The Stupids (film)

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The Stupids

The Stupids movie poster
Directed by John Landis
Produced by Leslie Belzberg
Written by James Marshall and
Harry Allard (characters)
Brent Forrester (screenplay)
Starring Tom Arnold
Jessica Lundy
Bug Hall
Alex McKenna
Scott Kraft
Mark Metcalf
Bob Keeshan
Christopher Lee
Music by Christopher Stone
Cinematography Manfred Guthe
Editing by Dale Beldin
Studio Savoy Pictures
Rank Film Distributors
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) August 30, 1996 (USA)
Running time 93 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $25,000,000 (estimated)
Box office $2,415,593 (USA)

The Stupids is a 1996 American comedy/adventure film directed by John Landis. The film is based on The Stupids, characters from a series of books written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall.

The story tells the adventures of the fictional family the Stupids, with a last name synonymous with their behavior. The story begins with patriarch Stanley Stupid believing "sender" from letters marked "return to sender" is a wicked man planning a conspiracy. Adding several misunderstandings, the family unwittingly saves the world from military chaos, while believing a fake story about a fictional man named Sender and his plot to confiscate everyone's mail and trash. The movie was filmed in Toronto, Ontario (Downtown shots) and Uxbridge, Ontario (Home located at 55 Quaker Village Drive, Uxbridge, Ontario).

Contents

[edit] Plot

 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2009)

Stanley Stupid (Tom Arnold) is convinced that someone is stealing his trash. He discovers and follows a garbage truck to the local dump on rollerblades (he figures because it has more wheels than a car it is faster). His children, Buster (Bug Hall) and Petunia (Alex McKenna), upon waking up and not finding their father, decide to go to the police for help, only after leaving a note for their mother Joan saying where they're going.

While at the dump, Stanley overheard a meeting of corrupt army officials promising several foreign representatives large amounts of contraband. Stanley poses as one of the foreigners, and talks with Colonel Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), the leader of the corrupt officers. Neidermeyer is convinced that Stanley is a secret agent, but he gives Stanley his car and cell phone and sends him off on good terms. Shortly afterward, he tells Lieutenant Neal (Matt Keeslar), one of his subordinate assassins, to kill him.

Meanwhile, the children are brought home by the police only to discover that their mother is gone too. After the two find an advertisement for a Chinese restaurant, they assume it must be a clue, and go to the restaurant. There, Buster receives a fortune cookie that says "Time flies when you're having fun." Believing this is the Daily Times Newspaper, the children go to the newspapers offices in attempt to find their mother. The computer prompts them for a headline, and after telling Buster (who is picking his nose) and Joan that computer language is alien, Petunia inputs "alien picks nose". The computer then requests a picture, at which they try to slide a photograph of Stanley into the floppy drive. The computer reports a fatal error in Drive B.

The family reunites at their house and Stanley, who escapes a close encounter with an assassin after being warned about the Drive B by his family and inadvertently escapes by fleeing from a bee he sees in his car, explains a conspiracy he discovered at the dumpster. Years ago, while working for the post office, he noticed an inordinate amount of letters marked "return to sender". Thinking "sender" was a person's name, he reported this to his superior, who promptly fired him. He believes Mr. Sender (played by Christopher Lee in his fantasy) accumulates letters, has bribed the police into stealing people's children, and is now planning to steal "American's least guarded good" (their garbage). The Stupid's children suggest looking for "Sender" in the telephone directory, and find a Charles Sender (Bob Keeshan) who works at the Museum of Natural History. At the museum, they split up and sneak in.

Buster and Joan find a display of several dates and events, ending at an elevator which had buttons for floors A-D and 1-9. Believing it to be a time machine, Buster presses several random numbers and the letters B and C. The elevator takes them to a display about dinosaurs, and Buster writes his name on the wall, believing it will be the first thing humans will read. Petunia and Stanley, meanwhile, enter Sender's office and find a photograph of him and his daily planner. On their way out, they enter a planetarium. Suddenly, the planetarium show begins, making Stanley and Petunia believe they just died. They are discovered by a janitor named Lloyd (Frankie Faison), who they take as "The Lord" because he appears to be floating among the stars.

The family reunites again outside the museum. Stanley and Petunia tell Joan and Buster that Sender was going to a television studio. After confusing Stanley with a talk show guest and Joan with a parcel delivery person, the studio kicks them out, and on the way they see Sender, but are unable to reach him. Neidermeyer realizes Stanley hasn't been assassinated when he sees him on TV singing I'm My Own Grandpa. He kidnaps Stanley and brings him to the army base, and his family follow but are not allowed in. Stanley is tied to a chair and interrogated, but refuses to give away anything. Just when he is about to be beaten, one of his guards spits a wad of chewing gum on the floor. Remembering the museum janitor's words, he finds the strength to escape and rejoin his family.

Stanley tells of the nefarious plot he heard that will take "... place (at) Warehouse 21". Arriving in the middle of the night, they sneak in to discover huge stores of weapons. They order the corrupt officials to surrender, and soon find themselves under attack. After a series of humorous struggles, they manage to get the police's attention. All the corrupt officers are arrested except for Neidermeyer. Stanley approaches Sender and tells him he needs to turn his life away from evil. Thinking these are road directions, Sender thanks him. When the Stupids return home, they find Neidermeyer waiting to kill them. Before he can pull the trigger, Neidermeyer tells them that no guardian angel can save them, at which point the takeout-delivery man Joan called earlier barges in, knocking him out with the door. The family believes that delivery man to be working for "The Lloyd", when in fact the man's boss' name is Floyd.

Meanwhile, a nose-picking alien in a space ship passes an edition of the newspaper Joan and the children were in earlier. Upon seeing "Alien picks nose" with Stanley's photo on the front cover, they set off to Earth to kill him. The film ends as Stanley is grilling hamburgers outside. Buster says he wants to try, at which point the aliens appear in the yard. Oblivious to the aliens, Stanley tries to explain to Buster that he is too little to do it. In the process, he inadvertently sets the aliens on fire, and they teleport away.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Running gags

Stanley Stupid and his daughter enter a planetarium and believe they are dead. The janitor talks to them and they believe he is God. They call him Lord, and he corrects them saying his name is Lloyd, and they refer to God as "Lloyd" from then on. The gag is further extended when they are "rescued" by a takeout-delivery man who works for Floyd's Restaurant. They believe he is a guardian angel and assure him that he works for Lloyd, not Floyd. The gag appears in the closing credits, when a final title says "Trust In The Lloyd".

The Stupids' dog, Kitty, and cat, Xylophone, are anthropomorphized- claymation characters that act much more intelligently than their owners. For instance, they solved the "mystery" of why the car wouldn't start. Far from needing the mouth to mouth resuscitation Stanley provided, the problem was that the car keys weren't in the ignition.

Another gag is the name of the film's main antagonist, Colonel Niedermeyer. The Colonel is played by Mark Metcalf, who had previously played Doug Niedermeyer in Animal House. He may be playing the same character, even though the character in Animal House was killed by his own men in Vietnam.[1]

[edit] Reception

The film was a major box office failure, grossing just $2,415,593 in the U.S. Tom Arnold won the 1996 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performances in Big Bully, Carpool and The Stupids.[2][3] The Stupids was also nominated for the award for Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0582420/
  2. ^ "MORNING REPORT". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-09-03/entertainment/ca-40108_1_visual-arts-events. Retrieved 2010-12-30. 
  3. ^ "MOVIE REVIEW Stupids Proves Comedy Isn't Always Pretty". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-09-02/entertainment/ca-39860_1_joan-stupid. Retrieved 2010-12-30. 

[edit] External links

Films directed by John Landis
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