Joe's Apartment

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Joe's Apartment

Directed by	John Payson
Produced by	John Payson
Written by	John Payson
Starring	Jerry O'Connell Megan Ward Billy West Reginald Hudlin Jim Turner Don Ho
Music by	Carter Burwell Moby ("Love Theme" song) Kevin Weist (roach songs)
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Editing by	Peter C. Frank
Distributed by	MTV
Release date(s)	July 26, 1996 (USA)
Running time	80 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Joe's Apartment is a 1996 musical-serio-comic film starring Jerry O'Connell and Megan Ward. It was based on a short 1992 film first made for MTV (which was used as filler inbetween commercial breaks). 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).

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 gags 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 cockroaches) 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).

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, and 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 one of the roaches (whose name is 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...

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

The first film produced by MTV Films.
Scenes from this film were used in a segment on Whose Line is it Anyway. In the segment, Colin Mochrie was in front of a green screen for the "News Flash" game; the scenes in this film with many of the cockroaches coming out of cracks and holes in the apartment were used.