This film is based on an innovative short film made for MTV about a guy living in a horrible downtown apartment filled with scores of mischievous, smart-alecky roaches. The story chronicles the adventures of Joe (Jerry O'Connell), a hapless rube from the rural Midwest who journeys to the wilds of New York City. Mugged repeatedly on his arrival, his luck seems to turn when he finds an affordable apartment in a very dubious neighborhood. Unfortunately, his landlord (Don Ho) is more interested in
evicting or, if need be, murdering his tenants, so that the building can be turned into a (highly profitable) penitentiary. Joe finds the allies he needs in his apartment's cockroaches, who sing and dance their way into his heart. This film should be of interest for fans of 1930s musicals; it makes reference to Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance phantasmagorias and the odd water ballets of Esther Williams. Many of the scenes utilized real roaches who were "choreographed" via tiny filament harnesses and other devices. Animal rights activists will be pleased to note that no roaches were intentionally harmed during filming. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
Unfortunately, nothing that any of the humans contribute to Joe's Apartment is nearly as interesting as the musical numbers and comedy riffs of the cockroaches.
John Payson's Joe's Apartment may well have been a funny MTV short, but stretched to feature length it's got to be the most putrid picture since The Garbage Pail Kids Movie nearly a decade ago.
There's not enough story here for something half that length, so we're subjected to numerous pointless and irritating song-and-dance numbers designed to nudge the lame plot towards its conclusion.
If it were even half as clever as the promotional web site -- which features such inventions as ROL, a parody of online service AOL -- it would be a small delight. But it's not.
I really can't get past my dislike of cockroaches (ugh!) to see a lot in this movie. I guess it is clever, if you like watching singing, dancing cockroaches swirling around a toilet full of brown water or infesting someone's bedding or dinner. I have seen it twice now, both times under protest. The second time,
tonight, 14 years after the original viewing. At least this time I could appreciate the 90's nostalgia, but seriously, that is about it. Jerry O'Connell looks as greasy as the cockroaches, although Megan Ward adds a sweet edge to it. All the same.... cockroaches. Ugh!!!!!
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