Mihai Toma
Alex and Nancy move into their lovely new house full of hope, regardless of the old lady living upstairs. They soon realize that their life is starting to fall apart so they must try to find various solutions to "evacuate" the unwelcome tenant before they lose their minds. Unbeknownst to them, their neighbor is pretty determined to keep her residence, so they'll have to work hard to achieve their goal.I like the whole idea of this movie and thanks to some good acting, a lot of very funny situations come to life. Unfortunately it's a bit too "forced" and very unlikely, kind of the worst that could happen. The ending isn't groundbreaking to say the least, unexpected but stupid at the same time. It's a good movie if you're looking for a laugh, otherwise it's nothing special.
sddavis63
Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore are both likable actors who are usually fun to watch - and that's no less the case in "Duplex." As Alex and Nancy, they play characters who have just bought a new home. The only catch is that they're going to have an elderly woman as a tenant (played by Eileen Essell) and because of rent control laws they can't evict her. Everything seems harmless and innocent enough at first. Essell's Mrs. Connelly does a few things that are irritating (like falling asleep at night with the volume on her TV turned way up) but there's nothing especially bothersome about her. But director Danny DeVito does a great job of slowly turning up the heat in this, so that a slightly bothersome tenant eventually becomes a nightmare of a tenant who drives Alex and Nancy sufficiently around the bend to want to find a way to kill her. I wouldn't exactly call this a dark comedy, although it's a comedy that has some dark moments in it. Both the laughs and the darkness ratchet up immensely with the "choking" scene, when Mrs. Connelly almost chokes to death on a chocolate from a box Alex and Nancy have given her. That was a very funny scene, and from that point on the movie becomes increasingly frenetic in its pace, and even though they're plotting the killing of a little old lady, Alex and Nancy become very sympathetic characters. You can easily understand how Mrs. Connelly would drive them crazy.This worked really well until the end. Then, for some unfortunate reason, the decision was made to throw in a totally unnecessary plot twist. The twist did catch me by surprise (so I suppose it was effective in that regard) but to me it didn't work as an effective way of ending the story, with the end result being that a movie that was at times very funny left me with a bit of a negative feeling. I wouldn't, however, want to let the last five minutes of an otherwise pretty good movie ruin everything. It was still pretty funny, all things considered. (7/10)
Sandcooler
This starts out as a very standard Hollywood comedy, but I quite like how it gradually gets more sinister. Though the murder plans are all handled in a rather quirky way, it's still somewhat intriguing to see the unbearably nice people from the beginning of the movie eventually turn into cold-blooded killers. Especially the casting of the inherently cute Drew Barrymore contributes a lot to that plot element. The actual jokes mostly consist of pedestrian situational comedy (Ben Stiller clumsily breaking into an apartment and always staying at the verge of being caught, that sort of thing), but it's all pretty well-acted so it still makes me laugh. The movie really stands out near its ending though, which is just very well-written and unexpected. It caught me off-guard a little, it's kind of an unpredictable factor in an otherwise rather predictable yet funny film. Quite worth seeing.
writers_reign
Though it's only six years old I don't recall this being released in England or it it was I certainly didn't hear of it. It was screened in the just-before-midnight slot on television last night so I figured I'd watch the first couple of reels and then switch channels. In the event I watched it right through. The plot was not exactly new-minted and I can take or leave the two leads but while it was far from unforgettable it was interesting enough to entertain for one viewing. It's quite possible that the Production team had seen Tatie Danielle and commissioned an English-speaking semi rip-off but there's nothing too much wrong with that, a good four-fifths of the Multiplex audience seldom if ever watch anything with subtitles so it is, in effect, a whole new audience. Most of the gags work, the performances are up to snuff and ultimately it's fairly painless.
AD
