ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996              TAG: 9609040057
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER 

LAUGH YOURSELF STUPID

There's just no getting around going public with this opinion: "The Stupids" is funny.

Sure, the movie is sometimes just stupid. "Stupid is as stupid does," after all, and when this movie - directed by John Landis - suffers a lapse of imagination, it's not funny at all. Just (there's that word again) stupid.

But when the script really lets go and Tom Arnold lets Stanley Stupid rip, dragging his only slightly less stupid family along with him on a brain-numb thrill ride, this movie may actually make you laugh.

Especially if you're around age 7, judging by the behavior of the two little boys sitting in front of me. Barely able to abide by the "no rolling in the aisles" rule, they settled for throwing themselves against each other in fits of laugh-agony.

In fact, they gave Stanley Stupid four thumbs up, and they're right. Arnold really is so terrific as the man who makes miracles from muddles, you have to wonder about the actor himself. Let's put it this way: Nice casting.

It all begins when Stanley decides to find out once and for all who's been stealing the family's garbage. It's been going on for years, and he's determined to put a stop to it.

He ends up rollerblading into a meeting at the city dump, where a bad Army guy is soliciting contracts to sell military hardware to international terrorists. Stanley's more impressed with the incredible amount of stolen garbage he's stumbled upon, but he's not so stupid that he doesn't discern something terrible is afoot.

And it all goes back to that evil villain, Mr. (Return To) Sender, whom Stanley noticed managed to get so much of everyone else's mail - back when he used to work for the U.S. Postal Service. (Apologies to mail carriers everywhere.)

Of course, it makes no sense. It never does. It's just stupid, with a capital S.

The Stupids ***

A New Line-Savoy Pictures release showing at Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG for some violence. 95 minutes.

LENGTH: Short :   48 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Tom Arnold is Stanley Stupid in ``The Stupids.''