apartment" in Brooklyn whose amenities include everything two upwardly mobile yuppies could possibly want: ample space, solid wood floors, three glorious fireplaces, and, above all, a quiet environment where Alex, a budding novelist, can spend his days writing in uninterrupted peace and quiet. Or so they think...for, unfortunately, the place also comes replete with what turns out to be the tenant from hell, a doddering old woman who lives on the second floor and who makes life miserable for the two of them with her continually blaring television and her constant intrusions into their daily lives. Finally driven to the breaking point, Alex and Nancy decide to take matters into their own hands in order to rid themselves of this human pest in any way they can.

"Duplex" is, essentially, a one-joke comedy and, as such, it does suffer from the occupational hazard common to all one-joke comedies of built-in repetitiousness. However, the writing has a surprisingly dark edge to it that lifts the film above the run-of-the-Hollywood-comedy-mill. I must confess to having a certain weakness for dotty old lady comedies, counting among my favorite films the original British classic "The Lady killers" from 1955. Eileen Essel is so delightful as the bete noire of the piece that it's hard not to fall under the spell of both her character and the film itself. De Vito, in a return to the black comedy form that served him so well in "The War of the Roses," keeps the comedy tough and brutal, even if it means bludgeoning the audience over the head a bit in the process. Stiller does his usual shtick as the put-upon Everyman, while Barrymore is able to use her customary cutesiness to full advantage as the sweet little ingenue driven to murder to save her own sanity.

"Duplex" is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, and I imagine that it would not win the stamp of approval from the AARP. Still, if you're in the market for something different in a mainstream comedy, "Duplex" just might fit the bill.

I don't have a clue what the folks that don't think this movie is funny are seeing (or not seeing, as the case may be). It is one of the funniest movies I have seen all year. See this and "Anything Else" and you will be doing yourself a favor. The casting is wonderful and the dialog is top-notch. It IS a dark comedy but not grisly by any chance. If you like your humor on the dark side you will love this one.

This is a comedy about a young couple who decides to buy a duplex just outside New York City. They have an irritating old woman living upstairs in a rent controlled apartment that they own as part of the property. He's a writer, struggling to finish his second novel. She's the supportive wife going off to work at a magazine in NY. The little old woman is a very old widow.

During the course of the movie, the old woman continuously disturbs their sleep, destroys the writer's ability to finish his work, and generally disrupts the peace and tranquility they mistakenly thought they would attain with the purchase of the house.

What follows is a myriad of very entertaining, slapstick comedy and a murder plot. This movie is funny, but somehow just misses the mark. So much more could have been done with the plot and parts of the story just fall flat. Though this is an entertaining movie I recommend that you rent, don't buy. You'll watch it once and live happily without watching it ever again. It is most definitely not a keeper.

Danny DeVito is one of the best directors when it comes to black comedies. "Duplex" is another one of those great movies. It was everything I expected, and the performances were great! The little old lady in this movie is a great actress. I heard she hadn't been in much until this movie came along. I wonder how they found her. She's great! Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore are also perfect in their roles. I mean, this movies isn't anything you've never seen before -"Throw Mama From the Train" is similar- but go see this one, anyways. You won't be disappointed!

Highly recommended!

This movie is about a couple who moves into this duplex where an old lady lives in the upper apartment she is renting. Ben stiller and Drew Barrymore were told that the old lady upstairs is a sweet lady. She turns out to be their worst nightmare. They can't sleep at night, they can't have their privacy, she asks them to run errands for her all the time and gives them accusations that are not true, but then turn to be true because they had enough of it with her she was a pain in the neck, they really tried later to kill in any way they could think of but backfired, they even called for an assassin to murder her for them for 25 grand. They didn't have that kind of money so they sold everything they had in their apartment. And guess what, the assassin couldn't get her killed either. She is one tough Lady!!
In the end they sell their duplex to another couple, go upstairs to say good bye to her, and what do they find right after they sold their duplex, the old lady past away with natural causes. They sold the place and she dies. What a waste. But the fact is.. it turned out she was faking it, holding her breath. How did she get away with it. the man who sold them the house turned out to be the old ladies son. They have been playing on couples for a long time just to get their money.
This Movie is a little like "throw momma off the train" which is about an author writing a book trying to kill an old lady too but for someone .and the author ends up writing about the whole thing. This happens too in the duplex..Ben stiller in the role of the author ends up writing a book called "Duplex" and makes lots of money.

Found this DVD entertaining, the elderly tenant had a way of coming off funny and had a way of antagonizing the owners in a sweet way. Very funny movie,

I recently flew to Seattle, and this was the in-flight film. I was intrigued, as I had never heard of it, and I enjoy Ben Stiller's movies. Moreover, this one was directed by Danny DeVito, and I had loved what he did with "The War of the Roses". So, I settled down to watch what I thought might be a somewhat dark comedy. After watching it, I decided that this film was chosen for in-flight viewing, as the audience was a captive one and could not leave. Had I seen it in the theatre, I am sure I would have been witness to people leaving mid-film. To add insult to injury, this film was the same one shown on the return flight.

The plot is simple. A young couple, Alex and Nancy, buy their dream home, a large and lovely apartment in a turn of the century brownstone in Brooklyn. Replete with period detail, they fall in love with it, probably paying more than they should. The good thing is that the price includes an upper apartment, which is also part of the deal and would convert their apartment into a duplex. The only caveat is that the upper apartment is rented by an ancient crone, Mrs. Connelly, who pays under a hundred dollars a month in rent, as the apartment is rent controlled.

Still, they love the apartment so much that they buy it anyway, figuring that the tenant, whom they met, would not be there much longer due to her age and seeming ill health. Once they move in, however, Mrs. Connelly appears to have recovered her health and turns out to be quite an active and spry old woman who seems determined, in her own sweet way, to make the lives of the new owners a living hell on earth. Alex and Nancy hurry and scurry to meet their tenant's insatiable demands, which wreak havoc with their personal lives. This compels them to resort to various ways of getting her to move, all of which she seemingly resists without batting an eyelash. Finally, the harried, beleaguered couple is driven to seek a more permanent solution to their landlord/tenant problem.

The film was clearly meant to be a dark comedy. It was dark, alright, because most everyone associated with it seems to have lost their way, but there is nothing really comedic about it. Ben Stiller's performance is strained, as he must have recognized early on that this film was not particularly funny. Drew Barrymore sleepwalks through her role as if she were on thorazine to quell any potentially psychotic behavior should she realize the turkey of a film in which she was acting. Harvey Fierstein manages to be annoying in the small, but pivotal, role of the real estate agent, while Swoosie Kurtz plays her role straight, rather than for laughs, and manages to avoid personal embarrassment. The only real saving grace is the performance by veteran British television thespian, Eileen Essel, in the role of Mrs. Connelly. She is the only reason the film warranted a rating of even two stars. Ms. Essel, however, must surely have a contract out on her agent for inducing her to make her feature film debut in this flop.

A friend at work recommended that I get this movie after telling her about the crazy old bat that lives in the condo above me. I laughed so hard at some of the scenes, learned a few tricks to use myself, and gave the old lady in the movie an A+ because she is way smarter than the old battle-ax I have to contend with everyday. This movie is a "must see" for anyone who lives below some old goat in an apartment or condo. The old lady is the optitome of the classical "neighbor from hell." I think we all can relate to this to some degree, especially those of us who live way too close to others!