The Stupids (1996)

The Stupids is a 1996 British-Canadian-American adventure comedy film directed by John Landis. The film is based on The Stupids, characters from a series of books written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall.

The film follows the fictional family, the Stupids, with a last name synonymous with their behavior. The story begins with patriarch Stanley Stupid believing "sender" from letters marked "return to sender" is a wicked man planning a conspiracy. Adding several misunderstandings, the family unwittingly saves the world from military chaos, while believing a fake story about a fictional man named Sender and his plot to confiscate everyone's mail and trash.

The film was a box office bomb and received negative reviews.

Synopsis

Joan and Stanley Stupid are convinced they are victims of a conspiracy that steals their garbage every week and in an attempt to uncover this, Stanley follows the garbage truck to the city dump where he stumbles across Lieutenant Neidermeyer who is selling contraband weaponry to a group of terrorists. Neidermeyer believes Stanley to be a secret agent who has uncovered their operation and orders him to be assassinated, and after several attempts on his life result in humorous dispatching of his would be assassins, Stanley narrowly escapes a carbomb and is presumed dead by Neidermeyer.

Actors