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starring: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Mooredirected by: David O. Russell
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304345061
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
ISBN: 6304345062
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: November 04, 1997
Running Time: 92 minutes
Sales Rank: 18431
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: March 22, 1996
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Sometimes a filmmaker's second movie gets labeled as a sophomore slump. David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey) shreds that fate with Flirting with Disaster, an outrageous, free-spirited comedy about private people forced into public situations. Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) finds the opportunity he's been waiting a lifetime for: an adoption agency rep (Téa Leoni) has located his birth parents and the agency will fly him to California if they can record the reunion. With wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette) and new son in tow, the neurotic Mel is compelled to discover his origins, despite the protests of his neurotic adoptive parents (a wonderful Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal). To give away the plot any more would be a crime, but as the title states, Mel is on a collision course of Oedipal proportions. Russell, who made incest an intriguing black-comedy topic in Spanking, is very liberal with sex and permits dangerous situations. His characters mix it up at a moment's notice. The two women along for the ride are not just bit players: Leoni (Deep Impact) keeps her high-energy comic routine flying, while the grounded Arquette keeps the baby in arm, despite the mad wanderings of her husband. Stiller is a perfect comic foil. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Gets funnier as it goes along
Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller), the adopted son of two neurotic New Yorkers (Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal) feels that he can't name his new born baby until he finds his roots. This leads to him taking off on a cross-country road trip with his wife (Patricia Arquette), his baby and a woman from his adoption agency (Tea Leoni), which, as the title suggests, leads them from one comical disaster to another.
I have now seen all of David O. Russell's films, and of his four films (the other ... Read More
Rating:  - One of my absolute favorites!
Quirky, smart, unpredictable. What a blast to watch, over and over again! If you haven't seen this movie, you absolutely have to. One of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen.
Rating: - Funny
Ben Stiller was actually cute in this film. I don't think of him as a cutie, just as funny, which he is stinking funny. but, tonight, my dear hubby, Norman, and I watched this delightful movie and Ben was Cute!
Also, cute were Tia Leoni, Patricia Arquette, and the unnamed baby. The cast of stars they meet on the way - Mary Tyler Moore, Lily Tomlin, George Segal, Alan Alda, the 2 gay friends - all were a hoot!
A comedy of errors, boo boos, fumbles, sexual attractions gone ... Read More
Rating: - Character-Driven Screwball Farce Still Shines with a Stellar Cast
Absent since 2004's misbegotten I Heart Huckabees, filmmaker David O. Russell made a ramshackle screwball farce back in 1996 that's well worth revisiting on DVD, at least until his next film comes along. He was able to blend character-driven humor with moments of pure slapstick as he tracks the misadventures of Mel Coplin, a neurotic entomologist on a frantic search for his birth parents to resolve his long-standing issues with identity. Tina Kalb, a leggy, off-kilter adoption agency worker thinks she's ... Read More
Rating: - Jerry Garcia, blah blah blah...
One of my all-time favorite movies--the only thing I haven't seen mentioned is Glenn Fitzgerald's scene stealing performance as the jealous, younger brother Lonnie, and all of his quotable lines. "The special son is here..." We even named our dog after this memorable character. :)
Definitely one of Ben Stiller's best and a perfect cast. Like another reviewer said, I can watch it a hundred times and still see something I hadn't seen before.
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