NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Shlomo Shekelberg
It's a difficult undertaking for someone of my generation to watch a film like The Pest. Not because it's "too old" or "too boring", but because it has been hailed--almost universally--as the single best motion picture ever made. And while the anticipation of seeing a film with such overwhelming acclaim may be quite exhilarating, actually watching it is ultimately an intimidating and somewhat disappointing experience.But what exactly is so special about it? Is it its great genre mix, never equaled by another film? When we think of 'The Pest' first, we remember it as a romantic film (well, most of us do). But then again, its also a drama involving terror, murder and flight. One can call it a character study, centering on Pest. And there are quite a few moments of comedic delight like the plane scene and when Louis Theroux appeared.What makes this film so powerful is the message that it made at the time of its release. This film came out at a height of paranoia of the nuclear age and the Cold War, right around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This film depicts a horrible, tragic incident in which a breach in the government and a few diplomatic mistakes result in nuclear holocaust. So, why didn't this film inspire panic? Because of the brilliant way in which Miller presents it... as a satire. The scariest thing about this film in retrospect is not how it depicts the impending doom of the Cold War, but how it makes you laugh at it. By presenting it with humor, it conveys just how much of a farce the nuclear arms race was in real life. And I don't think that any other film has captured the absurdity of war nearly as well as this one has. And I am not likely to believe that one ever will. In my opinion, Paul Miller has never made a better film since. And kudos to John for his astounding performance, as well as Brendan Frasier for the most versatile acting I've seen from an actor in one film. Beware of fluoridation!
Ben Harnish
I actually joined this site simply to write in about this movie. I was sitting in my living room and this movie came on one of the local channels. I made it about an hour through before I simply had enough. Curious to see what the general movie-opinionated public thought of this movie, I looked it up on this site. I was absolutely shocked to see that there were an overwhelming amount of people that thought it was great. I needed to have my say, and here it is: This movie is absolute garbage. It was a chore to sit through. The "jokes" were uninspired rehashes from other, better shows and movies, and Leguizamo's manic portrayal of this obnoxious character should only appeal to age ten and below. That actually may be a stretch even for that age. I'm all for slapstick ridiculousness, but there isn't even the faintest hint of wit or cleverness. I have an idea, lets take bad uninspired obvious jokes and play them at twice the speed. Now that's funny. Ha. Ha.Movies that you should see that take silly humor and add comic timing and originality: The Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut,...and the list goes on. Don't lose an hour and a half of your life on unmemorable crap.By the way, I can only assume that the reason that David Bar Katz (the other writer) did VERY little in film after this movie is because he was instantly blacklisted. I'm actually impressed that Leguizamo was able to recover after this mess.
Jon Hutson
What can I say about this film. Well I'd no intention of watching it when I did, before then I'd never heard of it, but sure enough on a bus trip in Eastern Europe I was going to take in the whole film.Well there we were, myself, my wife and two other travel buds on a bus from Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. It was a route I knew well, crappy road windy hills. Not a nice journey to experience whilst still in the depths of a Mastika hangover. Still these things have to be done.Any how this film just came up on our journey, and with a hangover it really was the funniest film I'd ever seen, although trying to watch it whilst trying not to be sick was something of a challenge. It had not helped that after a short pit stop on the way we got back on the bus last and had ended up on the worst seats, the one's at the back. So I might well just have been on a ferry crossing in rough seas. Going green doesn't't even describe it.Any back to the film, well this stupid idiotic film came on, and bizarrely enough it was excellent. Totally carried by the sharp intensity of lead actor, yes that guy that also did the voice over for the Ice Age Sloth. I felt like I was watching Jim Carrey before Jim Carriey's time. Only this guy John Leguizamo seemed to have even more energy.Needless to say I was constantly in stitches followed by the need for deep breaths and focus to overcome the nasty green spells.After a night on the sauce or during, I'd highly recommend this film.Certainly a departure from the main.
slick_moon
This movie is just not at all funny. It's a vehicle to showcase the dubious talents of John Leguizamo, apparently the world's most irritating and least entertaining man. Like a Latino Chris Rock but without the shyness and self effacing humility. I actually watched this having been taken in by the favourable comment then shown on this site without hitting "search for other comments". In retrospect the reason for this individual's thorough enjoyment of The Pest is obvious from the terrible grammar, missing and multiple punctuation, and towards the end of the review, CAPITAL letters appearing in the MIDDLE of sentences for NO apparent REASON. An example of the film's humour: The star does a rap in the shower over the opening credits, involving various impressions. The longest of these is The Count from Sesame Street, counting his farts which he calls "stinkie pinkies" and making mock disgusted faces. If this sounds hilarious to you, then by all means YOU must see THIS MOVIE!!!!
