78
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrJim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the directors of the smash Airplane! and the underrated Top Secret!, here turn their hands to a more traditional character comedy, yet this film's funniest effects still come through their imaginative, frequently astonishing manipulations of the narrative line. It's a rare kind of craftsmanship, and it produces a rare kind of pleasure.
- 90Orlando SentinelJay BoyarOrlando SentinelJay BoyarThe idea behind Ruthless People is just about irresistible. Much of the fun of this comedy is in watching what happens as virtually everyone in the movie tries to double-cross or otherwise take advantage of everyone else.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie is slapstick with a deft character touch here and there. It's hard to keep all the characters and plot lines alive at once, but Ruthless People does it, and at the end I felt grateful for its goofiness.
- 88Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelRuthless People contains some of the biggest laughs of 1986.
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyTHE most irresistible thing about the characters in Ruthless People, a conspicuously overconsuming, Beverly Hills update of O. Henry's classic Ransom of Red Chief, is that they all try with such earnestness to live up to their ruthless reputations. It also has a uniformly splendid cast of comic actors - the best to be seen outside of any recent Blake Edwards movie. Its screenplay, by the newcomer Dale Launer, is packed with wonderfully vulgar, tasteless lines that perfectly reflect the sensibilities of Sam and Barbara Stone.
- 80Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonSo much of Ruthless People goes so far that maybe it was inevitable that the film makers would pull up short and make this half-sappy compromise--cynicism with a smile--as compensation for their previous audacity. A pity. A lot of the rest gives you something better: full-bore, shameless, gut-clutching laughter.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineEveryone in the movie seems to have a comic moment, because the laughs are piled on top of each other. Call it rude, crude, and lewd, but you also have to call it very funny.
- 75Miami HeraldMiami HeraldThe acting, along with a wonderfully witty script and more madcap plot twists than a gaggle of Hitchcock films, lets Ruthless People ruthlessly overshadow its summer comedy competition. In Ruthless People, Midler at long last is allowed a full stretch of her talent and is given a chance to be both the actress and the funny lady. [27 June 1986, p.D8]
- 70Time Out LondonTime Out LondonA pity that the directors prove less ruthless than their own creations, but there is more than enough here for people who enjoy murder attempts on cute pet poodles.