The summer's best vulgar Hollywood farce.

| Jul 30, 2024

One tires of the movie's relentlessly shrill tone and its excessively raunchy jokes.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 20, 2021

Bette Midler's mastery of lovably obnoxious mannerisms has never had such deliciously wicked exposure, Danny De Vito brings his trademark sleazoid to full seriocomic flower, and Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater approach perfection...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 20, 2021

Directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker are the same guys who who gave us "Airplane!" six years ago and "Ruthless People" is a lot funnier and meaner.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 20, 2021

There are both belly laughs and chuckles along the way, and comedy that shows the skill of writer, directors and actors, all put together for optimum results.

| Apr 20, 2021

The characters here aren't just bad; most of them are truly vile -- human slime. And the film makers chew them up (especially two nefarious bonbons played by Danny DeVito and Bette Midler) with the toothsome glee of jolly cannibals.

| Jul 31, 2013

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.

| Jul 31, 2013

An undemanding but well-executed entertainment.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 31, 2013

Ruthless People contains some of the biggest laughs of 1986.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 31, 2013

It's a rare kind of craftsmanship, and it produces a rare kind of pleasure.

| Jul 31, 2013

Ruthless People is a hilariously venal comedy about a kidnapped harridan whose rich husband won't pay for her return.

| Mar 26, 2009

A 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.

| Jun 24, 2006

Though ''Ruthless People'' has few moments to equal the inspired lunacies of ''Airplane!'' it's a true farce -- uniformly, cheerily nasty...

| May 21, 2003

DeVito is the mainspring of Ruthless People, the engine of murderous intensity right at the center. His passion is so palpable that it adds weight to all the other performances in the movie.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000