Dir: Todd Phillips
Written by: John Hamburg
Starring: Ben Stiller & Jaenene Garofolo

From the people that brought you “Road Trip” (T. Phillips) plus “Along Came Polly” & “Meet the Parents” (J. Hamburg) comes “The Gentrifiers,” a 2006 comedy that had an all-too-brief theatrical release, however now available on DVD. Part gross-out comedy, part social commentary, and all-hilarious, “The Gentrifiers” never quite handles a consistent tone, which is perhaps why it did so poorly in theaters. Which is a shame, as there are both comedic and dramatic gems here that make “The Gentrifiers” easily worth a rental.

Stiller & Garofolo play Stan & Laura, a couple happily married until they decide to leave their rental apartment in the village to buy a brownstone in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. And when these two uptight yuppies are forced to encounter the inner city realities of Bed-Stuy, hilarity ensues.

From moving day, when their truck is surrounded & looted by the neighbors, to the hysterical neighborhood dance, when Stiller tries to dance “ghetto” to fit in, the zany culture clash jokes never stop.

Side characters are introduced via “The Diamond in the Rough,” the local coffee shop where other “colonizers” (as they dryly call themselves) meet, hang out, drink coffee and listen to comedically bad poetry. Gross-out comedy abounds, some hysterical, some not so much. Funny side characters include John Turtorro as a greedy, land-owning Hasidic Jew and Chris Tucker as the local “Gangsta” drug dealer with a very embarrassing secret!

If you want to see if Stan & Laura’s relationship survives, or even if they physically survive this CRAZY neighborhood, rent “The Gentrifiers” today!

Criticism

There are those who have made accusations that “The Gentrifiers” is racist, insuler, and geared toward the white middle/upper class in a way that is stunningly shallow and lacking in any sense of conscience or self-awareness. But if that were true, couldn’t the same be said of every movie directed by Todd Phillips, or every movie written by John Hamburg, or even nearly every movie Ben Stiller has ever starred in??!!! Just remember kids, 5 million Ben Stiller fans can’t be wrong!

People who feel this way need to take a chill pill and stop hating! “The Gentrifiers” is a laugh out loud comedy all upper class white people can relate to, no matter what race or class they belong.

DVD Extras - Featurette - “Hearts of Darkness - Shooting ‘The Gentrifiers’ on location”, Commentary by Stiller and Todd Phillips, Deleted Scenes.