Naive and wide-eyed aw-shucks Iowa boy Joe (Jerry O’Connell) moves to New York City to make his fortune.
He has no job, prospects or friends – except for wacky performance artist Walter Shit (Jim Turner) – and finds himself living in an apartment in an almost abandoned building – which he soon discovers he is sharing with thousands of singing, dancing, wisecracking cockroaches, led by head Cucarachas Ralph (voiced by Billy West) and Rodney.
He initially wants to exterminate the roaches until they start talking to him, helping him with his problems – and performing big production aquatic ballet MGM musical numbers in his toilet!
Meanwhile, evil slumlord Alberto Bianco (Don Ho) and his vicious nephews Vladimir (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) and Jesus (Jim Sterling) are all set to assassinate Joe to clear the building for demolition so they can sell to conniving Senator Dougherty (Robert Vaughn, the former Man From U.N.C.L.E.) – a politician and secret cross-dresser who wants to turn the property into a high-rise federal prison.
But the senator has a lovely daughter – a flower child named Lily (Megan Ward, pictured), and she wants to turn the dilapidated Lower East Side slum lot into a blooming urban paradise with a communal garden.
In addition to 2,500 live extra-large Americanas cockroaches, the production used rubber puppet roaches, stop-motion photography roaches, remote-controlled roaches and computer-generated roaches animated by Blue Sky Computer Graphics (who did the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park). They wear cowboy hats, baseball caps, and choir robes, and it’s impossible to tell the real ones from the artificial ones – until they start to sing.
Joe’s Apartment was written and directed by John Payson, who expanded his acclaimed MTV short into this feature-length movie.
Joe
Jerry O’Connell Lily Dougherty
Megan Ward Ralph Roach (voice)
Billy West Rodney Roach (voice)
Reginald Hudlin Walter Shit
Jim Turner Blank
Sandra Denton Senator Dougherty
Robert Vaughn Alberto Bianco
Don Ho Jesus Bianco
Jim Sterling Vladimir Bianco
Shiek Mahmud-Bey P.I. Smith
David Huddleston Mrs Grotowski
Rose Kimmel Sal
Salvatore Piro Boss Plumber
Tommy Hollis Boss Construction
Scott Bigelow Boss Clergy
Christopher Durang Boss Clown
Dale Goodson Ms Featherstone
Patricia O’Connell Boss Hog Band
Cristina Martinez
Jon Spencer
Jens Jurgensen
Hollis Yungblut Cockroaches (voice)
Rick Aviles
Vebe Borge
Dave Chappelle
Godfrey Danchimah
Kenan Moran
Jennie Moreau
Tim Blake Nelson
Mark Rosenthal
James Stauffer
John Tereile
Kevin Weist
Geoffrey Whelan
BD Wong
Director
John Payson
You May Also Like
No Way Out (1987) Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) is a navy officer who gets posted at the Pentagon…
Meanwhile, evil slumlord Alberto Bianco (Don Ho) and his vicious nephews Vladimir (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) and Jesus (Jim Sterling) are all set to assassinate Joe to clear the building for demolition so they can sell to conniving Senator Dougherty (Robert Vaughn, the former Man From U.N.C.L.E.) – a politician and secret cross-dresser who wants to turn the property into a high-rise federal prison.
Joe
Blank 
Jesus Bianco
Sal
