Flirting with Disaster (1996)
In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Stiller) -- joined by his wife (Arquette) and a sexy adoption counselor (Leoni) -- embarks on a cross country search for his "roots." (Miramax)
Cast and Information
Directed By: David O. Russell
Written By: David O. Russell
Starring: Ben Stiller, Richard Jenkins, George Segal, Alan Alda, Josh Brolin, Patricia Arquette, Lily Tomlin, Celia Weston, David Patrick Kelly, Mary Tyler Moore, Téa Leoni, Nadia Dajani
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Where to Stream
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Flirting with Disaster belongs to 13 collections
1. boobs (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 51 stars)
2. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
3. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 17 stars)
4. Drugs (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 16 stars)
5. Male Gay Character(s) in a Non Gay-Themed Film (collaborative: moderated by bobyang - 6 stars)
6. Adoption (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 2 stars)
7. Sex Comedy (collaborative: moderated by edkrak - 2 stars)
8. 1996 Wide-released movies (collaborative: moderated by Roman_Herbom)
9. Available on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)
10. 1996: Year in Review (public: polanski28)
11. 3: High Priority (public: KasperL)
12. to-do (public: chxflx)
13. seen in 2021 (public: sproost)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 1 | VaderMatrix1 | 12 5th |
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this was gay
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Pickpocket | 4 35th |
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Too much self indulgent improv and not enough script to keep me happy. Laughed a few times but with this cast it should've been much better. Another David O. Russell disappointment.
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MJVmovieMan | 80 79th |
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Here's a bizarre film that works on its own quirky palate. Ben Stiller, the brunt of all awkward situational comedy, delivers a great performance among a talented cast. O'Russell's film isn't exactly bust-a-gut laughs, and often works better as observational humor but the movie grows more and more ridiculous and even more humorous as it goes on. This film is definitely not for everyone, but it's ultra-wacky and a bit in its own world, and for that I thought it was somewhat brilliant.
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ktappe | 11 3rd |
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Insipid. Leoni is a very bad actress. Further, the storyline is ludicrous. Certain movies make you feel worse for having watched them. This is one of those.
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chemical404 | 12 1st |
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There is a term 'roaring twenties'. Watching movies from the 90's like this one a term 'retarded nineties' comes to mind. I lost count how many times watching this unfunny and unromantic rom-com I got the feeling that I must have misheard/mis-seen it. Watching Stiller getting blowjob while he's holding a baby in his arms was one of those moments. Cigarette companies must have paid well for all the smoking promotion, the last scene with pregnant woman smoking a cigarette was just wrong.
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| 1 | jxwhee | 90 81st |
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Excellent movie. Well paced. Kind of a forgotten gem.
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moraesfelipe | 75 80th |
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No matter the way you look at it -- a romcom about couples having/adopting/desiring babies, or a road movie about grown-ups acting like kids, or just a very well-acted dialogue showroom full of mishaps, sex jokes and misunderstandings --, it feels impressive, absurd and lovely all at once. Stiller would latter repeat this kind of shy, seinfeldian, come-on-guys-what-did-I-do-? kind of acting, but the rest of the cast is amazing, specially Josh and Richard as the couple of gay feds.
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| 1 | pompousass | 20 44th |
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The fresh material -- blood-drawing jabs at the hallowed institution of B&B's -- is overpowered by the stale: the caricatured Jewish couple, the pop-song montage, the bonking with a frying pan. The term "screwball comedy" will inevitably come to mind, prudently to be followed by a reminder that that's just a label, not a laurel.
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glumpy_99 | 44 7th |
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Utterly baffling, bewildering farce has absolutely no handle on reality, and is populated by generally unfunny, overdrawn caricatures -- though Jenkins is a hoot as an officious pest, and Alda and Tomlin have a few nice moments as ageing hippies. Overall though, its reliance on overdone eccentricity sinks it (exemplified by the embarassingly bad performances by Segal and Moore.)
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Ag0stoMesmer | 1 20th |
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Wacky-family sex-com filled with loads of bullshit pop-psycho-babble. Only made it halfway, another DOR miss.
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| Average Percentile 52.54% from 609 Ratings |  |