Dunston Checks In
A jewel-thief's escaped orangutan runs wild through a stuffy five-star hotel while a frazzled manager — Jason Alexander, moonlighting from Seinfeld — tries to keep the chaos from his boss. A critical dud in 1996 that a lot of kids wore out on video anyway.
Dunston Checks In opened January 12, 1996, directed by Ken Kwapis: Jason Alexander — then mid-Seinfeld as George Costanza — plays the harried manager of a posh hotel run by an imperious owner (Faye Dunaway) on the eve of its big Crystal Ball. Into that chaos comes Dunston, an orangutan belonging to a jewel thief posing as a lord (Rupert Everett); when the ape escapes and befriends the manager's young son, the hotel descends into slapstick ruin.
Critics savaged it, and it lost money theatrically, taking under $10 million; Dunaway even drew a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress that season. But like a lot of mid-'90s family comedies, it did its real business on video — where it pulled in far more than it ever made in theaters — and became a rainy-day rental staple for a certain age of kid. The orangutan Dunston was played by a trained ape named Sam.
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