Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Flirting with Disaster (1996) Movie Reviews

Cast: Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni, Patricia Arquette, Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda

Running Time: 86 min.

Genre: Comedy

Rating: R

Synopsis: In this satirical comedy, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) has a beautiful wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and a four-month old son, and on the surface his life is good. But something's been troubling him: Mel knows he was adopted, and he can't resolve his issues with the mother who gave him away years ago, much to the annoyance of his adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore). Mel decides it's time he met his birth parents and resolved his feelings once and for all, and Tina (Tea Leoni), a psychology student, has offered to tag along to capture the event on video for a research project. But after a few minutes with Mel's real mother, they discover that a mistake has been made and they've been directed to the wrong person. A second meeting, this time with Mel's supposed dad, also turns out to be a mistake, and it's quite some time before Mel, Nancy, and Tina are finally face to face with Mel's biological parents -- a pair of burned-out hippies (played by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin) who support themselves by dealing blotter acid daubed onto pictures of Ronald Reagan. It doesn't help that Mel finds himself attracted to the very leggy Tina, or that Nancy's head is turned by a bisexual ATF agent (Josh Brolin). Writer/director David O. Russell previously made a splash with his independent debut feature, 1994's Spanking the Monkey.~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

User Rating

User Reviews

Rate it!
Critic Rating

Critic Reviews

About the Graph & Metric

Reviews

Sort by:

User Reviews

There are currently no user reviews for this film. Be the first to rate it below!

Rate This Movie!

Please sign in or sign up to rate this movie.