s k Yet another Hollywood production that tries to capitalize on previous hits.This burner is the "Throw Momma From The Train" from hell installment.It's not funny.It's alarmingly predictable.Stiller is his usual mediocre performer.Drew is totally wasted.While Essell is, admittedly, spot on.This film is the opposite of Gestalt: The whole is most definitely less than the sum of its parts.

Davis P Duplex stars Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller. They play a couple that is moving into a new duplex, but it's about to become a living hell once they realize who their neighbor is. Their neighbor is an older woman who lives alone and she has to be one of the most annoying neighbors ever. The couple is practically driven to insanity because of all of her antics. The writing can be somewhat weak at times, it has some funny moments, but mostly that's thanks to the actors and their performances, not the script. I liked Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller in the film, they gave good humorous performances and they worked well together, had pretty good on screen chemistry. Usually I'm not a big fan of Stiller, just because sometimes I think he can be more annoying that actually funny, and he does have those moments here, but it's not pervasive. I also loved Eileen Essel in the movie. What a fine performance! Just goes to show you that age has no bearing on whether you can still act or not. She nailed her character. Annoying as ever, but all done with a smile on her face. I loved the ending too, very clever, very very clever. 7/10 for Duplex.

SnoopyStyle Alex Rose (Ben Stiller) and Nancy Kendricks (Drew Barrymore) are looking for a place. They find a nice duplex in Brooklyn for a very reasonable price except Mrs. Connelly (Eileen Essell) is the rent control tenant upstairs. Kenneth (Harvey Fierstein) is the real estate agent. Officer Dan (Robert Wisdom) comes in to investigate when the couple keeps getting in trouble over the little old lady.Director Danny DeVito is pushing hard for this slapstick dark comedy. I find little of it funny. I really don't like this couple and I like the little old lady even less. The old lady is too fake and really annoying. It's a lot of fake niceties and passive aggressiveness. I don't like passive aggressive characters sometimes and I really dislike this one. As annoying as it is for the couple, it is more annoying to watch them being annoyed. The more annoying the annoying old lady gets annoying the annoying couple, the more annoyed I got about the annoying antics. I did like the reveal or maybe I like that it was over.

Steve Pulaski What makes Duplex almost likable is its lead actors and their simple goal they can not achieve; a simplistic living style in their apartment. They are in such desperation they aren't able to think straight so they resort to very drastic and very dirty measures. What makes Duplex fail is its repetition of the same jokes over and over again and how fast the film runs out of ideas and things for the actors to say.If it were in the hands of a couple of College kids, making a short film for film school and it went on for about an hour and twenty minutes less than what it did, maybe it would've been cute and a bit clever. Danny DeVito's choice to direct this oddball fiasco is questionable and debatable if he even cares about films anymore. I mean a year prior he directed the Robin Williams mess Death to Smootchy, but at least Duplex manages to surpass that wreck.The plot: Alex (Stiller) and Nancy (Barrymore) are a couple looking for a house in New York. They want something nice, roomy, and affordable. They find a seemingly satisfying duplex which seems like their cup of tea. Adam is a writer, so he needs concentration, and Nancy is a magazine designer, so she needs some soft work time as well.The duplex they choose is very old fashioned and very well built, but upstairs lives an old woman named Mrs. Connelly (Essell). She is rent controlled, and she loves to watch TV at the max volume late at night and loves to make Alex and Nancy do her chores. She is a frail old woman, and vulnerable and so sweet looking that, naturally, if they don't help the woman out Alex and Nancy will feel guilty and cold-hearted.For the first thirty minutes I found these characters quite amusing, but then their low brow antics and some of the film's gross out humor goes way to far. The scene of them fixing Mrs. Connelly's sink is disgusting and unnecessary. I expected DeVito to have a bit more sense of real comedy rather than getting the cheapest laughs from the cheapest jokes.After the thirty minute mark and as we slowly approach the hour mark we begin to realize Duplex keeps spitting the same tiresome and boring jokes we've seen so many times before. The old lady doesn't do much but make them do chores and play the TV too loud. While that is incredibly annoying for everyone, that is pretty much the extent of Mrs. Connelly's torture. I was hoping for more destruction of their personal lives and property.Duplex is a one-note comedy, and while it opens rather promising introducing likable characters, the overall chemistry between Stiller and Barrymore isn't strong enough to believe and doesn't fit the requirements to sustain a ninety minute run time. It begins to drag on to meet the limits of a normal film. I appreciated Eileen Essell's portrayal of the elderly woman and how she can get to be such a royal pain, and was glad it was done at the point where you really see her as the true antagonist of the film. It isn't the worst I've seen, but it truly is far from any level of good humor.Starring: Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, and Eileen Essell. Directed by: Danny DeVito.