THE ODD COUPLE II
US, 1997, 97 minutes, Colour.
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Christine Baranski, Barnard Hughes, Jonathan Silverman, Jean Smart, Ellen Gere, Jay O. Sanders.
Directed by Howard Deutsch.
An Odd Couple sequel, thirty years after the original movie. Not that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau have not been seen together. This is their tenth movie. It is directed by Howard Deutch who made some of the better teen comedies of the 80s (Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink) and directed the stars in the recent Grumpier Old Men. Jack Lemmon is good but Walter Matthau is better, with his malleable face, his deadpan one-liners (courtesy of Neil Simon again) and his wonderful impersonation of a kindly slob. This time they are off to a wedding (Oscar's son and Felix's daughter) and Simon gets them involved in a series of minor disasters on the way - with a very funny interlude centred on a vintage car. It is a variation on Simon’s comedy, the odd couple out-of-towners. The ending is positively begging for a sequel. Undemanding and amusing.
1. An entertaining sequel? Coming thirty years after the original? The power of the original, the television series, the version with women as leads, the continued popularity? The differences, the franker aspects of sexuality, the more crass language?
2. A road movie across America to Los Angeles? Adventures on the road, misadventures?
3. The chemistry between Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, for over thirty years? The embodiments of Felix and Oscar? Wisdom learnt over the years, lack of wisdom? The clashing, the repetition of the old encounters? The finale with Oscar having to accept Felix again?
4. The age of the men, their mannerisms? Going to the engagement and the wedding? The irony of Oscar's son engaged to Felix's daughter? The planned trip to the wedding, renting the car in Los Angeles? The aggravation? The burning of the map, their getting lost, the empty car rolling into the canyon, bursting into fire?
5. The lift with the Mexican truck driver, the roadblock? The encounters with authorities, the several times of their being mistaken for criminals? Immigration laws? The continuing of the journey, the lift with the old man, his help, his heart attack and death? Their having met the two biker women, enjoying their company, on the bus, the hijacking of the bus, the biker husbands?
6. The wedding, Felix and his entanglement with Felice, the former sister-in-law, having met her on the way, at the wedding reception? Felix going off with Felice? Oscar returning home, alone?
7. The two biker women, their styles, the meeting with Oscar and Felix - and the aftermath with their husbands?
8. The old man, his character, picking up the two travellers, the encounter with them, his death?
9. Oscar's son, the engagement, preparation for the wedding, his relationship with his father? Felix and his daughter? The ceremony, the reaction to the parents?
10. The comic sequences, Neil Simon's wit and one-liners, repeated situations - and audiences enjoying them even though, in some ways, the two stars have become grumpy old men?
