'The Odd Couple II'
A movie review by Walter Frith
Member of the 'Internet Movie Critics Association' http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/5713/index.html
When I first saw 'The Odd Couple', it was the television series starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. A brilliant show that I read somewhere never cracked the top 10 on television in its run between 1970 and 1975. It won Emmy awards for its two leading men throughout that period and provided some of the most uproarious belly laughs in the history of sitcoms. The show was brash, frank and uncompromising in its portrayal of two New York City roommates, Oscar Madison (Klugman) and Felix Unger (Randall). The t.v. series was inspired by the 1968 movie which came about from an earlier play written by Neil Simon (as was the film) in which Oscar and Felix were portrayed by Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. That movie didn't have the in-your-face fast pace and high spirited hilarity of the sitcom but its basic good nature and original idea were to be admired. To tell you the truth, I've always preferred Klugman and Randall to the other two but that is intended to take nothing away from the talents of Lemmon and Matthau.
Everyone knows Oscar's the sloppy one and Felix is the "clean freak" or as Matthau refers to him this time as "a human vacuum cleaner". Thirty years have passed and I'm sorry to say that the fire has gone out on any idea Simon may have had for a sequel. As 'The Odd Couple II' progresses in the early stages, Oscar receives a phone call from his son, informing him that he plans to be married to who else....Felix's daughter?! Matthau is surprised to say the least. After getting the details of the wedding plans, Felix and Oscar meet at the airport in California and haven't seen each other in 17 years? I don't know about you but I don't get in contact with people I met previously in my life and haven't spoken to in 17 years and while you would think it to be natural that the future in-laws would have to see each other at the wedding, what are the chances that Oscar's son and Felix's daughter would meet and want to get married? Let's see, 6 billion people in the world and that's about three billion men and three billion women, right? The odds would be 3 billion to 1 that they would meet each other. You have a better chance of seeing two royal flushes come up in the same hand at a poker game. Who does Neil Simon think he's fooling with this preposterous story?
Anyway, after they do meet, they encounter one disaster after another and end up in a small town sheriff's office several times after being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, suspected of committing offenses but in each case, the sheriff finds there was a freak misunderstanding like you would find in a Laurel and Hardy movie and releases Oscar and Felix each time. Other mishaps in the film include Oscar and Felix leaving the airport with Felix's suitcase getting left behind with almost $20,000 in wedding presents inside, their car rolls over a desert cliff and explodes, they get busted for an association with illegal immigrants, get pesticide dumped on them and even manage to pick up two girls whose boyfriends are rednecks and want to do them in. These scenarios all look just a little too written and don't seem natural and that along with the film's one liners look like a series of amateur night comedy sketches at a local theatre featuring local talent.
There are countless attempts to poke fun at the senior citizen's way of life which I found to be a little tasteless and unfunny (and I'm only 32) and while I'm sure it's intended to be in good taste and while some seniors will find it funny (my parents probably will), others will be crossing their fingers for a third 'Grumpy Old Men' film.
OUT OF 5 > * *
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