Joe's Apartment

Infobox Film
name = Joe's Apartment


writer = John Payson
starring = Jerry O'Connell
Megan Ward
Billy West
Robert Vaughn
Reginald Hudlin
Jim Turner
Don Ho
director = John Payson
producer = John Payson
music = Carter Burwell
Moby ("Love Theme" song)
Kevin Weist (roach songs)
cinematography = Peter Deming
editing = Peter C. Frank
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = July 26 1996 (USA)
runtime = 80 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0116707

"Joe's Apartment" is a 1996 musical-serio-comic film starring Jerry O'Connell and Megan Ward and the first film produced by MTV Films. It was based on a short 1992 film first made for MTV (which was used as filler in between commercial breaks), but was also inspired by both the 1987 Japanese film "Gokiburi-tachi No Tasogare" (known as "Twilight of the Cockroaches" in the USA) and the American short film "Those Damn Roaches", also made in 1987. The main focus of the story is the fact that unbeknownst to many humans, roaches can talk but prefer not to since humans "smush first and ask questions later". They also sing (as they do many times in the movie) and even have their own public access channel. Actors providing the roaches' voices included Billy West, Jim Turner and Dave Chappelle. The film is also Don Ho's first acting role (as Alberto Bianco).

Plot

Joe moves to New York, straight out of college, and is ready to find a job, but first he must find an apartment. After coming up short at a few places he finds, he meets an artist named Walter Shit. Walter laughs at Joe when he realizes Joe is looking for a rent-controlled apartment. Walter tries to explain to Joe that the chances of getting one are nil.

Meanwhile, the Bianco brothers (Vlad, Jesus and Alberto) are trying to clean out their apartment building of its tenants to sell the property to Senator Downing. The senator's master plan is for the entire block of property to become the home of the world's largest prison. The senator believes that the Biancos are buying their tenants luxurious accommodations, when in fact the Biancos are, as we see in the film, trying to kill off the tenants in bizarre accidents. Vlad and Jesus rig a trip wire on a staircase right outside the door of Mrs. Grotowski (their last tenant). Mrs. Grotowski trips on the wire and falls down the stairs. Remarkably, she survives, brushes herself off and walks out as if nothing happened.

Walter and Joe are walking past this apartment right as Mrs. Grotowski is leaving. Walter says that the only way to get a rent-controlled apartment is "if it's your mom's apartment and she croaks". Right then, Mrs. Grotowski has a heart attack and throws her keys in the air as she falls. Joe catches the keys and Walter comes up with the idea for Joe to pose as Mrs. Grotowski's son so he can take the apartment. Joe, reluctantly, goes along with this idea. The other "tenants" of this apartment (the apparently sapient cockroaches lead by Ralph [voiced by Billy West] ) aren't sure what to make of him. As Joe travels through the city in a bus, he sees a beautiful girl tending to a garden.

When Joe is looking for a job, Walter lets Joe be in his band. While putting up signs for his band, he gets to meet the girl he saw in the garden (Lily, who is the senator's daughter). Coincidentally, she is planning to build a huge garden on the same land that her father wants to use for the new prison (and where Joe currently lives). Back at his apartment, the roaches start to like Joe because he lives like a slob. When Vlad and Jesus break in to "convince" Joe to move out, the roaches step in and scare the brothers away. Joe is surprised not only that the roaches saved him, but that they can talk and sing (and later that they have their own channel on television).

When Joe goes out to look for a "real" job, the roaches follow and inadvertently cause Joe to get fired from his jobs. When he's down on the job search, Joe's real mom from back home gets Joe an interview at P.I. Smith and Sons (P.I.S. & S.) and Joe ends up getting a Job as a urinal cake collector. Joe tries to succeed at his job(s) and get Lily to like him, but when P.I.S. & S. is taken over by another company, Joe's first gig in Walter's band fails to impress Walter, the roaches unintentionally scare off Lily, leading Joe to try and kill them in a fit of rage, and when the Bianco brothers succeed in burning down Lily's garden and Joe's apartment, things look grim for Joe and the roaches.

The roaches realize that Joe needs their help, and Ralph doesn't care if they have to "call in favors from every roach, rat and pigeon in New York City" to make it up to Joe. Overnight, the roaches rebuild the garden and assign the deed of the land to Joe. When Senator Downing and Lily get to the prison dedication, she is shocked that the garden has been restored. The roaches tell Lily that Joe loves her before they scatter off. Senator Downing, Lily and Joe are now introducing this garden as "Lily Park".

The Bianco brothers aren't too pleased with this. They plan hits on not only the senator, Lily and Joe, but everyone attending this dedication. However, the roaches, having covered an open sewer cover, now uncover the hole and the Bianco brothers fall in. Joe stays with Lily the first night since his place burned down. It looks like Joe and Lily are hitting it off, and it looks as though the roaches have found a new home there as well...

External links

*imdb title|id=0116707|title=Joe's Apartment