The 29th film I have seen in theaters…
The first movie from MTV, this is the tale of Joe and the cockroaches that live with him…. So bad that I’m amazed MTV Films survived.
Joe moves to New York City and gets into a rent controlled (low cost) apartment by pretending to be the son of the deceased old woman that lived there. He soon discovers that he has roommates… thousands of singing and dancing cockroaches. A Senator wants to bulldoze the building and build a prison. The Senator’s Daughter, Lily, wants to plant a community garden. They all come together to “maybe” save the day. There’s also a guy named Walter Shit in this movie.
Jerry O’Connell plays Joe. He’d already been acting for a while when this came out and luckily he survived this mess. He continues to act, having appeared in Sliders, Scream, and many other projects. He’s been voicing Superman in a series of DC Animated films as well.
Megan Ward plays Lily, the Senator’s daughter. I like this actress. She did ok here, and was in several other movies I enjoyed from the period (Trancers II & III, Encino Man, Amityville 1992, and PCU). This movie pretty much killed her film career as a lead. She did a few other projects but hasn’t made a movie since 2010.
The name’s Shit. Walter Shit. Comedian Jim Turner plays Shit, leader of the band “SHIT”. Comedy!
One of my favorite actors, Robert Vaughn plays the Senator. As you can see above, he brought the appropriate level of gravitas to the role. This was in his “Gimme that money” phase where he did a lot of commercials. I met the guy several years back, and I thought he was ok. He passed in 2016.
Mister “Tiny Bubbles” himself, Don Ho, is in this movie as a gangster. He will not be remembered for this, but for his decades of crooning. He passed in 2007.
Although in a small role, I cannot forget to mention Paul Bartel. One of the great B Movie actor/Directors of my youth. He passed in 2000.
Not sure what needs to be said here. This is a terrible movie. I am surprised that MTV Films continued on after this. I think Jackass saved them lol. I shall now go back to forgetting that this movie exists.
The Skinny from the Fatty 