Big Business (1988)

Yes, it's probably just because it was a favorite as a kid, but I really like Big Business. It is still as entertaining as it was when I was younger. Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin do a great job in their dual roles and their comedic timing is excellent. This is a movie I'd like to own.

"Big Business" reminds me of some of the great comedy teams from Hollywood's Golden Age. A total laugh feast from start to finish this film strangely doesn't seem to have a high profile as comedies go however it is recommended viewing for anyone wanting a good old fashioned belly laugh and to see a comedy with probably the highest number of side splitting one liners in living memory. The premise of identical twins being mixed up at birth and meeting years later creating amusing complications is a tried and try formula for comedy however in "Big Business", it is given a new freshness by the two leads who literally fly away with the material here. It's got a really simple plot, In a small town of Jupiter Hollow, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night. One set to a poor local family and the other to a rich family just passing through. Then the story flashes forward to the 1980's where the mismatched sets of twins are about to cross paths following a big business deal to close-down the Jupiter Hollow factory. The film is shot in New York.Overall, I had a great time revisiting the film. 'Big Business' is just as funny the first time I saw it. The film will certainly have plenty of critics, but the film was never meant to be taken seriously. The film is harmless fun and makes for a very funny experience even today. Built on a solid script the films hilarious humor performance delivery was spot on, special effects were flawless and the music sets the scenes perfectly, in this must revisited 1980's comedy classic.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

An overworked country nurse makes the mistake of a lifetime, and for poor country folk having a set of twins at the same time as a pair of wealthy social butterflies, it results in the mix-up to end all mix-ups. 30 something years go by and years later, Bette Midler is the Alexis Carrington like rich bitch who runs a conglomerate. "Is this how you dress for the office? You look like a blood clot!", she tells the receptionist upon entering her conglomerate. "Twin" Lily Tomlin is the shy sort who has much more scruples than her hard-nosed sister, but there's another set of identical twins in Jupiter Hollow where ironically all four were born within minutes of each other. Jupiter Hollow's Bette yodels as she milks a cow and the tougher Tomlin is out to prevent a big city corporation from tearing down the small community in order to put their own sinister, money making plans in order.Learning of a big meeting in New York City, the small-town Midler and Tomlin arrive with the intention of interrupting it to prevent the strip mining of their community. Lovers of all four all gather together where all is revealed after a brilliantly staged repeat of the Groucho/Harpo mirror sequence from "Duck Soup". Each actress adds different qualities to each of their roles, so other than wearing the same outfits in one sequence, it is easy to see who is who, which one is the poorly raised one and which one is the wealthilly raised one. The result is a farce of hysterical proportions that is worth seeing over and over again.

The 1988 film "Big Business," directed by Jim Abrahams, stars two well-known actresses, Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, who both play duel roles of twins mixed up at birth in the 1940s. The names chosen for both sets of twins were Rose and Sadie. The Shelton twins were born to a wealthy couple from New York; the Ratliff twins are from a low-income family that lived in Jupiter Hollow. One of the Shelton twins was given to the Ratliff family and vice-versa. Jump forty plus years to the 1980s. The Shelton twins inherited their father's corporation Moramax in New York City, and the Ratliff twins work at the Hollow-Made Factory in Jupiter Hollow, the town in which they were born. Moramax is planning to shut down the factory and to strip-mine Jupiter Hollow. The Ratliff's come to New York City to save the factory and town from the Shelton's corporation. Both the Ratliff's and Shelton's stay in the Plaza Hotel in NYC, not knowing their real twins were also there. They end up meeting each other right before Moramax's big meeting, and Rose Shelton agrees with Sadie and Rose Ratliff to save the factory and Jupiter Hollow. "Big Business" presents two central ideas. One idea is that two sets of twins can be born on the same night in the same hospital can be switched at birth and can meet one another later in life. Another idea would be that the "big guy" doesn't always win. The "big guy" in this movie would be the Moramax corporation and the "little guy" would be the Hollow-Made Factory. I say this because at the end of the movie the Ratliff's end up saving their town and factory from the Shelton's large corporation. I thought that this movie was hilarious; it receives five stars. I watch this movie over and over and never seem to get tired of it. I loved how both Midler and Tomlin play two completely opposite roles, redneck and snobbish. The southern accents (in my opinion) were excellent. This movie is similar to the "Green Acres" television show, only the rednecks end up in New York City. I wish that the director would make a sequel to see how Jupiter Hollow, the factory, and Moramax are doing.