THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996                TAG: 9607300038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 
                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

``JOE'S'' DOESN'T LIVE UP TO MTV'S IMAGE

IF THE IDEA of 40,000 singing, wisecracking roaches appeals to you, this is the flick for you.

The concept of ``Joe's Apartment,'' at the least, is novel. It might spark the rebel in you and, perhaps, a hope for something new in special effects after you've seen the aliens attack Washington D.C. The bad news is that MTV, which is making its big-screen debut here, doesn't do much with the idea.

The roaches sing in high falsetto with Brooklyn accents; the lyrics are indiscernible. If anything, they sound like Alvin and his chorus of chipmunks.

Surprisingly, MTV has gone for a simple little boy-meets-girl love fable here, with a PG rating. Jerry O'Connell (the fat kid with a crew cut in ``Stand By Me'') is appealing as a boy from Iowa who comes to New York, gets mugged and finds an apartment inhabited by the talented, but customarily unsanitary, roaches.

Their repertoire is quite humorous, when you can discern it. They do a water ballet in the toilet bowl. They do a gospel number, a rap number and a barbershop quartet song that is something about ``the garbage in the moonlight gives off a lovely smell.''

The hero has a job (involving urinals in Yankee Stadium) and a girl. She wants to plant a garden in the New York slum and he's so romantic that he goes hunting fertilizer for her. Don Ho (that guy from Hawaii) and Robert Vaughn (as a corrupt senator) are the villains who want to drive Joe out of the building so they can build the world's largest jail.

It all sounds more imaginative than it is. Actually, it's pretty tame, surely not what you'd expect from raucous MTV.

The real turn-off may be that the roaches, in spite of sounding like chipmunks, look too much like real roaches. These are no cartoon cuties. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

GEFFEN PICTURES

Thousands of roaches take center stage in ``Joe's Apartment,'' the

live-action/animated musical comedy from MTV.

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Joe's Apartment''

Cast: Jerry O'Connell, Megan Ward, Don Ho, Robert Vaughn

Director and Writer: John Payson

MPAA rating: PG (sexual references, bathroom humor, thousands of

roaches)

Mal's rating: One 1/2 stars by CNB