List Price:   $9.98 Price:   $9.98 find out more information

Buy posters from this movie

The creators of this version have almost gone out of their way to disassociate themselves from the source. “It’s not a remake. It’s just based on the ideas.” Yeah, and they never would have had locomotives if someone hadn’t invented the model train first. Reimagine it any way you want, this is not a new Big Fat Greek Wedding nor is it ripping off (the remake) of Meet the Parents. The basic plot is the same, only with more emphasis on the families.

Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks) is a hyper-phobic pediatrist whose daughter is about the get married. The groom’s father has yet to make an experience at the family dinner invitations and Jerry is growing wearisome. When Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) finally shows up, he treats for exotic Korean dining and gives Jerry an upfront view of his secret dealings in the CIA. With a rush of agents pursuing the possible “rogue”, Jerry is all-but-kidnapped into joining him on his mission to sting a fruity arms dealer (David Suchet).

There are complications in the plot, but nothing overtly crossing over from the broadness of the situations. And that’s how it was in the original. Slightly loopy CIA agent meets nerve-rattled dentist and wackiness ensues. Classic status must have formed somewhere around the chemistry between Falk and Arkin which was pitch-perfect down to the best of silent comedy. It was still a stupid plot and the laughs were often scattered thanks to a stulted direction by Arthur Hiller that never developed the screwball pace needed to ignore providing harsh adjectives to the story.

That’s where director Andrew Fleming does the material proud. The 2003 In-Laws is quick and frantic and you’re in-and-out of the theater in 95 minutes. But the laughs are scattered here too, and they aren’t nearly as strong as Falk’s dinner table “Tse-Tse” story or the hysterical climax with Richard Libertini’s wacko General. Brooks is just right for the role, but all his best laughs sound like they flowed out of his own pen and not that of screenwriters Nat Mauldin (TV’s Night Court and Barney Miller) & Ed Solomon (Men In Black). Douglas plays the material the best he can, but his performance can’t escape the uninspired jokes and the shadow of Falk’s deadpan delivery.

The crux of the plot with Suchet can’t match-wits (or scars) with Libertini. Putting a conservative foot guy in fetish territory of a closeted criminal is ripe with comic possibilities on paper, but plays on screen as an extended episode of “dodge the gay guy.” Saddling Douglas with Robin Tunney’s eager partner character is a pointless third wheel provided only as a plot machination. Bringing the family element to the forefront isn’t a bad suggestion, but only if you plan to use them as more than a reminder that we still have a wedding to take place. The very funny Ryan Reynolds gets a nice couple of moments, but these characters couldn’t be more of a waste until you bring in Candace Bergen to play another unfunny bitchy socialite that she’s done to death recently in Miss Congeniality and Sweet Home Alabama.

Fleming may take the brunt of the heat when this fails to perform at the box office and with critics. That’s a shame since he’s written and directed two of the most underrated comedies of the past decade (Threesome & Dick). A stab at the script himself may have provided him with the hit he could clearly use. The In-Laws will never be as good nor as bad as you’re likely to hear from folks. It’s a middle-of-the-road comedy that would make a pleasant distraction on cable, but not worth spending more than a Sunday afternoon on. The film’s detractors are only going to place more emphasis on what a classic the original is. My suggestion is for them to do a few serpentines themselves. Yes, it’s a fun film, at times very funny and worth a little more than a Sunday afternoon. But not much.

 del.icio.us    
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=7703&reviewer=198
originally posted: 05/24/03 00:55:10
 printer-friendly format