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Grumpy Old MenRating:
Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $12.98 OUR Price: $9.99 You SAVE: $2.99! Cast: Complete Cast (16 total) |
Grumpy Old Men Reviews
I smell fish...
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau make a dynamic duo, hilarious to watch as the feed off each other perfectly. In this popular comedy they do so to the nth degree as John & Max, two bachelors fighting over the same woman. That woman is the eccentric and interesting Ariel (Ann-Margret) who just moved into their Minnesota neighborhood snowmobile in toe. She almost immediately takes a liking to John (Lemon) who is smitten with her, but as his age long feud with Max (Matthau) heats up he is almost driven away from the idea of romance, leaving Max to swoop in and try his turn with Ariel. The film flows wonderfully and packs enough hilarious scenes to justify watch after watch. Like Martin & Lewis, Lemon and Matthau work wonders together!
Witness two masters of comedy ply their trade - a classic
I read in an interview that Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon had never had one argument in their life. That struck me as surprising since the two argue so well - and there's a whole lot of arguing in this 1993 movie that spawned one sequel.
This particular movie holds a special interest for me. My family in the United Kingdom had hosted a Minnesota student in the 1980s and so I have made a number of return trips to the state over the years. When this movie was released I was spending the Christmas holidays with friends in the `Land of 10,000 Lakes' where this is set and saw this movie with a girlfriends family on New Year's Eve. There's something to be said about watching a Minnesota movie among a crowd of Minnesotans - they just get the humor and are so self-deprecating that when the movie pokes fun at their culture (ice fishing huts ON the lake) they take it in their stride with good humor.
Set in the fictional town of Wabasha, Minn. the movie follows the age-old rivalry between John Gustafson (Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Matthau) and the interest they share in their new neighbor across the street, the free-spirited Ariel Truax (played by the timeless beauty Ann-Margret.)
Of course the highlight of this movie is seeing the two (Matthau and Lemmon) shoot of barbs at each other. The characters apparently were friends when younger but a woman caused the two to break off a friendship and the arrival of Truax has reawakened all those feelings. In fact one of the overriding images I have of this movie is the sight of Max trying to spear John with a frozen fish as Burgess Meredith storms through a crowd of on-lookers to order him to "Put that fish down!" It's hard to tie down exactly why this movie works so well and has so many gut-busting moments, the two obviously have a great chemistry and their comic timing is second to none. The barbs are funny and the pranks that they play on each other are both ingenious (Max using his TV remote to change Johns TV channel as the latter is trying to follow the lottery results) and at times juvenile (John putting a fish in the back of Max's truck).
Combined they gel into one very funny movie. And the coup de grace comes when Max shows his true affection for John by helping him after he suffers a stroke, both in getting him to the hospital and then in fighting for him with the IRS man who is determined to seize Gustafson's home.
There is also that golden moment at the hospital when the nurse asks him if he is "friend or family" to John and after a moments pause Max admits "friend." Some have accused this movie if losing it's way in its final act, but personally I find the closing minutes of the movie to be among the best dramatically and let's face it - who wouldn't like to see this particular IRS man get his comeuppance.
Added to this movie are the two long suffering children of the pair. Daryl Hannah (whatever happened to her) appears as John's daughter Melanie and Kevin Pollak appears as Max's son Jacob.
A word of caution, there is some very adult language in this movie, in fact some referred to it as "Dirty Old Men' back when it was released. If you have only seen this movie on TV where some words of dialogue are noticeably changed, then chances are you have not been exposed to the great comic timing of Matthau and Lemmon.
This movie is available by itself or as part of a collection with its inferior (but still funny) sequel GRUMOIER OLD MEN. In both instances however the movie is only available in full-screen. Hopefully Warner will release a widescreen version with special features in the future. But for now sit back and enjoy two masters of comedy work their magic, and be sure the stick around for the outtakes at the end which are usually edited - probably for language, from TV broadcasts. They are all extremely funny and elicited some of the biggest laughs with the audience I saw the movie with.
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