Joe's Apartment

Joe's Apartment
Directed by	John Payson
Written by	John Payson
Produced by	John Payson
Starring	Jerry O'Connell Megan Ward Billy West Robert Vaughn Reginald Hudlin Jim Turner Don Ho
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Edited by	Peter C. Frank
Music by	Carter Burwell Moby ("Love Theme" song) Kevin Weist (roach songs)
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	July 26 1996 (USA)
Running time	80 min.
Language	English

Joe's Apartment is a 1996 musical-serio-comic film starring Jerry O'Connell and Megan Ward and the first film produced by MTV Films. It was based on a short 1992 film first made for MTV (which was used as filler in between commercial breaks), but was also inspired by both the 1987 Japanese film Gokiburi-tachi No Tasogare (known as Twilight of the Cockroaches in the USA) and the American short film "Those Damn Roaches", also made in 1987. The main focus of the story is the fact that unbeknownst to many humans, roaches can talk but prefer not to since humans "smush first and ask questions later". They also sing (as they do many times in the movie) and even have their own public access channel. Actors providing the roaches' voices included Billy West, Jim Turner and Dave Chappelle. The film is also Don Ho's first acting role (as Alberto Bianco).

Plot

Joe moves to New York, straight out of college, and is ready to find a job, but first he must find an apartment. After coming up short at a few places he finds, he meets an artist named Walter Shit who laughs at Joe upon realizing Joe is looking for a rent-controlled apartment. Walter tries to explain to Joe that the chances of getting one are nil, one such building in the East Village district owned by the seedy Alberto Bianco and his nephews Vlad and Jesus, who attempt to kill off the tenants in bizarre accidents so Alberto can sell the property to Senator Downing for his maxium security prison project. However, when one of the last tenants, Mrs. Grotowski, manages to walk out the building alive and unable of Vlad and Jesus attempt to kill her, she dies of a heart attack as Joe and Walter pass the building. With Joe catching the woman's keys, Walter comes up with the idea for Joe to pose as Mrs. Grotowski's son so he can take the apartment. Joe, reluctantly, goes along with this idea. The other "tenants" of this apartment (the apparently sapient cockroaches lead by Ralph (voiced by Billy West) aren't sure what to make of him but grew to like Joe because he lives like a slob. When Vlad and Jesus break in to "convince" Joe to move out, the roaches step in and scare the two thugs away while revealing to Joe that they can talk and sing, offering their friendship to him.

Later, as Joe travels through the city in a bus, he sees a beautiful girl tending to a garden. It was while putting up signs for Walter's band, whom he becomes the new drummer of, he gets to meet the girl he saw in the garden, Lily. Coincidentally, Lily is planning to build a huge garden on the same area that the Senator, her father, wants to use for the new prison. However, while looking for a "real" job, Joe gets fired from every job due to the roaches inadvertent following him.. When he's down on the job search, Joe's real mom from back home gets Joe an interview with a classmate from her highschool days, Urinal kingpin PI Smith of P.I. Smith and Sons (P.I.S. & S.), with Joe getting a job as a urinal cake collector. Joe tries to succeed at his job(s) and get Lily to like him, but when P.I.S. & S. suffers a hostile take over by another company, Joe's first gig in Walter's band fails with Walter humiliating him, Joe took Lily to his apartment. However, though he had them promise not to stay in the apartment for the night, the roaches unintentionally scare off Lily, who is horrified that her garden was burned to ashes, thanks to the Bianco cousins who turn their attention to the hotel while a heart-broken Joe goes insane and tries to kill the roaches in a fit of rage. The fight between Joe and the roaches is halted as the hotel explodes in a inferno and reduced to rubble.

With Joe managing surviving the inferno and unconscious, the roaches realize that Joe needs their help, and Ralph doesn't care if they have to "call in favors from every roach, rat and pigeon in New York City" to make it up to Joe. Overnight, the roaches go across New York to gather materials to convert the entire area into a garden while assign the deed of the land to Joe. When a broken Lily accompanies Senator Downing to the prison dedication, she is in awe of the garden as roaches reveal to Lily that Joe's feelings for her before they scattering off into the sewer, with Joe giving her the deed as Senator Downing is amazed and the Senator seeing the error of his ways as he introducing this garden as "Lily Park" before the gathered people. However, Alberto isn't too pleased with this, instructing his nephews to not to plan hits on only the Senator, Lily and Joe, but everyone attending this dedication. However, the roaches depose of the Biancos by having them fall into the exposed manhole they covered. Later, Joe moves with Lily, the two hitting it off while the roaches are getting themselves at right at home in the penthouse.

Reception

IT SUCKED!

External links

• Joe's Apartment at IMDb