Brandon Sun
June 24, 1988
Big Business is to film-making what paint-by-numbef pictufes are to art. The results afe appealing enough but there is a complete lack of creativity. Big Business has just the right amount of laughs and hipness but no originality, if not for its director an two stars this movie could have been a disaster.
The story is simple. One day in bucolic Jupitef Hollow, two sets of twins are mixed in their cradles. One pair (Sadie and Rose Shelton) is raised ih New York.where they inherit their father’s giant Moramax corporation.
The other mismatched set (Sadie and Rose Ratcliff) grows up in Jupiter Hollow, where they work at the Hollowmade Furniture Co., owned by Moramax.
Bette Midler plays the two Sadies and Lily Tofnlin plays the two Roses. It is when the country Ratcliffs come to New York to thwart the sale of Hollowmade to an Italian hostile takeover artist that the confusion starts.
Midler and Tomlin have been saddled with the job of getting fresh laughs out of the this muchused material, and it should surprise no one that these two great talents live up to the challenge But it is Midler who steals the show as the autocratic corporate boss. There are very few actresses who dominate the screen as she does.
Director Jim Abrahams (codirector of Airplane) keeps this movie running, which is no simple task considering the logistics of the story. The audience is never left any time to get bored with the one dimensional humorBig Business is a summer comedy that is much better than it should have been, thanks to the talents of its two (four?) stars.
