Ruthless People

Ruthless People (1986) is a black comedy with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler that you can watch online on iFILM. Kidnappers grab a rich man's wife — and he's thrilled, because he wanted her gone anyway.

Shoe tycoon Sam Stone has spent years dreaming of dumping his loud, domineering wife Barbara. So when she's snatched and the abductors demand half a million dollars, he simply refuses to pay, quietly hoping they'll finish the job for him. The catch: the kidnappers, Sandy and Ken, are a mild-mannered couple Sam once ruined, and their captive turns out to be sharper than anyone gives her credit for. The longer the standoff drags on, the more everyone schemes against everyone else, and the plot keeps folding back on itself.

Directed by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team behind Airplane!, the film moves at a merciless clip and piles on the absurdity scene by scene. DeVito clearly relishes playing a complete heel, while Midler turns her captivity into a showcase. It's a model 1980s farce with almost no one to root for, and that's exactly the joke. Stream Ruthless People (1986) online on iFILM.