Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

  I got this as part of a double feature with the fantastic Ruthless People, but I did not enjoy it nearly as much.  Bette Midler adds the only touch of comedy but even the Divine Miss M couldn't save the whole movie.  Maybe it's one of those tonal things that made sense back when it came out.  For whatever reason, I didn't connect to it at all.

Jerry (Nick Nolte) is a homeless guy who has lost his dog, so he decides to drown himself in the pool of a Beverly Hills mansion.  The mansion's owner, hanger magnate Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss), saves Jerry and decides to give the guy a break by letting him stay in the cabana. Jerry systematically changes the life of every person in the Whiteman household, from the live-in maid (Elizabeth Pena) to Jerry's anorexic daughter (Tracy Nelson) who spends the majority of the movie away at college.

The script felt underbaked, the characters weren't very realistic, and the whole thing came off as just another shiny, plastic tribute to the excess of the 80's.  Even what could have been a really touching moment, when Dave's son essentially comes out to him, fell completely flat, like the film-makers were too scared to really take a stand.  It's an emotionally neutered, bland film that squanders the talents of its three leads.