Duplex (2003)

How sad is this?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

MORE REVIEWS AT booksequalhappiness.blogspot.comI really loved this movie when I was young because it was funny but now that I rewatched it, I realized how mean it was. I now have a love-hate relationship with it because it's really funny because of the old woman but it was super devastating for the couple. It's probably best to not overanalyze things in order to enjoy it.

I'm actually quite shocked that this movie is as underrated as it is!This movie has a simple but interesting plot which is: A couple named Alex and Nancy move into a duplex in Brooklyn New York with and old lady who lives on the second floor above them. This old lady seems kind and innocent at first impressions, but pretty soon her constant demands and accidents ruin Alex and Nancy's attempts at having the perfect home.This is a very well done Black comedy movie with some slap stick humour from time to time (don't let the slap stick comedy put you off from watching this, it's done effectively in my opinion but this is probably the reason why this movie is so overlooked including the simplistic plot). You really begin to hate the old lady very quickly too, which is fantastic for a movie like this and you really care about Alex and Nancy's intentions to get her out of the duplex no matter what the costs are or how they are going to do it, this is partly where this movie succeeds.There is also a fantastic plot twist at the end which is actually very impressive for such an underrated movie. It actually makes plenty of sense despite how far fetched it is.Duplex (2003) is a 9/10 for me!

This geriatric variation of Home Alone, with more of a dash of The Ladykillers and an obscure French film called Tatie Danielle thrown in, is given a cartoonish presentation as the new owners of a Brooklyn duplex deal with the outwardly sweet upstairs tenant they can't evict. A series of juvenile visual gags are shot out like machine gun bullets, with the seemingly sweet old Irish doll tossing out insults at the couple with passive aggressive glee. Seemingly immortal, the old buzzard becomes the road-runner like target of the couple's coyote where you begin to hope that for once the coyotes will kill their target. This leaves the viewer with a slight guilt complex which reflects on the general mean-spiritedness of the script.Hysterically funny much of the time, this can't escape the fact that its laughs come from that part of the human soul that hates humanity. The young couple are in a no-win situation and the genuinely evil hag has them by the scrotum. The attempted murder sequences are sometimes uncomfortable to watch, even though the first part of the film makes you want to see them succeed. I would have liked to had a different leading man as I never have seen the appeal of Ben Stiller, but found no fault with Drew Barrymore, once again truly likable. As the old lady, Eileen Essell takes the role and runs with it, being alternately a combination of Old Mother Hubbard and the tenant of a gingerbread house. A perfect supporting cast (including raspy Harvey Fierstein as a shady real estate agent, Wallace Shawn as Barrymore's irascible boss and Swoozie Kurtz as Stiller's publisher) helps the surprising twists and turns which alternately hurt the stomach from laughing too much and the guilt which goes along with it.

this film is hilarious. Sure, there are comedy mechanisms at work here...........DER! IT'S A COMEDY! the surehanded direction is seamless and uninvasive and the cast perform realistically which serves to make the humour more effective. I laughed aloud all through the movie, genuinely. Stiller is a comedy master and Drew Barrymore revealed herself to be one also. This is a film made and played by masters at the peak of their game and a total entertainment.........I think this is what movies are for. One can intellectualise in a Godardian manner about the purpose of 'Le' Cinema.....but for the most of us, we pay for our seat and are thoroughly entertained and amused........isn't that why we leave the house on a Friday night to go to the Mall? I rate this movie. It sits well with 'Throw Momma From The Train' and, to some extent, The Ladykillers. More of this type of film please. The importance of the therapy of laughter is not to be underestimated and the balance between 'black' or dark humour and light-hearted slapstick is achieved to perfection. We need the exorcism of hatred through comedy to make the break between our daily weekday worklives and the week-end. With this movie we get it all. Great moments? well, the sexy nurse making eye contact with Mr Stiller - whilst adjusting his manhood beneath the covers - accompanied by Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual Healing' is hilarious.