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Splitting Heirs

Splitting Heirs (1993)

April. 30,1993
|
5.5
|
PG-13
| Comedy

A member of the English upper class dies, leaving his estate and his business to an American, whom he thinks is his son who was lost as a baby and then found again. An Englishman who thinks he is an Indian comes to believe that he is actually the heir. He comes to hate the American who is his boss, his friend, and the man who has stolen the woman after whom he lusts.

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VividSimon
1993/04/30

Simply Perfect

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Vashirdfel
1993/05/01

Simply A Masterpiece

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filippaberry84
1993/05/02

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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Cristal
1993/05/03

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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SnoopyStyle
1993/05/04

The long line of Dukes of Bournemouth have all been idiots. The last one married American Lucinda (Duchess Lucinda). The hapless pair and their friends left their baby Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace in a restaurant back in the 60s. Tommy Patel (Eric Idle) grew up in an East Indian family and works for the Bournemouths as a commodity trader. He is assigned to host outrageous Henry Bullock (Rick Moranis). Henry gets Tommy fired. When the Duke dies, Henry turns out to be the new Duke and hires back Tommy. Lucinda recognizes a similarity between Tommy and her late husband. As evidences mount, he investigates the truth behind the Duke's missing baby. He goes to lawyer Shadgrind (John Cleese) who suggests killing Henry is the only way to go. Tommy starts to having a conflicted relationship with Henry especially as he sleeps with Kitty (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and then she reveals that she's marrying Henry.I don't understand Shadgrind's hints about the Duke. There should be an easy paternity test. That would be the first thing that comes to my mind. I don't understand the central concede of killing the Duke. It's a screwball black comedy without any laughs. It's a comedy of confusion. Both Rick Moranis and Eric Idle are nice comedians. I just didn't laugh once.

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bkoganbing
1993/05/05

Rick Moranis and Eric Idle star as a couple of men who as kids got lost in the Sixties. Lost in the sense of misplaced and for one of them that means a title.Coincidences are more readily accepted in comedies like Splitting Heirs and what are the chances that one of them after being lost as a baby by a titled lord and his American wife at a Sixties type love-in would be found and assume his title. Of course there is another claimant who looks like his claim is just as valid and he's actually British. That's what happens with Moranis and Idle and in fact Idle works for the noble family's brokerage business.In addition Idle has working for him a bottom feeding solicitor in fellow Monty Python alumnus John Cleese who is having a great old time with the part and stealing every scene he's in. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the girl both are pursuing and Barbara Hershey who was definitely a Sixties child plays somebody's mother.A little bit of Kind Hearts And Coronets with a dash of The Canterville Ghost is thrown in as a whole bunch of unfortunate accidents keep happening. Someone is helping a well known family curse along and I won't say who.Idle, Moranis, and Cleese keep the laughs churning in Splitting Heirs whose moral seems to be mothers keep track of your children.

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dreeze
1993/05/06

I rented this movie on VHS in the late 90's and somehow I never quite got to returning it to the store. Lacking the absurd humor of the Monty Python era, as a huge Idle and Cleese fan I was at first a bit disappointed. Eric Idle had produced what seemed at first a rather shallow comedy flick. Still, it had it's moments and at the end of the first viewing it left me satisfied, yet no more than that.In the following days however, I found myself watching this movie over and over again, getting to love it more and more each time. The brilliance in this movie is not in the script (a rather basic story about a personality mix-up) nor the usual Python-esquire absurdity (almost completely missing, except for the notion of an American as a British Duke) but rather in the main characters themselves. The American educated Duke-to-be, the Duchess Mummy who is so much of a man-eater it defies each sign of royalty, the gold-digging yet promiscuous fiancée, the scheming cook and the mad lawyer. Not to mention the blond haired, blue eyed Asian. Each of them has a sort of second layer to their personality which is so absurd, yet intriguing, that simply playing their characters is enough for the actors to make this a memorable appearance.Rick Moranis especially surprised me, if only by not being his obnoxious self.Nowadays, whenever I switch on my old VCR i get to wonder which tape will be in it, Splitting Heirs or Jackie Brown. Either way, the next time it will be the other way around.

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bjjones1960
1993/05/07

The movie reminded me of one of my favorites - Kind Hearts and Coronets - except instead of killing several relatives in the line of succession as Alec Guiness's character did, Eric Idle's character was trying several methods to kill one. Also, Eric Idle strongly resembled every ancestor in the Duke's portrait gallery much like Alec Guiness looked just like every member of his family in Kind Hearts and Coronets (since he was playing all the roles). John Cleese was so funny describing how the new Duke could meet with an accident and then listing possible accidents which included poison mixed with scotch to disguise both the taste and cause of death. Eric Idle's character was very likable, and even though he's much older than Kitty, his smile and charm made them seem like they could be a couple. The whole cast was all star - Cleese, Idle, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta Jones, Rick Moranis, and like Monty Python movies, there are loads of quotable quotes.

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