Released back in 1988 "Big Business" is a comedy of confusion, a series of gags surrounding mistaken identity as two sets of twins mixed up at birth miraculously find themselves in the same hotel at the same time blissfully unaware of each other. As such "Big Business" shares a similarity with William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" when it comes to comedy confusion from twins mixed up at birth and to be frank is not the first movie to use the separated at birth idea, although at the time I am sure it's the only one featuring two sets of twins. Sadly whilst a great idea for "a comedy of errors" "Big Business" ends up amusing but ultimately repetitive as one gag follows another till it all comes to a head.

On their way to their new beach house Hunt & Binky Shelton are forced to stop at the hospital in the small town of Jupiter Hollow so that Binky can give birth to a set of twins. At the same time a local couple, Iona and Garth Ratliff, are also in the hospital as their twins are born at the same time. Well with so many births the midwife makes a mistake and mixes up the babies. Many years later the Shelton's twin daughters, Sadie and Rose, now run the family business and are planning to shut down the business they own in Jupiter Hollow. This doesn't go down well with the folks in Jupiter Hollow especially the Ratliff's twin daughter, Sadie and Rose. Determined to stop the business from being closed the Ratliff twins head to New York and miraculously find themselves in the same hotel as the Shelton twins causing plenty of confusion.

"Big Business" starts of quite well, the scenes back in the 1940s with the Shelton's turning up in Jupiter Hollow are well created as they lay way for all the future confusion between the two sets of twins. But once that is done and we become aware that in New York you have one mismatched pair of twins running the family business and another still in Jupiter Hollow it does become a bit ordinary. What this means is that whilst we get the set up of Sadie & Rose Shelton wanting to sell the business in Jupiter Hollow giving reasoning for Sadie & Rose Ratliff to turn up in New York it becomes irrelevant.

As such "Big Business" is a movie about one thing and that is the comedy of having the twins in the same hotel and the confusion which arises from it all. You know the sort of stuff, Sadie Shelton walks out of a room one minute only for Sadie Ratliff to walk in dressed differently the next causing confusion and bemusement to all those around. The same with Rose as more confusion over who is who. And to make it more amusing tie in 4 men all who are linked to one or other of the Rose & Sadie's. The thing is that whilst all this starts off as funny but obvious, by the time the same gagged has been used for the third time it becomes boring and repetitive, especially as that same gag is used more than just three times.

"Big Business" does have other jokes, but to be honest they work little better especially the couple which revolve around Sadie Ratliff singing, most notably the one where she is milking a cow. Don't get me wrong Bette Midler can sing but the fact here she is not only milking a cow but also yodelling is just too weird to be funny.

The thing is that after about 90 minutes of repetitive gags "Big Business" does come to a head with probably the best gag in the movie. Bette Midler is just brilliant in the scene playing both the Sadie's with such over the top comedy you can't but help laugh. That is one of the things about "Big Business" is that by no means of the imagination is it a subtle comedy with barely a humorous moment not being played intentionally over the top.

Whilst I like both Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, I can't say that either of their performances in "Big Business" are that memorable, rather solid and functional. They work the gags well, even if it is basically the same gag over and over again and of course thanks to the technology we have 2 Bette Midler's and 2 Lily Tomlin's on screen at the same time meaning double the comedy. The claim of solid yet functional extends to all the other supporting actors and actresses including Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann and Michael Gross although seeing a young Seth Green playing an annoying kid is quite amusing.

What this all boils down to is that "Big Business" is amusing as it works through a comedy of errors and confusion. But it also ends up quite boring thanks to the repetitive nature of the same gag being used over and over again. Even the delightful pairing of Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin fail to make it any the better, but in a sort of simplistic 80s sort of way it is entertaining to watch the once.