Ruthless People (1986) Review: Crude and Hilarious

Back in the days, before reality TV shows became so popular that it got its own award category, an 80’s comedy caper didn’t need to pretend it’s unscripted to deliver comedy gold.

Danny DeVito and Bette Midler lead a cast of vile characters that have little to no redeeming qualities. Both turned in perfectly vulgar performances while the rest of the cast delivered their jokes without fail.

The well-written script is gleefully silly and unapologetically crude. It starts simple and becomes increasingly twisted as the characters prey on each other.

A clueless couple kidnaps the wife of a wealthy businessman. He refuses to pay the ransom hoping they kill her. The couple keeps her alive instead and plots her own revenge.

The dialogue is filled with quotable snippets such as Barbara saying, I’ve been kidnapped by K-mart! and Sam telling his mistress that he married his wife because, Her father was very, very rich, and very, very sick.

Ruthless People is contrived, lewd, and filled with dumb to awful characters (even the bystanders). It’s also hilarious and showcases great performances.

Ruthless People is a riot that you can still watch today and it’ll still be hilarious.