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Taking Care of Business

Taking Care of Business

Comedy · 1990

An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.

Movie details

Taking Care of Business

“You are who you pretend to be.”

1990 Comedy 1h 48m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.4 / 10

9.8K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

33 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

42 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Taking Care of Business?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Oscar

Oscar

Comedy · 1991

Angelo "Snaps" Provolone made his dying father a promise on his deathbed: he would leave the world of crime and become an honest businessman. Despite having no experience in making money in a legal fashion, Snaps sets about to keep his promise.

Private Valentine: Blonde & Dangerous

Private Valentine: Blonde & Dangerous

Comedy · 2008

When fluffy, bubble gum movie star Megan Valentine suddenly finds herself broke and humiliated in the public eye, she wanders from the wreckage of a car accident and witlessly enlists in the U.S. Army hoping in vain that it will change her life.

The Gumball Rally

The Gumball Rally

Comedy · 1976

A group of people from different backgrounds have one thing in common: when they hear the world "gumball" whispered by one of the others, they know that it's time for the Gumball Rally: a no-holds barred, secret, winner-take-all rally across the USA.

Duplex

Duplex

Comedy · 2003

When a young couple buys their dream home, they have no idea what the sweet little old lady upstairs is going to put them through!

Easy Money

Easy Money

Comedy · 1983

To inherit his mother-in-law's colossal fortune, a hard living gambling addict must change his unhealthy ways before it gets the best of him.

The Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard

Comedy · 2008

When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.

Impractical Jokers: The Movie

Impractical Jokers: The Movie

Comedy · 2020

The story of a humiliating high school mishap from 1992 that sends the Impractical Jokers on the road competing in hidden-camera challenges for the chance to turn back the clock and redeem three of the four Jokers.

Horrible Bosses 2

Horrible Bosses 2

Comedy · 2014

Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.

The Slammin' Salmon

The Slammin' Salmon

Comedy · 2009

The brutal former heavyweight boxing champion Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon (Duncan), now owner of a Miami restaurant, institutes a competition to see which waiter can earn the most money in one night: the winner stands to gain $10,000, while the loser will endure a beating at the hands of the champ.

The Three Stooges

The Three Stooges

Comedy · 2012

Left on the doorstep of an orphanage run by nuns, three newborn knuckleheads grow up to be finger-poking, nyuk-nyuking janitors named Larry, Curly and Moe. When they learn that financial problems will soon force the only home they've ever known to close, the trio sets out to raise $830,000 in one month. Out in the world for the very first time, the three innocent bumblers become embroiled in a murder plot and find stardom on a TV reality show.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Arthur Hiller

Written by

J.J. Abrams · Jill Mazursky

Jim Belushi

Jim Belushi

Jimmy Dworski

Charles Grodin

Charles Grodin

Spencer Barnes

Anne DeSalvo

Anne DeSalvo

Debbie Lipton

Loryn Locklin

Loryn Locklin

Jewel Bentley

Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott

Walter Bentley

Héctor Elizondo

Héctor Elizondo

Warden Toolman

Veronica Hamel

Veronica Hamel

Elizabeth Barnes

Court is in session

Put Taking Care of Business on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.