Flirting With Disaster

Starring:Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, TÃ©a Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, George Segal, Lily Tomlin, Richard Jenkins, Josh Brolin, Celia Weston, Glenn Fitzgerald, Beth Ostrosky, Cynthia Lamontagne, David Patrick Kelly, John Ford Noonan, Charlet Oberly, Nadia Dajani, Don Creech, Clarke Bittner, Tony Kruk
Director: David O. Russell
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Sometimes a filmmaker's second movie gets labeled as a sophomore slump. David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey) shreds that fate with Flirting with Disaster, an outrageous, free-spirited comedy about private people forced into public situations. Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) finds the opportunity he's been waiting a lifetime for: an adoption agency rep (Téa Leoni) has located his birth parents and the agency will fly him to California if they can record the reunion. With wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette) and new son in tow, the neurotic Mel is compelled to discover his origins, despite the protests of his neurotic adoptive parents (a wonderful Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal). To give away the plot any more would be a crime, but as the title states, Mel is on a collision course of Oedipal proportions. Russell, who made incest an intriguing black-comedy topic in Spanking, is very liberal with sex and permits dangerous situations. His characters mix it up at a moment's notice. The two women along for the ride are not just bit players: Leoni (Deep Impact) keeps her high-energy comic routine flying, while the grounded Arquette keeps the baby in arm, despite the mad wanderings of her husband. Stiller is a perfect comic foil. --Doug Thomas

Description

Written and directed by David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, SPANKING THE MONKEY), this hysterically original comedy was cheered by critics and audiences nationwide. In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller, DUPLEX, MEET THE PARENTS) -- joined by his wife (Patricia Arquette, HUMAN NATURE, HOLES), and a sexy adoption counselor (Téa Leoni, PEOPLE I KNOW, HOLLYWOOD ENDING ) -- embarks on a cross country search for his "roots." Yet as he careens from one outrageous situation to another, Mel finds himself tempted by the seductive counselor -- even as his wife starts a flirtation of her own! By the time they meet up with his free-spirited birth parents, the whole situation is spinning hysterically out of control! Also starring Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, and Lily Tomlin, this hilarious hit is sure to entertain everyone!

Customer Reviews:

this is not a funny movie.......2007-03-27

these people are insane; there's not a single laugh in this whole movie. it's even less funny than i heart huckabees, and that's saying something.

god knows how this guy ever made three kings. honestly, it's just unbelievable.

Sea of Strange.......2005-09-02

"Flirting With Disaster" is a wild romp directed by David O. Russell who burst onto the scene with "Spanking the Monkey" and has since directed "Three Kings" with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg & Ice Cube and "I Heart Huckabees." He does a good job keeping us off balance and having each new scene and character provide something fresh.

Ben Stiller has developed into one of the United States' true comic stars. Son of Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara, his timing is edgy and his ability to portray confused discomfort in awkward situations is classic. With better known films like "There's Something About Mary," "Meet the Parents," "Meet the Fockers," "Dodgeball," "The Royal Tannenbaums" & "Starsky & Hutch," he's developed a large body of excellent work. As Mel Coplin, he's a quiet family man who has trouble making decisions, like naming their baby who was born months ago. As an adoptee, he starts out on a search to find his birth parents.

Patricia Arquette plays his wife Nancy. She recently was nominated for an Emmy for Best Actress in a drama for the NBC series "Medium" (a show that I watch every episode!). She's previously acted in "Holes," "Beyond Rangoon" & "Little Nicky." As Nancy, she seems to be the anchor for the movie, the lone island of sanity in a sea of strange.

As the Coplins, Mel's adoptive parents, George Segal plays the father. From classic films "The Owl & the Pussycat" & "A Touch of Class," his lone Oscar nomination was in 1966 as supporting actor for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" with Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor. His comic sense is in full flare as he pushes and pulls with his wife in an ongoing struggle. Mary Tyler Moore plays his wife, self-obsessed, chronically uptight & full of complaint. Tyler's lone Oscar nomination came as best actress in the Robert Redford-directed 1980 film "Ordinary People." The buzz from this film was that she appeared in a provocative black bra that she does indeed wear well! :)

Mel Coplin is assisted in trying to find his birth parents by a psychology student Tina played by Tea Leoni. She'll soon be seen in "Fun With Dick & Jane" with Jim Carrey & Angie Harmon. Other films where I've enjoyed her performances are the serious disaster movie "Deep Impact" and the funny "Spanglish." Here her character is edgy and neurotic, a divorcee attracted to Mel, trudging to the bathroom in provocative black underwear. She has an uncanny ability to screw things up & continually throw monkey wrenches into what we think SHOULD have been easier.

Midway into the picture after Mel thinks he's met his father, a low-brow truck driver, and takes a driving lesson only to flatten a post office & discover his real parents are elsewhere, we run into two agents from the FBI & Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. Josh Brolin, son of actor James Brolin, plays Tony who knew Nancy Coplin from high school. As an actor, Brolin has appeared in Woody Allen's "Melinda & Melinda," "Bed of Roses," & has "Into the Blue" out this year. His partner we discover is also his gay husband Paul played by Richard Jenkins. Jenkins will star with Leoni & Carrey in "Fun With Dick & Jane" and is best known for the HBO series "Six Feet Under." He was nominated as best supporting actor by the Independent Spirit Awards for this film. Both characters are a mix of the orthodox and unexpected. Brolin has a scene-stealer where he licks Nancy's armpit as her husband walks in. Jenkins has a scene-stealer as he's been laced with an overdose of LSD and flits around the countryside in his tighty-whities.

The Coplins eventually find their birth parents who are counter culturals making their living by selling LSD-laced decals of Ronald Reagan. One of the funnies moments is when Mary Tyler Moore misunderstands their last name "Schlicting" and calls them the "Sh*t Kings." Alan Alda, known for the long-running "MASH" TV series as well as films like "The Object of My Affection" with Jennifer Aniston & Paul Rudd and his recent Best Supporting Actor nomination for "The Aviator," plays Richard Schlicting, an old hippy who followed the Grateful Dead. His wife Mary Schlicting is played by Lily Tomlin to great affect. She's the perfect counter-cultural earth mother. Tomlin, whose lone Oscar nomination was for her supporting role in the 1975 film "Nashville" and was a delightful Golden Globe nominee for one of my favorite films, "All of Me" in 1984, was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Independent Spirit Awards for this film. Both provide wonderful moments and keep the comedy pace bubbling. Their misfit punk son Lonnie Schlicting is played to great effect by Glenn Fitzgerald who also appeared with Ryan Gosling in the white supremacist film "The Believer" and in "The Sixth Sense." His maladjusted neurosis suits the film's wild comedy perfectly.

This is a film that keeps moving with overlapping dialogue & nonstop breakneck pacing. While the characters can be so strange that they border on the irritating, all in all it's a good piece of comic film worth checking out performed by an all-star cast. Enjoy!

good clean fun!.......2005-05-02

Really deserves 3.5 stars but I'll give the extra 1/2 star due to Tea Leoni's fetchingness.

Well all in all this is nowhere as good as David Russel's other films "Three Kings" or "I Heart Huckabees" but not bad either.

You certainly won't be bored, or confused---the plot is simple but played at hyperspeed, it's basically a comedy of the absurd with a minimum of Message/subtext, just a lot of slapstick as well as comic irony. Very easy on the brain...

However there is no laugh track so thicker viewers might be scratching their heads at some of the non-slapstick humor.

Probably the whole film can be summed up in the final scene, when two straightlaced evangelical types explain their opposition to gay marriage leading to gays adopting children with, "Imagine all the neurosis those poor children would have to live with"---when in fact what we've been watching is 2 hours of 100% HETEROSEXUAL traditional-family neurosis!!! : )

PERFECTLY PLAYED.......2005-02-23

If you appreciate sitcoms like "Strangers With Candy" you will love this
outrageous comedy. Right-wing Christians would condamn it!

Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars.......2004-12-07

This is an absolutely stunning, painfully funny film, shamefully underrated (see also 'Office Space', 'Dirty Work' for similarly overlooked comic masterpieces). I'm not such a huge Ben Stiller fan, apart from in 'Mary, and 'Royal Tennenbaums', but he is perfectly cast here, as a reticent man, forced into some horrifically uncomfortable public humiliations.

It wouldn't be fair to reveal much of the plot, but the climax of Stiller's search for his biological parents is pure gut-renching black comedy.

Don't believe the critics who give this anything less than 5 stars - this is top-quality entertainment, for those who like their comedy black, and on the dry side.

Average customer rating:

this is not a funny movie
Sea of Strange
good clean fun!
PERFECTLY PLAYED
Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars

Flirting With Disaster
Starring: Ben Stiller , Patricia Arquette , Téa Leoni , Mary Tyler Moore , and Alan Alda
Director: David O. Russell
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Screwball Comedy | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

Zero Effect
Spanking the Monkey
Election
Bottle Rocket
I Heart Huckabees

ASIN: B00000IQC7
Release Date: 1999-06-15

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

this is not a funny movie.......2007-03-27

Sea of Strange.......2005-09-02

good clean fun!.......2005-05-02

PERFECTLY PLAYED.......2005-02-23

If you appreciate sitcoms like "Strangers With Candy" you will love this
outrageous comedy. Right-wing Christians would condamn it!

Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars.......2004-12-07

Average customer rating:

Playing By Heart/Flirting With Disaster
Starring: Ben Stiller , Patricia Arquette , Téa Leoni , Mary Tyler Moore , and Alan Alda
Director: David O. Russell , and Willard Carroll
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( P ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00006FDD3
Release Date: 2002-11-19

Description

Flirting With Disaster - DVD- Written and directed by David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, SPANKING THE MONKEY), this hysterically original comedy was cheered by critics and audiences nationwide. In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller, DUPLEX, MEET THE PARENTS) -- joined by his wife (Patricia Arquette, HUMAN NATURE, HOLES), and a sexy adoption counselor (Téa Leoni, PEOPLE I KNOW, HOLLYWOOD ENDING ) -- embarks on a cross country search for his "roots." Yet as he careens from one outrageous situation to another, Mel finds himself tempted by the seductive counselor -- even as his wife starts a flirtation of her own! By the time they meet up with his free-spirited birth parents, the whole situation is spinning hysterically out of control! Also starring Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, and Lily Tomlin, this hilarious hit is sure to entertain everyone! Playing By Heart - DVD- A sexy, romantic comedy about modern couples coming together in funny and unexpected ways, PLAYING BY HEART features an amazing cast of hot stars! Paul (Sean Connery -- FINDING FORRESTER) and Hannah (Gena Rowlands -- THE MIGHTY) discover that even after 40 years of marriage, they can still learn some very surprising things about each other! Meredith (Gillian Anderson -- THE X-FILES) is a serious theatre director who isn't looking for a relationship ... but has one looking for her in the person of the funny, persistent Trent (Jon Stewart -- JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK)! Then there's Joan (Angelina Jolie -- TOMB RAIDER) and Keenan (Ryan Phillippe -- GOSFORD PARK), young people searching for love in an L.A. club scene where the rules of dating seem to change every night! A witty, charming motion picture that critics loved -- you, too, will fall for this seductive treat!

Charlie Rose with Mary Tyler Moore; Johnny Apple & Tom Wicker; Bob Colacello (December 7, 1995)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Mary Tyler Moore; Johnny Apple & Tom Wicker; Bob Colacello (December 7, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, actress Mary Tyler Moore talks about her autobiography, After All, and her upcoming films Keys to Tulsa and Flirting with Disaster, which stars Ben Stiller. Then, Johnny Apple and Tom Wicker, both of The New York Times, discuss the late James "Scotty" Reston, reporter, Washington bureau chief, and a columnist for The New York Times. Finally, a conversation with Bob Colacello, Vanity Fair, about settling tobacco heiress Doris Duke's estate.

Average customer rating:

this is not a funny movie
Sea of Strange
good clean fun!
PERFECTLY PLAYED
Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars

Flirting with Disaster [Region 2]
Starring: Ben Stiller , Patricia Arquette , Téa Leoni , Mary Tyler Moore , and Alan Alda
Director: David O. Russell
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Zero Effect
Spanking the Monkey
Election
Bottle Rocket
I Heart Huckabees

ASIN: B00004RYV2

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

this is not a funny movie.......2007-03-27

Sea of Strange.......2005-09-02

good clean fun!.......2005-05-02

PERFECTLY PLAYED.......2005-02-23

If you appreciate sitcoms like "Strangers With Candy" you will love this
outrageous comedy. Right-wing Christians would condamn it!

Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars.......2004-12-07

Charlie Rose with Joseph Rotblat; David O. Russell; Jay McInerny; Noah Adams (May 10, 1996)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Joseph Rotblat; David O. Russell; Jay McInerny; Noah Adams (May 10, 1996)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, Physicist Joseph Rotblat was the only scientist to leave the Manhattan Project before the A-bomb was tested. Ten years later, he signed the historic Russell-Einstein Manifesto. It called for the end to all nuclear weapons and was the beginning of Rotblat's fifty year fight for total nuclear disarmament. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 and tonight he talks to Charlie about his cause. Then, filmmaker David O. Russell discusses his new film, Flirting With Disaster. It is about a young father's search for his biological parents, which sends him on a cross-country trek. Also, author Jay McInerny's 1984 debut, Bright Lights, Big City chronicled the excess of the 1980s and made him an overnight success. More than a decade later, he talks to Charlie about the dawn of a new century and his latest book, The Last of the Savages. Finally, Noah Adams, host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, talks about his experience learning the piano at age 51 and the book it led to, Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures.

Average customer rating:

this is not a funny movie
Sea of Strange
good clean fun!
PERFECTLY PLAYED
Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars

Flirting with Disaster [Region 2]
Starring: Ben Stiller , Patricia Arquette , Téa Leoni , Mary Tyler Moore , and Alan Alda
Director: David O. Russell
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Zero Effect
Spanking the Monkey
Election
Bottle Rocket
I Heart Huckabees

ASIN: B000050FJH

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

this is not a funny movie.......2007-03-27

Sea of Strange.......2005-09-02

good clean fun!.......2005-05-02

PERFECTLY PLAYED.......2005-02-23

If you appreciate sitcoms like "Strangers With Candy" you will love this
outrageous comedy. Right-wing Christians would condamn it!

Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars.......2004-12-07

Average customer rating:

this is not a funny movie
Sea of Strange
good clean fun!
PERFECTLY PLAYED
Some Jokers might think this isn't worth 5 stars

Flirting with Disaster [Region 2]
Starring: Ben Stiller , Patricia Arquette , Téa Leoni , Mary Tyler Moore , and Alan Alda
Director: David O. Russell
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video