Ruthless People

A moderately amusing exercise, but the principal connection for me is that I read the story upon which it is based (“The Ransom of Red Chief”) many times while waiting in the office of some docter or other (it was in some anthology that was kept in the waiting room). Danny DeVito never did much for me, but here he gives a more restrained performance than usual. Bette Midler is properly acerbic, and Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold are sweetly inoffensive as the inept kidnappers. Is that damning with faint praise? Anyway, a few decent laughs.