The Odd Couple II (1998)
a review by Christian Pyle
So, it's thirty years later, and Oscar and Felix are together again. That might have been an exciting notion if it wasn't for the fact that the "odd couple" of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau have been reunited in several recent movies: 1993's "Grumpy Old Men," 1995's "Grumpier Old Men," and 1997's "Out to Sea" (i.e. "Grumpiest Old Men"). So, "The Odd Couple II" (i.e. "The Grumpiest Old Men of All, Really") seems just another entry in a tired series.
The plot is even similar to that of "Grumpy Old Men" in that Lemmon and Matthau's mismatched characters are brought together by a romance between their children. Oscar's son (Jonathan Silverman) and Felix's daughter (Lisa Waltz) are getting married, and former roommates Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau) meet at the airport and decide to share a car . . . then hilarity ensues. Well, a few chuckles ensue anyway.
Neil Simon, the award-winning playwright who created Oscar and Felix, provides the screenplay, which is a shock, because the script is a piece of talentless hackwork from beginning to end. Unlike the original play/movie, "Odd Couple II" doesn't find its humor in the personality conflict of its characters. Instead, it depends upon a series of humorous situations: Oscar and Felix lose the car over a cliff, are caught smuggling Mexicans over the border, take up with two women on the run from their violent husbands (the women are played by Christine Baranski of "Cybill" and Jean Smart of "Designing Women"), and hitch a ride with a man who dies in the desert.
The original 1968 movie "The Odd Couple" remains a classic comedy. It introduced the motif of roommate-as-spouse that has provided gags for movies and sitcoms ever since. It was the second outing for the Lemmon/Matthau team (which debuted in 1966's "The Fortune Cookie"), and they made a couple more worthwhile comedies, "The Front Page" (1974) and "Buddy Buddy" (1981), before going their separate ways. The reunion of Lemmon and Matthau in "Grumpy Old Men" six years ago was delightful, and its sequel seemed appropriate because it tied up some loose ends from the first movie. But "Out to Sea" and "The Odd Couple II" are just beating a grumpy old horse. (You can add Lemmon's "My Fellow Americans," i.e. "Grumpy Old Presidents," to that list, too.) Let's hope that Hollywood offers these two actors something fresh to do. Let's hope also that we see Neil Simon's name on movies that do it justice (this is his first since 1993's "Lost in Yonkers").
Grade: D
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
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