Big Business (1988)

hyped garbage

Absolutely the worst movie.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

In a small town, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night. One pair to a poor local family and the other pair to a rich family passing through the small town . The nurse on duty mixes the twins by mistake unbeknown to the parents. Flash forward to the eighties, and the twins are about to cross paths following a business deal to close down a factory that has mutual connotations the both pairs of twins.....Its a Bette Midler vehicle for sure, and the back end of the eighties were just hit after hit for her. But the quality wasn't always there, and despite Midler and Tom,in being really good, it's not got the venom that her other films had, a really dark streak was needed in this.What we get is a running joke of the nice Tomlin/Midler talking to someone, and then the not so nice Tomlin/Midler talking to the same person, leaving the camera on said person looking highly confused.Its funny the first couple of times, but then the film begins to rely on that one joke.It's typically eighties fodder, high heels, big hair, and shoulder pads, featuring a brilliant song during the end credits.It would probably hold some nostalgia value to someone who saw it when it first came out, but for me, it's pretty average stuff.

This is a fun film for a rainy day. It is nice to hang out at the Plaza Hotel for an hour or so. Bette Midler steals the show, but with the full cooperation of Lily Tomlin, who is extremely annoying. Miss Tomlin pants her way through the New York character and "hicks" her way through the other. Neither is anywhere near believable, and the viewer needs a remote to fast forward through her scenes. The more I watch this film, the more and more grating is Lily Tomlin's voice. She seems to want to convey stress by panting and panting and panting, only relieved by flapping her hands and losing her shoulder pad before panting and flapping some more.If I were the New York City Sadie, I would have dumped this this nails-on-the-chalkboard Sis long before she inherited.

The 1988 film "Big Business," directed by Jim Abrahams, stars two well-known actresses, Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, who both play duel roles of twins mixed up at birth in the 1940s. The names chosen for both sets of twins were Rose and Sadie. The Shelton twins were born to a wealthy couple from New York; the Ratliff twins are from a low-income family that lived in Jupiter Hollow. One of the Shelton twins was given to the Ratliff family and vice-versa. Jump forty plus years to the 1980s. The Shelton twins inherited their father's corporation Moramax in New York City, and the Ratliff twins work at the Hollow-Made Factory in Jupiter Hollow, the town in which they were born. Moramax is planning to shut down the factory and to strip-mine Jupiter Hollow. The Ratliff's come to New York City to save the factory and town from the Shelton's corporation. Both the Ratliff's and Shelton's stay in the Plaza Hotel in NYC, not knowing their real twins were also there. They end up meeting each other right before Moramax's big meeting, and Rose Shelton agrees with Sadie and Rose Ratliff to save the factory and Jupiter Hollow. "Big Business" presents two central ideas. One idea is that two sets of twins can be born on the same night in the same hospital can be switched at birth and can meet one another later in life. Another idea would be that the "big guy" doesn't always win. The "big guy" in this movie would be the Moramax corporation and the "little guy" would be the Hollow-Made Factory. I say this because at the end of the movie the Ratliff's end up saving their town and factory from the Shelton's large corporation. I thought that this movie was hilarious; it receives five stars. I watch this movie over and over and never seem to get tired of it. I loved how both Midler and Tomlin play two completely opposite roles, redneck and snobbish. The southern accents (in my opinion) were excellent. This movie is similar to the "Green Acres" television show, only the rednecks end up in New York City. I wish that the director would make a sequel to see how Jupiter Hollow, the factory, and Moramax are doing.

This is one of those movies that has a lot of jokes and a lot of different relationships going on (two sets of identical twins with their significant others). I actually watch this film whenever it is on television and it just comes across as a no-brainer type movie without much to say. Just watch it and say "Ho-Hum." The backup actors to Tomlin and Midler actually have better lines to work with. Maybe the character of rich Midler needed to be super mean to make this more than a seven out of ten. But the show really never went anywhere but it had a candy bar ending which probably saved it for the rerun mill on television.