Ruthless People (1986)

Ruthless People is the kind of gleefully nasty, clockwork farce that only the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker sensibility could pull off: a dark premise spun into nonstop comic momentum, where every bad decision ricochets into a bigger, funnier mess. Danny DeVito is wonderfully reptilian as a Beverly Hills snake who thinks he can game a kidnapping, while Bette Midler turns the tables with the kind of volcanic comic force that makes the movie feel like it’s daring you not to laugh. The script keeps tightening the screws with misunderstandings, reversals, and escalating chaos, all delivered with a brisk, satirical bite at rich-people greed and suburban desperation. If you don’t enjoy mean-spirited humor, profanity, and a bit of sex-and-scandal sleaze in your comedy, it may not be your flavor—but if you do, it’s a sharp, crowd-pleasing ride that earns its “ruthless” title.

Ruthless People is trying to be a nasty, fast-talking kidnapping farce where everyone’s greedy, awful, and deservedly humiliated, and in that lane it delivers a steady stream of gags and chaos. The problem is the humor leans hard into loud, crude, and sometimes tasteless territory, so if you don’t enjoy shrill, mean-spirited comedy with raunchy bits and lots of profanity, it’ll wear you down quickly. It also flirts with a truly dark, cynical premise but then plays it safer as it goes, which can make the payoff feel less “ruthless” than advertised. If you like Danny DeVito and Bette Midler chewing scenery in an 80s Zucker-style romp, you’ll probably have fun; if you’re sensitive to sleaze or want cleverness over crassness, skip it.