The defence The Popcorn Loyalist
“It owes the canon nothing.”
The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.
Back to trending 
Taking Care of Business
Comedy · 1990
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
Movie details
Taking Care of Business
“You are who you pretend to be.”
1990 Comedy 1h 48m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Taking Care of Business?
For the defence
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Gumball Rally
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American Dreamer
Comedy · 2022
In this winsome comedy, an entitled Economics professor pursues a tactic to buy an ailing widow’s mansion for nothing, but he quickly realizes that his seemingly foolproof strategy won’t be as easy as he thought.
Lions Love
Comedy · 1969
Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.
Held Up
Comedy · 1999
What should have been a romantic getaway turns into one hilarious debacle after another when Michael's woman dumps him in the desert where he gets carjacked by a teenager and he is taken hostage in a stickup at the local Sip and Zip.
Horrible Bosses 2
Comedy · 2014
Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Arthur Hiller
Written by
J.J. Abrams · Jill Mazursky
Jim Belushi
Jimmy Dworski
Charles Grodin
Spencer Barnes
Anne DeSalvo
Debbie Lipton
Loryn Locklin
Jewel Bentley
Stephen Elliott
Walter Bentley
Héctor Elizondo
Warden Toolman
Veronica Hamel
Elizabeth Barnes
Court is in session
Put Taking Care of Business on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Big-Idea Head
“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”
It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.