Product Details

• Actors: Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, Kristen Vigard
• Directors: Michael Ritchie
• Writers: Jonathan Reynolds, Michael Leeson
• Producers: Howard Pine, William Sackheim
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 30, 1996
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303451519
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,677 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At the height of urban paranoia and the birth of survivalist movement in the 1980s, director Michael Ritchie decided to team Robin Williams and Walter Matthau. Talk about an odd couple; yet it actually might have worked, with Matthau's hang-dog deadpan and Williams's manic energy, were it not for a limp script by Michael Leeson. Williams and Matthau play two victims of Reaganomics, unemployed acquaintances who witness a robbery and identify one of the participants to the police, an act that turns them into targets for the robber in question, who comes looking for them. Williams's response: become a one-man arsenal and join a training camp for militant survivalists. But the comedy is neither sharp enough nor sufficiently smart to pull it off; Matthau is the calm center while Williams's comedy rockets all around him, to surprisingly little effect. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It shouldn't work, but it does . . ., May 21, 2005

By 

Amateur Historian "who knows?" (Jonesboro, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Survivors (DVD)

The comic premise of this movie is a good one. Two passing acquaintances are thrown together trying to escape a hit-man with bad nerves and colitis---well-played by Jerry Reed. I think Williams does carry the movie, but his repartee with Reed is some of the funniest writing (more likely improvisation) I've ever heard. Whatever this movie lacks is made up for in the scenes pitting Williams' "Donald" against Reed's bad guy. Those scenes are worth the cost of the whole movie. I'm amazed and also happy this one was released on DVD.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all time favorite Comedies, April 11, 2003

By 

M. La Vean "LaVean" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Survivors (DVD)

Robin Williams is masterful as a zany survival nut who is being taken advantage of by a scheming businessman preying on fear that society will break down...Walter Matthau is the perfect straight man/foil for Williams...

Even though this is an older movie it is a theme which is still timeless...Is society getting ready for the "Big Flush" and how do responsible people respond to it?...

Williams and Matthau provide one very funny solution.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars robin williams is hilarious in this film, April 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Survivors (DVD)

this movie is a genuine treasure to watch. sit back and enjoy one of robin william's best roles. walter matthau and jerry reed round out the cast in a twisting comedy about life, getting fired, and giving society the finger. enjoy