Barnes & Noble

Sporting a premise that offers unlimited comedic possibilities, and well served by the marvelous performances of its starring duo, Big Business elicits more laughs in ten minutes than most farces produce in two hours. It requires some suspension of disbelief, though, as you have to accept that two sets of female twins can be mismatched at birth, separated, and then reunited many years later under bizarre circumstances. But that’s exactly what happens to Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. Having grown up in a small town, the ladies we’ll call Bette and Lily One feel very much like fish out of water when they visit New York City to confront heartless corporate executives whose schemes endanger their little hamlet. Said executives happen to include Betty and Lily Two, so you can imagine how confusing things become. Director Jim Abrahams (Ruthless People) deals with this zany plot in the same manner as old-fashioned bedroom farces; the twins burst through enough doorways and rush across enough rooms to befuddle virtually everybody in the cast, which includes Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann, Barry Primus, and Michael Gross. Impeccably executed special effects and clever staging are employed to sustain the illusion that the twins are confronting each other. Bette and Lily alone would be funny enough, but two of each make this delightfully daffy film a must-have. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Thanks to a mix-up at birth, two sets of twins are separated and grow up in radically different social circles. The four baby girls grow up to be Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin-and Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. One of the Midlers is a ruthless New York CEO, while one of the Tomlins is her air-headed "save the whales" business partner. Thousands of miles away in a Southern industrial town, a blue-collar Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin work for a company that the white-collar Midler plans to devour in a hostile takeover. The "poor" Midler and Tomlin head to New York to argue against the takeover, inevitably getting mixed up with the "rich" Midler and Tomlin. Three of the four twins team up to save the small-town company, while CEO Midler remains as nastily greedy as ever. Clear enough? Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 786936124590
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:38:00
• Sales Rank: 13,443

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