BLOGGIN' BIN REVUE

Flashback Friday

“I’ve been kidnapped by KMart!” This film doesn’t have the name recognition in our collective pop culture consciousness, but I think this might be one of the best comedies to come out of the ’80s.

In fact, I’ve just found out that this film was made by ZAZ — the comedy team that gave us Airplane! and The Naked Gun movies — and was the last movie the three directed together.

How much do I love this movie? I’ll go on record and say that today’s Flashback Friday film is better than anything the ZAZ guys made afterwards (and that includes The Naked Gun films).

Don’t let the dated look and sound fool you — Ruthless Peopleis absolutely brilliant. This clip captures the essense of the story:

FUN FACT: Back in the day, I taught conversational English in Japan, and it was part of our lesson to have the students practice English in role play situations. With the more advanced students, I’d give them the Ruthless Peoplesenario: One student would be the kidnapper, calling to demand randsom for the kidnapped spouse. Then I’d have the other student (unbeknowst to the first student) planning to have his/her spouse killed and refuse to pay the randsom.

.