THE IN-LAWS -----------
Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) is an undercover CIA agent working to collar the buyer and seller of a Russian nuclear submarine. Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks, "My First Mister") is a podiatrist with control issues and a cart load of phobias. Their only children are about to marry making them an extremely mismatched set of "The In-Laws."
Nat Mauldin and Ed Soloman, working with original 1979 screenwriter Andrew Bergman, deliver a remake defanged of the first film's absurdist humor by immediately making the audience privy to Steve's occupation and placing more squishy emphasis on family matters. Still Douglas and Brooks delve into the farthest corners of their opposite natures with exuberance, providing the requisite number of payoffs for a mildly amusing comedy.
Director Andrew Fleming ("Dick") begins neatly with Steve making a narrow escape in Prague accompanied by a "Live and Let Die" cover on the soundtrack. Meanwhile Jerry is obsessing over a patient's foot fungus and the seating arrangements for his
daughter's wedding. When the 'Xerox technician' (Tobias's weak layman's cover) arrives late for his first meeting with the Peysers after Jerry's veal glaze has become a shellac, Steve takes the opportunity to keep a spy meet 'n' swap while treating the family to dinner at a prearranged restaurant. Jerry overhears (and misinterprets) Steve's assignment in a men's room stall with a beautiful Russian, beginning his unwitting apprenticeship in Steve's mission.
Douglas is full of zest and a humorous perky enthusiasm for piloting planes through treacherous landings and parachuting off building tops, but it's difficult not to compare his performance to the utter nuttiness of Peter Falk's in the 1979 original. Of course Falk had the advantage of a murkier introduction and a script full of far funnier situations, but Douglas cannot attain the endearing sense of frustration Falk did so effortlessly. More equal to Alan Alda is Brooks, who works his nebbishy quirks while gradually turning around and playing into Steve's schemes (he gets the biggest laugh in the film masquerading as the 'Big Cobra' in a hot tub with a French arms dealer). The script's most original idea finds the twosome alone aboard Barbra Streisand's Gulfstream V. David Suchet (HBO's "Live from Baghdad") gamely tries to fill in for the original's villain, Richard Libertini, but the shoes are too big and he's tripped up with dated gay jokes.
The script really stumbles when it returns to family and personal affairs. Steve is teamed with a tasty protégé, Angela (Robin Tunney, "Cherish"), a ripe opportunity for a love interest that's badly fumbled (Tunney's quite good too, until she's dealt a bad hand). Maria Ricossa ("Harvard Man") has bright presence as Katherine Peyser, but Candice Bergin is left adrift with the 'hateful ex-wife' role and fails to exhibit much venom. As the about-to-be-weds, Ryan Reynolds ("Van Wilder") is earnest and Tori-Spelling lookalike Lindsay Sloane ("Bring It On") perky. Director Andrew Fleming's ("Dick") return to the wedding preparations are banal, except for Melissa's bachelorette party, where the FBI are mistaken for strippers. Emmy Laybourne ("Superstar") is saddled with the film's most unnecessary and unpleasant character, bridesmaid Gloria, who gets drunk at every wedding event and admits to having slept with the groom.
"The In-Laws" has its moments, but looks pretty lame compared with it classier forebear.
C
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