Joe's Apartment MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -2 1/2

Those who make the mistake of paying to see JOE'S APARTMENT will be leery about switching on the light in a dark room. That's because this movie is all about thousands of cockroaches living in one New York City slum apartment. Joe (Jerry O'Connell) is a small-town college graduate seeking fame and fortune in the big city, but quickly discovers he can't afford decent housing. He moves into the roach-infested apartment, blissfully unaware of his roommates until the lights go out. The bugs swarm everywhere -- on half-eaten pizza slices, on Joe's face, in his bed and in light fixtures. They start singing, dancing and talking to Joe. When he gets a job delivering pizza, the disgusting bugs also go along inside the food boxes and Joe is fired. Meanwhile, Joe meets Lily (Megan Ward), who plans to beautify the slum neighborhood with a huge garden. Their romance gets off to a bumpy start when she visits him in his apartment. While JOE'S APARTMENT fails to convince us that cockroaches are lovable, its crude humor may evoke enough laughs from young teenagers to keep it from totally bombing at the box office.

A scene of roaches doing a synchronized swimming routine inside a filthy toilet is nauseating, but the film's bathroom humor doesn't stop there. Early on, Joe is befriended by an artist and rock band leader with the s-word as his last name. Joe also helps Lily gather fertilizer for her garden by picking up elephant, horse and dog droppings, then getting on a bus with his huge package. The apartment house landlords are low-lifes who push people down the stairs, attack Joe and shoot roaches. Joe is also mugged, robbed and beaten the day he arrives in New York. There is no nudity, but sex is implied in one scene between Joe and Lily. The roaches watch their own TV network with some suggestive activity briefly shown. Several obscenities, plus a few regular profanities and many crudities further pollute the script. The disgusting theme, bathroom humor and foul language make JOE'S APARTMENT a poor choice for discerning viewers.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Warner Bros., 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522