Ruthless People
Ruthless People

Watch Ruthless People Online Free

- 69/100 based on 29,764 votes
  • Released: 1986
  • Runtime: 94 mins
  • Director:
  • Studio: Touchstone Pictures
  • Genres: Comedy

Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) is a clothing manufacturer who married his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) for the money that she was supposed to inherit from her dying father, but her father didn't die for another 15 years. He is now planning to kill her and he tells his girlfriend Carol Dodsworth (Anita Morris) what he intends to do. He then goes home to do just that, but when he gets there, she's not there. He soon receives a call from someone claiming to have kidnapped Barbara and t... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in Ruthless People:

Danny DeVito
Bette Midler
Judge Reinhold
Helen Slater
Anita Morris
Bill Pullman

Full Plot Details

Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) is a clothing manufacturer who married his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) for the money that she was supposed to inherit from her dying father, but her father didn't die for another 15 years. He is now planning to kill her and he tells his girlfriend Carol Dodsworth (Anita Morris) what he intends to do. He then goes home to do just that, but when he gets there, she's not there. He soon receives a call from someone claiming to have kidnapped Barbara and threatening to kill her if he informs the police--which he does, hoping that they do. What Stone doesn't know is that the kidnappers, Ken (Judge Reinhold) and Sandy (Helen Slater) Kessler are a couple whose idea for a garment he stole and made a fortune with, are not that lethal' actually, Barbara is more lethal. Stone also doesn't know that Carol has another boyfriend, Earl Mott (Bill Pullman), and they plan to blackmail Sam by videotaping him disposing of Barbara's body. When Earl goes there to do that, the person who goes there is not Sam but a man with a hooker (Jeannine Bisignano), and he instructs the hooker to scream her head off. Earl mistakenly believes that Barbara's not dead and that Sam is killing her there; he's so freaked out that he doesn't think to make sure it's actually Sam. Carol tries to activate her plan by sending Sam a copy of the tape; Sam thinks that it's for something kinky that Carol wants and when Sam tells her that he'll do to her what was done on the tape and she assumes that he will kill her, so she sends another copy of the tape to the Chief of Police (William G. Schilling), and tells him that she wants him to arrest Sam for murdering Barbara, and the Chief is happy to oblige--because he is the man on the tape. The Chief manages to find the instruments that Sam intended to use to kill Barbara and arrests him. Now Sam must get Barbara back, alive, so he can prove he didn't kill her. Meanwhile, Barbara starts to bond with Sandy.

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Movie Reviews

Washington Post - 10/10 by Rita KempleyRuthless People is a hilariously venal comedy about a kidnapped harridan whose rich husband won’t pay for her return.
Cinemaphile.org - 9/10 by David KeyesA great deal of bizarre circumstances occur in this very effective farce, and for any mind that is easily won over by the insistence of shocking humor, it continues to hold a bewildering power to inspire shock, awe and some unforgettable chuckles.
Radio Times - 9/10 by Jo BerryDeVito and Midler are superb in their roles as the greedy philanderer and his screaming, overbearing other half.
Chicago Tribune - 9/10 by Gene SiskelRuthless People contains some of the biggest laughs of 1986.
Newsweek - 9/10 by David AnsenThe movie is slapstick with a deft character touch here and there. It's hard to keep all the characters and plot lines alive at once, but Ruthless People does it, and at the end I felt grateful for its goofiness.
Orlando Sentinel - 9/10 by Jay BoyarThe idea behind Ruthless People is just about irresistible. Much of the fun of this comedy is in watching what happens as virtually everyone in the movie tries to double-cross or otherwise take advantage of everyone else.
Chicago Reader - 9/10 by Dave KehrJim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the directors of the smash Airplane! and the underrated Top Secret!, here turn their hands to a more traditional character comedy, yet this film's funniest effects still come through their imaginative, frequently astonishing manipulations of the narrative line. It's a rare kind of craftsmanship, and it produces a rare kind of pleasure.
Chicago Sun-Times - 9/10 by Roger EbertDeVito is the mainspring of Ruthless People, the engine of murderous intensity right at the center. His passion is so palpable that it adds weight to all the other performances in the movie.
Philadelphia Daily News - 9/10 by Joe BaltakeThe people who made Ruthless People probably expect us to laugh... at the pushy people who populate their story. And they're right: We will laugh -- not because we have lousy taste (and wicked thoughts) ourselves, but because their film is genuinely funny.
Radio Times - 8/10 by Joanna BerryDeVito and Midler are superb in their roles as the greedy philanderer and his screaming, overbearing other half.

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