A landlord to smooch
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A landlord to smooch |
| Original title | The super |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 84 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rod Daniel |
| script |
Sam Simon , Nora Ephron |
| production | Charles Gordon |
| music | Miles Goodman |
| camera | Bruce Surtees |
| cut | Jack Hofstra |
| occupation | |
| |
A Landlord to Smooch (Original: The Super ) is an American comedy film directed by Rod Daniel from 1991. The film was inspired by a true story.
action
Louie Kritski grows up as the son of the dreaded landlord Big Lou Kritiski and receives his first apartment building for his birthday. Gross and arrogant like his father, he is only interested in the rental income, but not in the welfare of his tenants. He persistently refuses to repair or modernize the house, so Naomi Bensinger, a tenant lawyer, is suing him. In court, Louie is found guilty of his negligence and as a punishment he has to live in his own shack for 120 days. During this period he has time to renovate the apartment building or he has to go to jail afterwards. His father doesn't like this at all, so he threatens his son as well that he will disinherit him as soon as he starts to repair anything.
So he moves into his shabby apartment, with a broken pipe, overloaded electrics, leaking roof, noisy walls and broken furniture. The area is lousy and full of petty criminals, but Louie tries to make the best of it but fails. Not only is his car dismantled and stolen, his girlfriend Heather, who is spoiled by luxury, is also fleeing from his new home. However, that in turn amuses the other tenants, who experience that their cocky landlord now lives in the same misery as they do. But they take their chance and rip him off several times in order to be able to pay off their rent straight away.
And Naomi is also pushing more and more that Louie finally start his repairs. But although he refuses, he gradually begins to determine the conditions under which his new neighbors live, so that he declares himself willing to undertake ever bigger repairs. In doing so, he seems to win not only Naomi's sympathy, but also the resentment of his father Big Lou. But for his commitment to the tenants, Louie is accepted into the community by the tenants and he is allowed to celebrate at the parties. But his father doesn't like this, so he lures Louie out of the house with the promise that he is now bailed. But Louie quickly understands that it is a distraction, because Big Lou also intends to burn down the house with all its residents. Louie rushes back to prevent this, confident of the support of his neighbors. In front of the whole assembled neighborhood, he admits to his father that he is different and that he would rather look after the people instead of just collecting the rent, so that he not only prevents the fire, but also modernizes the house as promised.
criticism
The film received very bad reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website scored 0 positive out of 9 professional reviews, which corresponds to a value of 0%. However, the film was poorly received by the general public, because at the same time only 35% of 6654 users rated the film positively. This in turn is confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , another platform on which normal users can submit their film reviews, because there 2671 users gave the film an average of bad 5.0 out of 10 possible points (as of October 9, 2011).
In the Chicago Sun-Times , the renowned film critic Roger Ebert compared the film with the 1970 comedy The House Owner and saw it as a "more cynical, [...] less ambitious [and] less idealistic" comedy, although Joe Pesci was entertaining Representation of a "stocky, energetic, completely convincing, unbiased and essentially warm-hearted" figure show. This is so good that Pesci deserves both a better direction and a better script, which is too "formulaic".
Since critical issues such as drugs and crime are largely avoided, the film is able to show comedy, said the renowned film critic Janet Maslin in the New York Times . Even the racism in some jokes is skilfully avoided by the fact that the director uses Pesci's “talent for physical clowning” to make his film character always “look ridiculous”.
In the Washington Post , Hal Hinson pounded this "shamelessly clumsy and terribly predictable comedy." The only laughs generated by the film are Pesci's appearances, which "is effective, but doesn't make things any better either". One would rather be "ashamed to laugh, [because] the film is reprehensible and moral at the same time."
The lexicon of international films meant that it was "a comedy with an original idea in its basic idea, which, in addition to some cramped unconventional" camera movements, relies on the heavily grimacing leading actor ".
publication
The film opened in US theaters on October 4, 1991 and grossed just $ 11 million on a production budget of $ 22 million. In Germany it was not even released in cinemas and only appeared on January 11, 1993 on VHS and had its television premiere on April 2, 1995 on ProSieben .
Web links
- The Super in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A landlord to smooch in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ^ A landlord to smooch at movies.nytimes.com , accessed on August 30, 2011
- ^ The Super (1991). rottentomatoes.com, accessed October 9, 2011 .
- ↑ The Super on suntimes.com of 4 October 1991 (English), accessed 30 August 2011
- ↑ Janet Maslin : The Super (1991) on nytimes.com, October 4, 1991, accessed August 30, 2011
- ↑ Hal Hinson: 'The Super' (R) on washingtonpost.com, October 4, 1991, accessed August 30, 2011
- ^ A Landlord to Smooch in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on August 30, 2011
- ↑ The Super at boxofficemojo.com , accessed August 30, 2011