Grumpier Old Men

It's a bad sign when the credits of a film are funnier than the film itself (especially when said film is billed as a comedy). Grumpier Old Men suffers from this condition. If you sit through the film, be sure to treat yourself to the credits, which contains some of the funniest outtakes I have ever heard. The film itself isn't perticularly bad or good. More of the same from the first. The relationships aren't really explored, it's just more kooky hijinks from some old guys.

As a 50++ female who married again only 2 years ago, the romance between senior cits hit home with me. It IS possible for us older folks to find companionship, friendship, and fantastic SEX. This movie was absolutely hilarious! I know what it is like to have a child (college age) driving me insane, plus family pets underfoot, while also falling head over heels in love. I also know the pain of a parent dying with me right there. Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattau hit it all right on the mark. Grief, laughter, and love. It is hard to beat this combination. This movie made me laugh harder than I have in years, and that at 7 AM!!! Enjoy it folks!!!

For the most part, "Grumpier Old Men" is pretty silly. Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) and John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) are still at each other's throats when Italian immigrant Maria Ragetti (Sophia Loren) arrives in town and throws everything into flux. What actually struck me most about the movie was how different the town looked in this one from the original. Obviously, it was a different time of year, but maybe the different look was meant to show how everything might be changing in the town. Other than that, Ann-Margret returns as Ariel, and she's still as free-spirited and vivacious as she was in the original. Burgess Meredith - in his final role - is still the grandfather who can exercise absolute authority over the youngsters, although he now has the hots for Maria's mother (Ann Morgan Guilbert, aka Millie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"). Kevin Pollak and Daryl Hannah also reprise their roles from the original...ah, and there's that fish. All in all, a fairly interesting movie. Not any kind of masterpiece, but it showed that Lemmon and Matthau still had it.

Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) and John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) are still combative while maintaining their truce. John is married to Ariel (Ann-Margret) now and his father (Burgess Meredith) is still spry. Everybody is chasing after the big fish Catfish Hunter. Meanwhile, their children Melanie (Daryl Hannah) and Jacob (Kevin Pollak) are planning to get married. Newcomer Maria Ragetti (Sophia Loren) arrives in Wabasha to buy the bait shop and turn it into an Italian restaurant. It's a continuation that's missing much of the fun. It is contrived. It's great to see these great actors working together but that's all I got out of it. I found very few laughs.

To make a good sequel requires a very delicate balancing act that few film-makers seem able to pull off. On the one hand, because it is a sequel, there has to be enough connection with the previous movie to give the viewer a sense of familiarity with what's happening. On the other hand, there has to be enough originality to the story to make the sequel worth watching. Unfortunately, "Grumpier Old Men" seems to fail the originality test. Having said that, this isn't a bad movie. Filled with a galaxy of old pros, it couldn't be. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, Burgess Meredith – these actors know what they're doing and they know how to hold a movie together. They do that here. The performances are excellent, and the movie's worth watching just to see the teamwork among them. It's in the story where things fall down. You can only watch a couple of old men insult each other for so long before it becomes tiresome. John (Lemmon) and Max (Matthau) already spent the entire first movie doing that. "Grumpy Old Men" was a very funny movie, but listening to them call each other "Putz" and "Moron" has lost its appeal, quite frankly. Like the previous movie, the men of Wabasha are fixated on fishing, and they're still intent on catching "Catfish Hunter" – a giant catfish who lives in the lake. Like the original, a beautiful woman (Loren) shows up in town and distracts everyone from the fishing business at hand. It all seems too familiar. Then, where there does seem to be promising originality, it ends up not being sufficiently developed. I thought that the budding romance between John's dad (Meredith) and Maria's mother (Ann Guilbert) had comedic potential, but the two ended up only having 2 or 3 scenes together, and the "stop the restaurant" campaign could have been (and seemed for a moment as if it was going to be) the comedic centrepoint of the movie, but in the end, all we got was about 10 minutes of what were essentially vignettes of the various things John and Max tried to do to stop Maria. The romance between Max and Maria was not as interesting as the competition for Ariel (Ann-Margret) in the first movie, because there wasn't any competition for Max, and the other highlighted story was the romance between Jacob (Kevin Pollak) and Melanie (Darryl Hannah), and, to be honest, I just didn't care much about them. I give the movie credit for the wedding twist at the end which I have to confess I didn't see coming, and the cast did a great job. Unfortunately they can only work with the story they're given, but on the strength of the good performances, I'll rate this as 6/10

Woeful, disappointing sequel to 1993's hit "Grumpy Old Men" is more retread than follow-up. The two crotchety neighbors--Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon--bicker over their children (who will soon be making the sparring oldsters in-laws!) and, of course, who has the better fishing skills. They stop trading insults long enough for Matthau to begin irritating a new woman in town, a fiery Italian who has just opened her own restaurant. Sitcom humor with a sometimes-raunchy twist that is no longer fresh. Almost worth-seeing for Sophia Loren's funny, lively performance, but everyone else looks a little sleepy. Ann-Margret (who married Lemmon's character at the end of the original) must've dropped in for a day and a half to complete her work. As the youthful couple, Kevin Pollack and Daryl Hannah are also under-used. ** from ****

"Grumpier Old Men" is the equally funny sequel to "Grumpy Old Men". Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau return as John and Max, the longtime neighbors who in this movie have reconciled their friendship. Ann-Margret is back as Ariel, John's new wife. So is Burgess Meredith as Lemmon's horny dad, and also returning are Daryl Hannah and Kevin Pollak as Lemmon's daughter and Matthau's son who are now engaged to each other and their fathers help them out to plan their wedding with some bizarre ideas. But the real scene stealer in "Grumpier Old Men" is the wonderful Sophia Loren as the new Italian woman in Wabasha, Minnesota. Loren plans to turn the grumpy old men's beloved bait shop into a 'ristorante' as she puts it. The grumps don't like that one bit and try to drive her out of town, but ends up falling for Matthau. It's great to see Loren get an opportunity to do comedy, and she gets her share of big laughs throughout the film. This film and it's predecessor once again will remind you of what a great team Lemmon and Matthau made. ***1/2 (out of four)

This movie is downright hilarious with tons of good one-liners. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon (may they both rest in peace) are two of the funniest actors in history. No one else could have played Max & John. Sophia Loren is still one of the most beautiful women in movie history! One of the funniest scenes is when she says "Holy moly" after being kissed by Max. Watch this movie. You will enjoy it, if you have a sense of humor!

Some people see this as an inferior sequel to the first movie "Grumpy Old Men". I don't agree, i love the first one but i think this one is every bit as good and in some ways..even better than the original. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are my favorite comedy team. The Fortune Cookie is a classic and i also love "Buddy Buddy" and "The Odd Couple Parts 1 and 2 but the Grumpies hold a special place in my heart. I was personally hoping for another Grumpy movie but sadly we've lost both of these wonderful stars so that will never happen. At least we will always have these fine films to enjoy and treasure. I have them on Dvd and watch them regularly..they never fail to touch my heart and make me smile.

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