The Ref (1994)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jeff "

  
  A smartly crafted holiday comedy film that focuses on a cat burglar who takes a dysfunctional family hostage. The Ref is a smart, funny comedy with a great cast. Denis Leary is perfect in his role, and Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey have great chemistry as the dysfunctional couple.… More
  A smartly crafted holiday comedy film that focuses on a cat burglar who takes a dysfunctional family hostage. The Ref is a smart, funny comedy with a great cast. Denis Leary is perfect in his role, and Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey have great chemistry as the dysfunctional couple. Though the humor slows down a bit, the story is engaging enough for you to be entertained and with a good cast like this, it's impossible not to be. There's a perfect blend of effective storytelling that compliments the humor, and though it's not as hilarious as so many mainstream critics have said, The Ref is still funny enough for you to laugh and enjoy a fun, entertaining hour and a half. What really makes this a good film are the performances, everyone of the cast is well picked for the parts they play. I really enjoyed Denis Leary, and I thought watching him loose his mind as the couple and family is driving him crazy was just funny, and simply a great comedic performance. The Ref has its flaws, but overall it works well enough to be a highly entertaining comedy film with a good cast of talented actors that make this film worth watching. This is a good comedy with plenty of laughs that is smartly crafted and is worth seeing if you're in the mood for a comedy with great acting and a good story. Not a perfect film, but for what it is, The Ref delivers a good, solid entertaining hour and a half filled with laughter. Denis Leary is really the one that delivers here, and he makes the film a must see.

• David L

  
  "The Ref" is one of my favorite Christmas movies, it stars Denis Leary as a cat burglar who unwittingly takes bickering couple Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis hostage and ultimately ends up having to meet with the entire, annoying family for Christmas dinner. As the feuding… More
  "The Ref" is one of my favorite Christmas movies, it stars Denis Leary as a cat burglar who unwittingly takes bickering couple Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis hostage and ultimately ends up having to meet with the entire, annoying family for Christmas dinner. As the feuding spouses, Spacey and Davis are perfect. They have a corrosive chemistry together and feed off of their character's biting, ill-spirited, hilarious put-downs and rantings. Denis Leary is also crudely effective as the titular character, tortured by the couple's incessant fighting. The family dinner is another laugh riot, with the actors hitting all the right chords as the stereotypically irritating, obligated-to-visit relatives who have an equally uneven family. Besides the family hostage story, there are also several other stories that run throughout the movie involving blackmail and a disgruntled neighborhood Santa Claus. Director Ted Demme balances all these storylines, albeit sometimes not very developed ones, and juggles them adequately with the main act. Ted Demme's direction is also controlled and never lets up, sticking to the scripts incisive arguments and family-haranguing and not reducing this smart, sometimes dark comedy to a typical, brainless holiday flick. The only time he falters is with the ending, of which the last minute could have been cut. Otherwise, this is a very funny, stinging, and unusual Christmas movie that gets more laughs than most Hollywood-packaged, uninspired crowd-pleasers.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  What a great dark comedy. Loved every bit of this movie. Reminds me of my family. Not sure thats a good thing. A lot of laughs. Love Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary in this movie. Has to be my favorite Christmas film. Probably wouldn't have been as good if not for the three leads.

• Film C

  
  Hysterically Funny... i think not! I thought this movie was going to be great even if the storyline had floors it would be improved because iits funny, but i didnt find it that great i dont think i laughed more than twice and it wasnt lol! i like to think i have a great sense of… More
  Hysterically Funny... i think not! I thought this movie was going to be great even if the storyline had floors it would be improved because iits funny, but i didnt find it that great i dont think i laughed more than twice and it wasnt lol! i like to think i have a great sense of humour and sometimes simple and silly so im amused by a lot of things but this movie just didnt cut it for, its about a burgular who kidnaps two strange people who he wasnt even burulaing from but kidnaps two of the most desfuctional people in the world and questions how there marriage ever worked! i didnt like it that much but hey its worth a watch for kevin spacey!

• xGary X

  
  An early role for Kevin Sacey as he and his wife are held hostage in their middle class suburban home by cynical crook Dennis Leary and inevitable life lessons ensue. Some of the sniping and bickering is pretty funny, as is the increasingly exasperated Leary. Makes a nice change from… More
  An early role for Kevin Sacey as he and his wife are held hostage in their middle class suburban home by cynical crook Dennis Leary and inevitable life lessons ensue. Some of the sniping and bickering is pretty funny, as is the increasingly exasperated Leary. Makes a nice change from the usual saccharine-soaked christmas mush.

• Michael G

  
  A realistic Christmas movie! Thank you, St. Nick!

• Emily A

  
  This is my favorite Christmas movie ever. I'm surprised that not too many filmmaker embrace the season with the cynicism it deserves. Denis Leary heads an enormously talented cast about a couple who won't let anything get in the way of thier bickering.

• James A

  
  This is a movie that shows just how overated Denis Leary is.

• Alec B

  
  It does suffer from having too many extraneous supporting characters and a few of the big emotional moments don't work, but seeing Leary, Davis, and Spacey play off each other so well is great. It would have been easy to make the strained marriage at the center cartoonish, but… More
  It does suffer from having too many extraneous supporting characters and a few of the big emotional moments don't work, but seeing Leary, Davis, and Spacey play off each other so well is great. It would have been easy to make the strained marriage at the center cartoonish, but the script actually pushes for realism, putting blame on both husband and wife in equal measure. At the same time, it never looses its comic edge, despite its occasional honesty.

• Marcus W

  
  The first half hour is great but then it runs out of steam, brings in WAY too many characters, sidelines Leary and hits every cliche available before finally blaming mother. Spacey and Davis are excellent though.

• Jim W

  
  The Ref is an under-rated comedy about a crook (Denis Leary) who's forced to act as the counselor of a dysfunctional family. Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis play the unhappy married couple that Leary take hostage. The Ref has good early work by Kevin Spacey, but Leary is really good… More
  The Ref is an under-rated comedy about a crook (Denis Leary) who's forced to act as the counselor of a dysfunctional family. Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis play the unhappy married couple that Leary take hostage. The Ref has good early work by Kevin Spacey, but Leary is really good in a role that's perfect for him. His character wants nothing to do with all the family drama but while pretending to be a family counselor, he finds himself becoming the part anyway. Which leads to a very smart and funny movie.

• Lee K

  
  funny movie

• *Kimberly *

  
  I have a special bond with this movie. Denis Leary's humor is seasoned to perfection ;) "You saw the stop sign, didn't you Lloyd?"

• Mr. C

  
  Friggin awesome. This is how most families I know act around Christrmas.

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