The In-Laws *** (2003, Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks) – Classic Movie Review 1321

Talented players Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks spark director Andrew Fleming’s fun, offbeat 2003 comedy remake of the cult 1979 Peter Falk-Alan Arkin movie. It’s slickly made by Fleming, with scenes shot on location in Chicago.

Though no Laurel and Hardy, Douglas and Brooks make a surprisingly funny duo, giving expert comedy turns as Steve Tobias and Dr Jerry Peyser, prospective fathers-in-law who meet for the first time when their kids (Douglas’s son Ryan Reynolds, Brooks’s daughter Lindsay Sloane) are about to marry.

Brooks is a meek, phobic chiropodist and Douglas a hyper-active undercover CIA agent, who soon drags Brooks into his spy fun and games, adding new meaning to the phrase ‘till death us do part’.

They haven’t put enough new stuffing into this reupholstered antique, a ramshackle remake of the entertaining Falk-Arkin comedy, yet it’s still oddly likeable and good for a lot of silly, good-natured laughs.

However David Suchet should know better than to be doing this trashy performing in an oppressive role as a gay French mobster fancying Brooks.

Candice Bergen, Robin Tunney, Michael Bodnar, Vladimir Radian, Boyd Banks and Susan Aceron also appear. Nat Mauldin and Ed Solomon base their fair screenplay on the Andrew Bergman original.

The film was a box-office flop, recouping under $27million of its $40million budget. It should have taken off like the similarly themed Meet the Parents, but it didn’t.

http://derekwinnert.com/meet-the-parents-classic-film-review-488/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1321

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