Joe's Apartment

Joe Grotowski arrives in New York from Iowa hoping to make his way as a musician, only to find city life harder and less welcoming than he expected. He takes a cheap apartment in an old building marked for demolition, and the landlord and a group of speculators want the tenants out so the site can be cleared for a large federal prison. As if that were not enough, the apartment already has occupants: a colony of talking cockroaches that sing and dance, several thousand strong. Rather than drive him away, the insects take a liking to Joe, and when the developers turn to harsher methods, the roaches become his unlikely allies in keeping the building standing.

The film is a comedy with fantasy elements, and it was directed and written by John Payson, working from his own short film of the same name. Jerry O'Connell plays Joe, with Megan Ward as Lily Dougherty, while the roaches are voiced by Billy West and Reginald Hudlin, among a credited cast of 64 and a crew of 52. It was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, MTV Films and Geffen Pictures for a budget of 13 million dollars, and its worldwide box office came to about 5 million. On IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from 15,000 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 5.8 out of 10 from 389 votes. A film critics' rating of 3.8 out of 10 from 28 reviews places it below both audience scores.