Review of Joe's Apartment (1996) by Harry W — 27 Feb 2014

There is a reason you've never heard of director John Payson before, because his one attempt at a film on Joe's Apartment is one of the most ridiculously stupid yet sporadically funny comedies that I've ever seen and is so clearly a film produced by MTV.

The amount of joy a viewer can get out of Joe's Apartment all depends on how much they enjoy the idea of cockroaches singing. Yes, the nature of the story is kind of like a parody of Alvin and the Chipmunks re-entitled Joe and the Cockroaches. And yet it lacks the ability to try and be cute and funny, instead replacing it solely with a lot of crude comedy as a key element. The crude comedy is relentless in Joe's Apartment and is so obviously stupid, yet at times I'll admit I found myself laughing. There was no consistency at how much I was, but it's enough to say that I didn't hate Joe's Apartment. I didn't like it, but it was worth watching.

The reason it is worth watching is because of how relentlessly stupid it is. There is so much crude comedy here and there that it is almost overwhelming, and under it is a fairly basic plot which isn't worth bothering to follow. At some points, the excessive nature of the comedy is funny and its unstoppable energy has appeal to the MTV generation since the film was also the first to be produced by MTV films, but overall its still a stupid film which is undeniable.

Joe's Apartment has every flaw that a film about singing cockroaches should have, such as sporadically successful laughs, a stupendous script and a lack of sufficient story or direction from John Payson. The entire story is more senseless than you'd expect from a film about singing cockroaches since underneath that a sh*tload of random story dynamics are thrown into the face of the viewer underneath a generic and predictable story and a lot of lazily written songs.

Although I will say that Jerry O'Connell gave a decent over the top performance where he engaged with animated cockroaches somewhat convincingly and gave a consistently dopey comedic effort which was somewhat entertaining.

Really, there isn't much about Joe's Apartment that can't be revealed from its DVD cover since what limited appeal there is comes from the cockroaches who overshadow all the actors which is rather strange. But if you're stoned out of your mind or still sticking your head into the ground of the MTV generation, then I can guarantee you that Joe's Apartment is the film for you to see. And anyone who appreciates ridiculous crude comedy may enjoy it, but there isn't much to say about the film except that you should really not get your hopes up about it. Just remember that the film is about singing cockroaches which I cannot stress enough. From there you should be able to figure everything out about what direction the film will go in and if you really should watch it.