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Ruthless People (1986) poster

1986 · zucker · black-comedy · kidnapping

Ruthless People

Directed by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams1h 34m1986

Sam Stone hates his wife Barbara so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers have to figure out how they're going get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.

Our read: Ruthless People (1986) reads as a warm, breathless, inventive zucker · black-comedy · kidnapping entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.

Movie DNA

Warm, breathless, measured zucker / black-comedy, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.

ElsewhereIMDb6.932kRT93%Metacritic78TMDB6.6447
  • warm
  • kinetic
  • funny
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DNA · twelve axes

How Ruthless People feels to watch.

Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.

MoodHeavy ↔ Cosy
PacingSlow-burn ↔ Kinetic
IntensityGentle ↔ Extreme
WeirdnessConventional ↔ Surreal
HopeNihilistic ↔ Redemptive
StakesIntimate ↔ Epic
HumourNone ↔ Broad
RealityGrounded ↔ Fantastical
DensitySparse ↔ Twisty
WarmthCold ↔ Tender
AuteurTransparent ↔ Signature
Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

“You want '80s kidnapping farce where everybody is awful and loving it.”

ends triumphantyou’ll feel glowing aftergrabs you earlygrips by minute 5attention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upcringe humiliation

Skip it tonight — Skip if cruel marriage jokes, hostage comedy, or loud '80s nastiness offends you.

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