Staff Picks #4: Zero Effect at 20

Twenty years ago today, Zero Effect was released in theaters. Ben Stiller & Bill Pullman gave wonderful performances and I spent all of my college years in love with Kim Dickens (something another reporter once told her at a roundtable to embarrass me).

Back when I managed a family-owned video store, I used to recommend Zero Effect (directed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle's Jake Kasdan, btw) to customers so often that it made our 100 most-rented movies of the year -- IN 2006. We had to buy a bunch of extra copies.

It was during that time that Zero Effect became my favorite movie of all time. Maybe not the BEST movie I have ever seen, but it's a great, fun, incredibly likable movie with some great, incredibly likable performances. In all those dozens/hundreds of recommendations to customers.

I never once had anybody come back and say they didn't enjoy the movie.

Five years ago, Chronological Snobbery did a really great job of looking back at Zero Effect's production.

You can get a gorgeous (and fan-made) Zero Effect movie poster here.

Zero Effect is available on DVD through the Warner Archive print-on-demand service. You can purchase it through third-party retailers like Amazon who will use the Warner Archive service to fulfill your order. You can also rent or buy it digitally.

The film almost became a TV series. You can see the never-aired pilot, which starred Alan Cumming, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBBaEijZwnY