madmanmarkd If you have certain expectations of grandeur before viewing this film your probably going to be very disappointed. The title alone says 'leave you're brain at the door'. This type of film's target audience isn't everyone, its for people who enjoy movies like 'Strange Brew' Bob & Doug McKenzie, 'Dumb & Dumber', 'Animal House' even the Three Stooges though they are more slapstick type humor but fit into the genre of ridiculous stupid humor.If you couldn't stand or absolutely hated this movie you could of easily saved yourself from it by realizing Tom Arnold was in the starring role, that alone should have raised a red flag for you if you don't like this type of 'stupid' humor. You should have asked yourself 'what types of movies has Tom Arnold been in before?'I love these types of movies! No not all the time, but those times when I need to really chill, turn off my brain from work, society, everyday life etc... Stupid humor like one of my favorite movies 'Strange Brew' is in order in life now and then. If you were expecting 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Reservoir Dogs' your at the wrong show! 'The Stupids' is just an occasional guilty pleasure when my brain needs a serious break. It's not a laugh a minute, but is very funny throughout. I caught the Mark Metcalf Neidermeyer throwback right away, awesome! Captain Kangaroo from my childhood was a nice addition. Christopher Lee's character was also funny and ludicrous as most of this movie is. It all fits together into a nice 'let's sit down, turn our brains off for awhile and soak in some ridiculous 'stupid' content for a nice break from life'. Not sure who could have nailed Stanley Stupid any better than Tom Arnold, he fits the role very well. The only other one I could think of would be Christopher Lloyd, maybe.If you enjoy mindless humor you owe it to yourself to see this film at some point. If you go to an Iron Maiden concert and complain about the high volume and wonder where Julio Iglesias is your at the wrong show. Same goes for 'The Stupids'. If you go into it expecting an 'A' high caliber movie you have to closely follow the story to try to figure out 'who done it' or who is really the villain 'The Stupids' is not for you. So for the rest who love mindless, ridiculous humor see the movie!

grimjack_28 This movie provides the answer to the age-old question I know some of you have asked yourselves at least once, "How can someone be so stupid and still remain living?" If you're going to enjoy this movie, you have to be a willing co-conspirator, able to reserve judgement. You have to meet this movie on it's own level, not expect it to come to you. Like a play instead of a modern, 'ran through tons of focus groups', Hollywood flick. If you go in feeling lots of skepticism or feel like your 'inner film-critic' wants to watch the movie with you for live analysis, then go see "The Piano". If you want to see an absurd spectacle made of the "modern" nuclear family, with a subversive glint, and a Hollywood (low)budget, perhaps to almost suffocate from laughter, then watch 'The Stupids'. Stanley was a role Tom Arnold was born to play.OK, first understand that this movie isn't played like your average American 'popular comedy' movie.(As evidenced by it's poor box office showing.) The characters come from a series of children's books that gained a global underground following after a number of Family Values Groups tried to get it banned in the US. So that sets the stage for me for what they were actually trying to do with this movie, and I love the hell of out it.The director and the writers and heck, even the underwriters really had some balls to put this movie out like they did. A real gamble to make "a bad movie, well done", totally on purpose. None of the characters are social archetypes that are 'too cool for school', they're not going to bank on pop culture references or nostalgia, they don't expect you to relate to what you're seeing or sympathize with the characters. I don't want to say Brechtian, but it's definitely old-school theatre style. Everything is done for the pure purpose of hilarious spectacle, to make the viewer question both what they're seeing, and their sanity. When Mrs. Stupid comes out wearing that camouflage dress she made out of wigs, I knew I had lost it. You won't see that anywhere else, played straight like it was, like, "there's mom, in a ghillie suit made of wigs.", in perfect context, and almost making sense? You either take this movie at face value, and run the risk of some of the best parts flying over your head, or you can understand that this movie plays on a totally different level. It's very aggressive with it's delivery of gags, then ignores the gag part totally, and then to see how everything nests into everything else so subtly, you almost wonder if the Stupid family are actually of some kind of mad genius savants. They definitely live in a different reality than we do, and the joke of the film is that it actually all works, in a way that isn't forced.See it. Get it from the DVD bargain bin. This film deserves a shot to make you laugh.

trish_kiwi We loved this movie, but it is unavailable down under, will still keep trying to get a copy, but it was one of those movies that kept us laughing all the time. I bet we can all relate to some of those characters in the movie and at some time in our lives we have done some strange and hilarious things as well. My children loved the movie as well and as I say we cannot get it here anymore which is a shame, will have to wait until it comes on television again. Go The Stupids. Love that movie. I do not know much about the director of The Stupids John Landis, what other movies had he done? I still can't believe it didn't get good ratings, like another movie shown here Rat Race, we loved that as well, goodness what do movie critics want in movies, do they want them to entertain us which The Stupids did, and I for one was entertained, sometimes I think the movie critics are too harsh. Loved the dresses the girls wore too, very 50's, also loved the scene in the planetarium where they think they met up with God. At least we could have a laugh.

bitememstie Let's get something straight right off the bat. I'm a MSTie, which those of you in the know means I'm an avid fan of the cult hit Mystery Science Theater 3000. This show revolved around a guy and his 2 robots who were stuck in outer space and forced to watch THE worst movies of all time, and make fun of them. What does this have to do with The Stupids? Well, I love MST3K and bad movies, but even I wasn't prepared for HOW HORRIBLE this movie was. Ah, ahhh! I jus-AHH! I didn't even see the entire thing, but I started watching around the halfway point cuz it was on TV and I was curious. Curiosity killed the cat. It killed the cat and hit it repeatedly with a stick, and urinated on it, and yet the cat didn't suffer half of what it would have if it had decided to just watch some of The Stupids.The movie fails to be funny in every single way. The parts that were made to be funny arn't. The parts that arn't supposed to be funny are disappointing and lame. Then they try to make up for the lameness with more unfunny made to be funny lameness and disapointingness. Everything is predictable and downright, ugh, HORRIBLE. Tom Arnold, as if his life weren't bad enough, chose to be in this stinkburger of a movie. Oh god I feel dirty just writing about it. Who are these child actors and are they out of the business for good now? Nothing is worse than a horrible movie with a decent budget.I have a great sense of humor, but my word, what an absolutely terrible waste of film and waste of time. I warn every one of you, don't. Just don't. This is more painful than a million "Manos" Hands of Fates. 0 out of 10 -andreW