THE IN-LAWS
Grade: B- Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures Directed by: Andrew Fleming Written by: Ed Solomon, Nat Mauldin, based on Andrew Fleming's screenplay Cast: Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks, Robin Tunney, Ryan Reynolds, Lindsay Sloane, David Suchet, Maria Ricossa Screened at: Loews 34th St., NYC, 5/19/03
They say that when you get married, you get into bed with five people: your spouse, her mom and dad, and your own parents. In most cases, happily, this setup is merely metaphoric. Wives and husbands carry with them the stamp of their parents. Presumably, then, if your parents and their folks have profoundly different temperaments, your marriage could be in trouble. No two in-laws could be more different from each other than Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) and Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks), the characters created originally by Arthur Hiller in 1979 in their classic comedy by the same name starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. Since this is a romantic comedy, we know the convention: the two will not get along for much of the time but will make up and be the best of buddies in the end. What about their son and daughter, Mark (Ryan Reynolds) and Melissa (Lindsay Sloane)? They're pretty bland, but then the picture is not about them.
While the remake of the Fleming original has more gloss which, ironically, takes away from some of the charm of the 1979 version, the jokes pop up frequently enough to remind us that the creator of the original version also was at the helm in the production of "Dick" a riotous satire on Nixon and the Watergate years.
For a romantic comedy, "The In-Laws" startles with a James- Bond-like opener that's difficult to top, coming at us with the soundtrack pumping out the theme from "Live and Let Die." The principal character, Steve, is a CIA agent, or as one FBI man believes, a rogue agent who was kicked out of the organization for going off-the-wall. Steve Tobias is not longer together with his wife Judy (Candice Bergen) and is estranged from his son Mark, because his travels take him to exotic spots around the world where he pursues American interests with a passion with his partner, Angela Harris (Robin Tunney). Taking a little time out on the eve of his son's wedding before he is to contact and later trap an arms dealer in France, Jean-Pierre Thibodoux (David Suchet), Steve meets the future in-laws shortly before the wedding, quickly learning that the fanny-pack wearing, hypochondriac podiatrist, Jerry, is his complete opposite. When Steve orders snake at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chicago (actually filmed in Toronto), a wide-eyed Jerry responds, "Have you seen the Discovery Channel? This is one of the stars."
"The In-Laws," which will probably appeal to an older audience given the fact that the two youngsters to be married are simply foils to the main event, is reasonably amusing, providing entertainment on a smaller scale than the typical summer blockbuster, and though Steve and Jerry embark on a set of journeys that are all part of the job for Steve but the adventure of a lifetime for the phobic Jerry, "The In-Laws" is in no way, shape or form to be compared to the rollicking fun provided us by Jay Roach in the year 2000 production of "Meet the Parents." While Michael Douglas turns in a surprisingly adept comic performance, Albert Brooks, so hilarious in "Mother" and "I'll Do Anything" doesn't match up to either Ben Stiller in the Jay Roach pic or to Alan Arkin from the Arthur Hiller version of "The In-Laws."
Rated PG-13. 98 minutes. Copyright 2003 by Harvey Karten at Harveycritic@cs.com
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