Gordon-11 This film tells the story of a new father who decides to skip his adoptive father's sixtieth birthday celebration to find his biological parents."Flirting with Disaster" has a very happening plot, with new unexpected events every few minutes. It details a trip that goes wrong at every turn, some are innocent mishaps while some are truly disastrous. It illustrates Murphy's Law very well! The story is darkly humorous, it is not laugh out loud funny, but it keeps viewers entertained and engaged with a smile on the face. It is also quite interesting to see what many famous faces looked like twenty years ago. I can't quite believe the policeman is Josh Brolin, for example.

Mr Black This movie was what I would call "Okay" but some of the scenes were a little too contrived and too predictable. I did like Lilly Tomlin and Alan Alda, and Patricia Arquette was good also. But I found the direction rather odd. Some scenes done with a hand held camera come off as amateurish - like they couldn't afford a steady came so they had the guy walk with the camera. Also several shots seem to be done from a moving car - again, kind of amateurish. The strangest thing i thought was the lighting and over all feel of the film. There is absolutely no warmth to the filming at all. It almost looked like the entire thing was shot for television on video. Ben Stiller was good though. I usually like his films and characters.

kneiss1 This is an average Ben Stiller movie. And if I say "average Ben Stiller movie", it must be pretty good comedy compared to other movies. I can't say I am a fan of Ben Stiller, but I like his movies. There really isn't much wrong with this movie... only that it could have been even funnier. Sadly this movie has no visual, nor audible characteristics. Pretty much all this movie is about, is the comedy (and relationships). The comedy itself though never is too silly. That is the real strengths of the movie. Even though Characters are totally extreme, they don't feel absolutely unrealistic. That is very unusual for a Hollywood comedy movie.- I found it refreshing.

Ed Uyeshima Absent since 2004's misbegotten "I Heart Huckabees", filmmaker David O. Russell made a ramshackle screwball farce back in 1996 that's well worth revisiting on DVD, at least until his next film comes along. He was able to blend character-driven humor with moments of pure slapstick as he tracks the misadventures of Mel Coplin, a neurotic entomologist on a frantic search for his birth parents to resolve his long-standing issues with identity. Tina Kalb, a leggy, off-kilter adoption agency worker thinks she's found Mel's mother in San Diego, so Mel, Tina, and Mel's sweetly frumpy wife Nancy, nursing their five-month baby, embark on a journey that becomes ever more haphazard with every turn of events. Unsurprisingly, an attraction develops between Mel and Tina, who is anxious to get pregnant herself. They meet a gallery of eccentric characters in what becomes a memorably wacky road trip. The real coup with this under-appreciated film is the casting. Long before he sold himself up the river with execrably witless comedies like "Meet the Fockers" and "The Heartbreak Kid", Ben Stiller was a promising actor of relative subtlety, and he expertly mans the rudder as Mel with his skittish self-containment. An actress who never seems to fulfill her potential, Téa Leoni brings a mix of klutziness and sexy smarts to the incompetent Tina. As Nancy, Patricia Arquette has a soft, fuzzy quality that makes a nice contrast to Leoni's angularity.Russell was smart to cast four veterans as Mel's two sets of parents. As his adoptive parents, George Segal and a cast-against-type Mary Tyler Moore are hilarious playing classic New York Jewish stereotypes. Moore, in particular, has a field day playing the obnoxious dark side of Rhoda Morgenstern rightfully proud of her unsagging breasts. As the couple who turn out to be Mel's real parents, Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin are equally funny as graying New Mexico hippies heavy into their art and LSD. When Mel meets them, that's when the film becomes a whirlwind, "Noises Off"-type of farce with all the personal shenanigans coming to a head. Playing a gay couple who happen to be FBI agents, a surprisingly deft Josh Brolin ("No Country for Old Men") and the always dependable Richard Jenkins (superb in this year's "The Visitor") shine as bickering personality opposites. Glenn Fitzgerald as Mel's psychotic brother and Celia Weston as a Reagan-loving Southern matron round out a razor-sharp cast. It all ends rather abruptly, but Russell shows a genuine talent for juggling a lot of comic possibilities with supple dexterity. The 2004 Collector's Edition DVD is light on extras - just three deleted scenes, a few outtakes that don't compare to the final film, and a brief featurette on the film's development and production.