There Goes the Neighborhood (film)
Encyclopedia
There Goes the Neighborhood, released as Paydirt in most foreign countries, is a 1992 comedy film. The film tells a story of a dying prisoner who whispers the location of his loot to the facility's psychologist Willis Embry (Jeff Daniels
) who heads to the New Jersey suburbs to find it.
jail. His day has not gone well - his apartment has just been burgled and his girlfriend left him by placing a message on his answering machine. His group therapy
meeting with a bunch of inmates goes no better. Cellmates Lyle and 'Handsome' Harry in particular seem beyond help. In a private meeting later with a cancer
-striken elderly convict named 'Trick', who has only a few weeks to live, Embry is taken into his confidence about a job pulled many years earlier when he and some friends stole some $8.5million of Mafia
money from a casino skim bank. As his last request, he says that Embry can have half, and give the other half to a female friend named Louise. He tells Embry to go to Cherry Hill and dig down seven feet in the basement of a house on Pleasant Street, number 7322. Unbeknown to them however, Lyle is listening in the cell next-door, though he fails to hear the house number correctly, putting down 7320 instead.
Meanwhile, over at number 7322, things are not going well. Jessie Lodge and her husband Albert are in the middle of a rather messy divorce, and Albert's way of dividing things in half involves taking a chainsaw to a piano. Across the road neighbours Jeffrey Babbit and Lydia Nunn are supposed to be writing their latest best-selling book, but spend most of their time spying on their neighbours with binoculars from their front window. They are also spying on Norman and Peedi Rutledge, who live at number 7320.
Later, a jailbreak
is being made from prison, with former armed robber Marvin helping Lyle and Harry escape from the joint. They disguise themselves as landscape gardeners. Marvin has left behind a surprise for Willis at his flat, a tripwire attached to a bomb. Laden with heavy groceries, Willis drops them on the floor and notices a tin rolling across the floor to the wire, just managing to jump clear from the building in time which is engulfed by a huge explosion. The neighbors and police think he is dead, despite there being no sign of a body.
Next morning Norman Rutledge is about to leave for work in his car when a landscape gardeners van blocks his exit, and Lyle, Harry and Marvin emerge to take him back inside, where Norman's wife Peedi is also taken hostage. The couple are questioned about the floor in their basement and the three circles and a triangle that should mark the spot of the treasure. Circles or no circles, the crooks decide to dig in the basement anyway. Meanwhile, Embry arrives next door at number 7322 and poses as a furnace engineer to get inside Jessie Lodge's house and scout the basement for the digging spot. When she realises he isn't an engineer however, she throws him out.
Marvin meanwhile is out of pills. Without them he is quite psychotic, and even Harry wonders if he should have a word with him about the explosion at Embry's apartment. Norman points out that Jeffrey and Lydia are probably the nosiest neighbours in the world, and using a pneumatic drill
makes a terrible racket. He suggests using a lawnmower to mask the noise. Marvin eventually agrees, and tells Lyle to get outside and mow. Indeed, Jeffrey and Lydia have already noticed the van, and are wondering how the Rutledges can afford a gardener. Jeffrey is also wondering how Lydia managed to phone Marty Rollins without looking his phone number up.
Over at the Rutledge's house, Harry and Peedi are starting to get on quite well and the former is very much in love with her. Peedi for her part is suitably charmed by the attention. Her marriage to Norman it seems has been a sham for some time, and they haven't shared a bed together for many years. Norman meanwhile is making yet more advice about moving the van, suggesting that the neighbours need to see that it is "business as usual". Willis meanwhile is still trying to get into Jessie's house and breaks into the basement. Just as she is about to call the police, Willis reveals the story about the $8.5 million, and says that he'll share his half with her 50/50. She agrees, they find the spot and start to dig.
Night falls, and Peedi and Norman spend the night handcuffed together and later admits to Harry that she has never spent the night tied up before. They are both becoming attracted to each other, as are Willis and Jessie. Harry asks what "Peedi" is short for, and she reveals it stands for Penelope Diane. A suspicious Jeffrey meanwhile phones up Marty Rollins and accuses him of having an affair
with his wife.
Next morning, Lydia's daughter Swan is out collecting her paperboy money. She is suspicious not only of Lyle, still doing the gardening at number 7320, but also of Jessie and Willis at number 7322 as she looks into the window in the basement and sees them digging a mysterious hole. Jessie is also having problems keeping Marty at bay, as he continues to try and bring possible buyers to the house, while her estranged husband Albert also shows up again, though Willis pretends to be her lover and sends him packing. Later that evening, Marvin hears a noise from next door and sends Lyle to investigate. He notices Willis next door, and the trio of criminals soon realise that they are at the wrong house.
Norman uses this event to his advantage and offers his help. He moves a jukebox
from the wall and opens a door into a secret room full of contraband and weapons. He proposes a deal - they join forces and launch an assault next door to take the money by force. Lyle is not happy, but Marvin agrees, and Norman takes charge. After a failed attempt at taking the house by force when they are repelled by a crossbow
, Norman orders that their existing hole be turned into a tunnel and be extended next door. After buying some more time, Jessie and Willis meanwhile, continue digging. Not long after Lyle and Harry break through in their tunnel but come up instead in Jessie's swimming pool, with the water coming back through into the basement. Peedi, still handcuffed to a chair, is released by Harry with a hacksaw before the room becomes completely flooded. Norman is nowhere to be seen. A suspicious Albert has already called in the police, and Marvin and Lyle attempt to do a runner from the front door with Lyle disguised as a woman.
After initially coming out of their front door with their hands up, Willis and Jessie realise that the police are only interested in events next door, but Marty has already noticed their suspicious behavior. Norman meanwhile emerges from Jessie's empty swimming pool in full scuba
gear. As events move towards their climax, Harry gives himself up to the police, while Lyle and Marvin's disguise is blown and they are arrested. Willis and Jessie find the money, but first Norman and then Marty try to steal it from them. In the end it is young Swan who knocks Marty out and the trio escape out the front door. The money is found to be wet, gone to mush and therefore completely useless. Jessie and Willis though have not broken any laws and are free to go. Just as Marty is dragged away, Jeffrey pulls a gun of his own, and accuses him of sleeping with Lydia. She says that she knew his phone number because it was on the 'for sale' board, so Jeffrey too joins the ranks of the arrested, although Marty and Lydia exchange a sly nod and a wink as he is led into the paddy wagon. Even Norman doesn't make a clean getaway, as he attempts to escape on young Swan's bicycle. Peedi calls him the biggest crook of all, and instead gives Handsome Harry a kiss as he is led away and promises to write to him.
Later, as they sit together in the hole in their basement and realise their true love for each other, Willis and Jessie notice a large bag of hidden gold coins. The film ends as Jessie and Willis drive off into the sun together to fulfil his bargain to 'Trick' and give half of the money to the mysterious Louise.
with a "u" - "Neighbourhood", the former is the American English
spelling. It was competing with a number of other high profile films at the same time - Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs
" had been released only a week earlier on the 23rd October 1992, Steven Seagal action flick "Under Siege
", had been released on 9 October, with Disney family film "The Mighty Ducks
" having been released on the 2nd. November 1992 would be no less busy film-wise, with "Passenger 57
", "Aladdin", "Malcolm X
", "The Bodyguard
" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
" all going on general release during the month. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that "There Goes the Neighborhood" came and went from US cinemas quite quickly.
As of 1 December 2007, some 349 individual users of the IMDB website had given this film a weighted average vote of 5.2. Of those reviewers who expressed a general opinion on the film, most are in broad agreement that although it has some funny moments, the assembled cast is capable of better things, though co-star Hector Elizondo is usually singled out in particular for special praise with some of the funniest lines in the movie. Actress Catherine O'Hara is best-known for her work in "Home Alone
" (as Macaulay Culkin's 'mom') and in "Beetlejuice
", though neither was a main role. Jeff Daniels had more success in 1994 with "Dumb and Dumber". Among this films co-stars, Hector Elizondo is most usually associated with the film director Garry Marshall
, and has appeared in a dozen of his movies, often uncredited. He received a Golden Globe nomination for one such supporting role, that of the hotel manager in the 1990 Richard Gere/Julia Roberts film "Pretty Woman
". Rhea Perlman was best known for playing Carla
in the long-running American TV sitcom "Cheers
". Dabney Coleman is usually typecast as a smarmy, selfish, patronizing, self-absorbed bigot, usually an authority figure of some sort, most famously as chauvinistic boss Franklin Hart, Jr. in the 1980 film "Nine to Five
", as well as Ron Carlisle, the sexist, antagonistic soap opera director opposite Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange in Sydney Pollack's classic 1982 comedy "Tootsie".
in most territories including the USA and UK where it was given a BBFC rating of "15". In the USA it is rated as PG-13, though it has long since been deleted in both countries and is currently only available second-hand from specialist retailers or from eBay. Although it is available on eBay
in several DVD
forms (all region 0), including an apparently official Polish
edition (marketed as "Brunde Pieniadze" on the Carlton
label) and a Dutch version titled as "The Hidden Fortune"
, it has not yet been made officially available on this format in the USA (region 1) or the UK (region 2) under any of its two main English-language titles. The region 0 discs that are available are 4:3 full-frame only, not widescreen.
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
) who heads to the New Jersey suburbs to find it.
Synopsis
Prison psychologist Willis Embry reports for work at a New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
jail. His day has not gone well - his apartment has just been burgled and his girlfriend left him by placing a message on his answering machine. His group therapy
Group therapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
meeting with a bunch of inmates goes no better. Cellmates Lyle and 'Handsome' Harry in particular seem beyond help. In a private meeting later with a cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
-striken elderly convict named 'Trick', who has only a few weeks to live, Embry is taken into his confidence about a job pulled many years earlier when he and some friends stole some $8.5million of Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
money from a casino skim bank. As his last request, he says that Embry can have half, and give the other half to a female friend named Louise. He tells Embry to go to Cherry Hill and dig down seven feet in the basement of a house on Pleasant Street, number 7322. Unbeknown to them however, Lyle is listening in the cell next-door, though he fails to hear the house number correctly, putting down 7320 instead.
Meanwhile, over at number 7322, things are not going well. Jessie Lodge and her husband Albert are in the middle of a rather messy divorce, and Albert's way of dividing things in half involves taking a chainsaw to a piano. Across the road neighbours Jeffrey Babbit and Lydia Nunn are supposed to be writing their latest best-selling book, but spend most of their time spying on their neighbours with binoculars from their front window. They are also spying on Norman and Peedi Rutledge, who live at number 7320.
Later, a jailbreak
Prison escape
A prison escape or prison break is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers...
is being made from prison, with former armed robber Marvin helping Lyle and Harry escape from the joint. They disguise themselves as landscape gardeners. Marvin has left behind a surprise for Willis at his flat, a tripwire attached to a bomb. Laden with heavy groceries, Willis drops them on the floor and notices a tin rolling across the floor to the wire, just managing to jump clear from the building in time which is engulfed by a huge explosion. The neighbors and police think he is dead, despite there being no sign of a body.
Next morning Norman Rutledge is about to leave for work in his car when a landscape gardeners van blocks his exit, and Lyle, Harry and Marvin emerge to take him back inside, where Norman's wife Peedi is also taken hostage. The couple are questioned about the floor in their basement and the three circles and a triangle that should mark the spot of the treasure. Circles or no circles, the crooks decide to dig in the basement anyway. Meanwhile, Embry arrives next door at number 7322 and poses as a furnace engineer to get inside Jessie Lodge's house and scout the basement for the digging spot. When she realises he isn't an engineer however, she throws him out.
Marvin meanwhile is out of pills. Without them he is quite psychotic, and even Harry wonders if he should have a word with him about the explosion at Embry's apartment. Norman points out that Jeffrey and Lydia are probably the nosiest neighbours in the world, and using a pneumatic drill
Jackhammer
A jackhammer is a pneumatic tool that combines a hammer directly with a chisel that was invented by Charles Brady King. Hand-held jackhammers are typically powered by compressed air, but some use electric motors. Larger jackhammers, such as rig mounted hammers used on construction machinery, are...
makes a terrible racket. He suggests using a lawnmower to mask the noise. Marvin eventually agrees, and tells Lyle to get outside and mow. Indeed, Jeffrey and Lydia have already noticed the van, and are wondering how the Rutledges can afford a gardener. Jeffrey is also wondering how Lydia managed to phone Marty Rollins without looking his phone number up.
Over at the Rutledge's house, Harry and Peedi are starting to get on quite well and the former is very much in love with her. Peedi for her part is suitably charmed by the attention. Her marriage to Norman it seems has been a sham for some time, and they haven't shared a bed together for many years. Norman meanwhile is making yet more advice about moving the van, suggesting that the neighbours need to see that it is "business as usual". Willis meanwhile is still trying to get into Jessie's house and breaks into the basement. Just as she is about to call the police, Willis reveals the story about the $8.5 million, and says that he'll share his half with her 50/50. She agrees, they find the spot and start to dig.
Night falls, and Peedi and Norman spend the night handcuffed together and later admits to Harry that she has never spent the night tied up before. They are both becoming attracted to each other, as are Willis and Jessie. Harry asks what "Peedi" is short for, and she reveals it stands for Penelope Diane. A suspicious Jeffrey meanwhile phones up Marty Rollins and accuses him of having an affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
with his wife.
Next morning, Lydia's daughter Swan is out collecting her paperboy money. She is suspicious not only of Lyle, still doing the gardening at number 7320, but also of Jessie and Willis at number 7322 as she looks into the window in the basement and sees them digging a mysterious hole. Jessie is also having problems keeping Marty at bay, as he continues to try and bring possible buyers to the house, while her estranged husband Albert also shows up again, though Willis pretends to be her lover and sends him packing. Later that evening, Marvin hears a noise from next door and sends Lyle to investigate. He notices Willis next door, and the trio of criminals soon realise that they are at the wrong house.
Norman uses this event to his advantage and offers his help. He moves a jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
from the wall and opens a door into a secret room full of contraband and weapons. He proposes a deal - they join forces and launch an assault next door to take the money by force. Lyle is not happy, but Marvin agrees, and Norman takes charge. After a failed attempt at taking the house by force when they are repelled by a crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
, Norman orders that their existing hole be turned into a tunnel and be extended next door. After buying some more time, Jessie and Willis meanwhile, continue digging. Not long after Lyle and Harry break through in their tunnel but come up instead in Jessie's swimming pool, with the water coming back through into the basement. Peedi, still handcuffed to a chair, is released by Harry with a hacksaw before the room becomes completely flooded. Norman is nowhere to be seen. A suspicious Albert has already called in the police, and Marvin and Lyle attempt to do a runner from the front door with Lyle disguised as a woman.
After initially coming out of their front door with their hands up, Willis and Jessie realise that the police are only interested in events next door, but Marty has already noticed their suspicious behavior. Norman meanwhile emerges from Jessie's empty swimming pool in full scuba
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
gear. As events move towards their climax, Harry gives himself up to the police, while Lyle and Marvin's disguise is blown and they are arrested. Willis and Jessie find the money, but first Norman and then Marty try to steal it from them. In the end it is young Swan who knocks Marty out and the trio escape out the front door. The money is found to be wet, gone to mush and therefore completely useless. Jessie and Willis though have not broken any laws and are free to go. Just as Marty is dragged away, Jeffrey pulls a gun of his own, and accuses him of sleeping with Lydia. She says that she knew his phone number because it was on the 'for sale' board, so Jeffrey too joins the ranks of the arrested, although Marty and Lydia exchange a sly nod and a wink as he is led into the paddy wagon. Even Norman doesn't make a clean getaway, as he attempts to escape on young Swan's bicycle. Peedi calls him the biggest crook of all, and instead gives Handsome Harry a kiss as he is led away and promises to write to him.
Later, as they sit together in the hole in their basement and realise their true love for each other, Willis and Jessie notice a large bag of hidden gold coins. The film ends as Jessie and Willis drive off into the sun together to fulfil his bargain to 'Trick' and give half of the money to the mysterious Louise.
Main cast
- Jeff DanielsJeff DanielsJeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
as Willis Embry : Willis Embry is a none-too successful psychologistPsychologistPsychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
who works in a New Jersey prison. His girlfriend has just left him, but his life takes a turn for the better when an elderly dying prisoner named "Trick" reveals to Embry the secret location of $8.5million, money stolen from a Mafia skim bank, buried under the basement of a house at 7322 Pleasant Street, Cherry Hill. - Catherine O'HaraCatherine O'HaraCatherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
as Jessie Lodge : Jessie Lodge is going through a very messy divorceDivorceDivorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
with her estranged husband Albert. She lives at 7322 Pleasant Street, Cherry Hill and strikes an agreement with Willis Embry to find the money hidden under her basement. - Hector ElizondoHector ElizondoHéctor Elizondo is an American actor. Elizondo's first major role was that of "God" in the play Steambath, for which he won an Obie Award...
as Norman Rutledge : Norman Rutledge and his wife Peedi live at number 7320 Pleasant Street, Cherry Hill. Norman leads a boring life with an unspecified 7-to-7 job in the city, but also keeps a secret stash of weapons and contrabandContrabandThe word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
in a hidden secret room in his basement and is probably the biggest crook of them all. A hostage at first, along with his wife Peedi, he later takes over as leader from Marvin and concocts his own plan to recover the money from next-doors basement. - Rhea Perlman as Lydia Nunn : Lydia Nunn and husband Jeffrey Babitt are successful authors, who when they are not trying to write their next book are the nosiest neighbours in the world and are never without a pair of binoculars, looking out their window at the comings and goings in the neighborhood.
- Judith IveyJudith IveyJudith Lee Ivey is an American actress and director.-Personal life:Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee , a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean. She spent 1965-1968 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade...
as Peedi Rutledge : Peedi (or Penelope Diane) is the long-suffering wife of Norman Rutledge. Whatever magic there had been in their marriage many years ago has long since gone. She strikes up a friendship with Handsome Harry. - Harris YulinHarris YulinHarris Yulin is an American actor who has appeared in dozens of Hollywood and television films.-Life and career:Yulin was born in...
as Marvin Boyd : Marvin Boyd has served time in prison for armed robbery. He uses his talents for springing Lyle and Harry from jail, although he takes pills to control some kind of anger-management problem and is borderline psychotic. - Jonathan BanksJonathan BanksJonathan Ray Banks is an American actor in film and television.Banks was born in Washington, D.C. in 1947. His mother worked for the CIA. Banks attended Indiana University Bloomington where he was a classmate of Kevin Kline...
as Handsome Harry : Harry shares a cell with Lyle in prison. He is the most sympathetic criminal character and falls in love with Peedi Rutledge when they hold her and Norman hostage as they attempt to dig for the money. - Dabney ColemanDabney ColemanDabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
as Jeffrey Babitt : Jeffery and his wife Lydia are authors. Lydia has a daughter Swan from a previous marriage who Jeffrey does not particularly care for and plays the role of evil step-father. - Chazz PalminteriChazz PalminteriCalogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale, and his Academy Award nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets Over Broadway....
as Lyle Corrente : Lyle shares a cell with Harry in prison. He also has anger managementAnger managementThe term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger & aggression can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state...
issues, but is nowhere near as psychotic as Marvin. Willis Embry blames his problems on trying to prove that he is harder than his brother. It is Lyle who overhears the conversation between Willis and Trick about the $8.5million, although he mishears the address and takes his fellow convicts to 7320 Pleasant Street (the home of the Rutledges), not number 7322. - Richard PortnowRichard PortnowRichard Portnow is an American actor known for such films and television shows as Barton Fink, Se7en, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, The Spirit, Law Abiding Citizen, Private Parts, Fallen Arches, Double Down, Spring Break '83, The Sopranos, Hannah Montana and Boston Legal.-Life and career:A...
as Marty Rollins : Marty Rollins is a real estate agent who is trying to sell Jessie's house. He hasn't sold a house in three years, and is receiving help as a sexaholicSexaholics AnonymousSexaholics Anonymous is one of several twelve-step programs for hypersexuality based on the original Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. SA takes its place among various 12-step groups that seek recovery from sexual addiction: Sex Addicts Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Sexual...
. - Jeremy PivenJeremy PivenJeremy Samuel Piven is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won three Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor....
as Albert Lodge : Albert Lodge is the estranged husband of Jessie Lodge. We first see him wielding a chainsawChainsawA chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
at a piano and dividing it equally in two. The divorce is not going well. - Heidi ZeiglerHeidi ZeiglerHeidi Zeigler is a former child actress from the United States. Zeigler's most notable roles were in the television series Rags to Riches and Just the Ten of Us...
as Swan Babitt : Swan is the daughter of Lydia Nunn. She has a job as a paperboyPaperboyA paperboy is the general name for a person employed by a newspaper, They are often used around the office to run low end errands. They make copies and distribute them. Paperboys traditionally were and are still often portrayed on television and movies as preteen boys, often on a bicycle...
. She and her stepfather Jeffrey Babitt share an uneasy relationship.
Critical Reaction
"There Goes the Neighborhood" was never a commercial success. In fact, according to movie stats website www.the-numbers.com, the total US box office gross was a mere $11,000. This may account for its release in foreign territories under a different title, though this would have had to have been slightly changed in the UK at least as the word "Neighborhood" is spelt in British EnglishBritish English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
with a "u" - "Neighbourhood", the former is the American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
spelling. It was competing with a number of other high profile films at the same time - Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...
" had been released only a week earlier on the 23rd October 1992, Steven Seagal action flick "Under Siege
Under Siege
Under Siege is a 1992 American action film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, on a U.S. Navy battleship...
", had been released on 9 October, with Disney family film "The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks is the first film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy, produced by Avnet–Kerner Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and originally released on October 2, 1992. In the UK and Australia, the film was titled Champions...
" having been released on the 2nd. November 1992 would be no less busy film-wise, with "Passenger 57
Passenger 57
Passenger 57 is a 1992 American action film starring Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne. The film's success made Snipes a popular action hero icon.-Plot:...
", "Aladdin", "Malcolm X
Malcolm X (film)
Malcolm X is a 1992 biographical motion picture about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm X . It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. It co-stars Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo...
", "The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard is a 1992 American romantic-thriller film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Costner stars as a former Secret Service Agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect Houston's character, a music star, from an unknown stalker. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film in the 1970s,...
" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the direct sequel to Home Alone. The film stars Macaulay Culkin in the lead role as Kevin McCallister, while...
" all going on general release during the month. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that "There Goes the Neighborhood" came and went from US cinemas quite quickly.
As of 1 December 2007, some 349 individual users of the IMDB website had given this film a weighted average vote of 5.2. Of those reviewers who expressed a general opinion on the film, most are in broad agreement that although it has some funny moments, the assembled cast is capable of better things, though co-star Hector Elizondo is usually singled out in particular for special praise with some of the funniest lines in the movie. Actress Catherine O'Hara is best-known for her work in "Home Alone
Home Alone
Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...
" (as Macaulay Culkin's 'mom') and in "Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
", though neither was a main role. Jeff Daniels had more success in 1994 with "Dumb and Dumber". Among this films co-stars, Hector Elizondo is most usually associated with the film director Garry Marshall
Garry Marshall
Garry Kent Marshall is an American actor, director, writer and producer. His notable credits include creating Happy Days and The Odd Couple and directing Nothing In Common, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Valentine's Day, and The Princess Diaries.-Early life:Marshall was born in the New York City...
, and has appeared in a dozen of his movies, often uncredited. He received a Golden Globe nomination for one such supporting role, that of the hotel manager in the 1990 Richard Gere/Julia Roberts film "Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film set in Los Angeles, California. Written by J.F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, this motion picture features Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and also Hector Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, and Jason Alexander in supporting roles. Roberts played the only...
". Rhea Perlman was best known for playing Carla
Carla Tortelli
Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec, known as Carla Tortelli, is a waitress on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Rhea Perlman. Outwardly, at least, Carla is a mean-spirited woman who expresses disdain for many people...
in the long-running American TV sitcom "Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
". Dabney Coleman is usually typecast as a smarmy, selfish, patronizing, self-absorbed bigot, usually an authority figure of some sort, most famously as chauvinistic boss Franklin Hart, Jr. in the 1980 film "Nine to Five
Nine to Five
9 to 5 is a 1980 American comedy film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman. The film concerns three working women living out their fantasy of getting even with, and their successful overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical...
", as well as Ron Carlisle, the sexist, antagonistic soap opera director opposite Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange in Sydney Pollack's classic 1982 comedy "Tootsie".
Availability
Previously available on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in most territories including the USA and UK where it was given a BBFC rating of "15". In the USA it is rated as PG-13, though it has long since been deleted in both countries and is currently only available second-hand from specialist retailers or from eBay. Although it is available on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
in several DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
forms (all region 0), including an apparently official Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
edition (marketed as "Brunde Pieniadze" on the Carlton
Carlton Communications
Carlton Communications was a British media company. It was led by Michael Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it taken over by Granada plc to form ITV plc with Carlton gaining 32% of the new company....
label) and a Dutch version titled as "The Hidden Fortune"
, it has not yet been made officially available on this format in the USA (region 1) or the UK (region 2) under any of its two main English-language titles. The region 0 discs that are available are 4:3 full-frame only, not widescreen.