Synopsis
A couple, cheated by a vile businessman, kidnap his wife in retaliation—without knowing that their enemy is delighted they did.
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Cast
- Danny DeVitoSam Stone
- Bette MidlerBarbara Stone
- Judge ReinholdKen Kessler
- Helen SlaterSandy Kessler
- Anita MorrisCarol Dodsworth
- Bill PullmanEarl James Mott
- William G. SchillingChief Henry Benton
- Art EvansLt. Bender
- Clarence FelderLt. Walters
- J.E. FreemanBedroom Killer
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
Ruthless People is a hilariously venal comedy about a kidnapped harridan whose rich husband won’t pay for her return. - 90
Chicago Reader
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the directors of the smash Airplane! and the underrated Top Secret!, here turn their hands to a more traditional character comedy, yet this film's funniest effects still come through their imaginative, frequently astonishing manipulations of the narrative line. It's a rare kind of craftsmanship, and it produces a rare kind of pleasure. - 90
Orlando Sentinel
The idea behind Ruthless People is just about irresistible. 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. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie is slapstick with a deft character touch here and there. It's hard to keep all the characters and plot lines alive at once, but Ruthless People does it, and at the end I felt grateful for its goofiness. - 88
Chicago Tribune
Ruthless People contains some of the biggest laughs of 1986. - 80
The New York Times
THE most irresistible thing about the characters in Ruthless People, a conspicuously overconsuming, Beverly Hills update of O. Henry's classic Ransom of Red Chief, is that they all try with such earnestness to live up to their ruthless reputations. It also has a uniformly splendid cast of comic actors - the best to be seen outside of any recent Blake Edwards movie. Its screenplay, by the newcomer Dale Launer, is packed with wonderfully vulgar, tasteless lines that perfectly reflect the sensibilities of Sam and Barbara Stone. - 80
Los Angeles Times
So much of Ruthless People goes so far that maybe it was inevitable that the film makers would pull up short and make this half-sappy compromise--cynicism with a smile--as compensation for their previous audacity. A pity. A lot of the rest gives you something better: full-bore, shameless, gut-clutching laughter. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Everyone in the movie seems to have a comic moment, because the laughs are piled on top of each other. Call it rude, crude, and lewd, but you also have to call it very funny.
