LouHomey
From my favorite movies..
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
DaveP-7
I saw a picture of Sophia on her eightieth birthday, demurely covering herself with a sheet and a heart-melting smile.All I could think of was the scene where she hitched up her bra and marched through the bar, and every man looked, and I do mean every man.I read later that she had "improved" the script for that. A reviewer in the SF Chronicle wrote later that she said she had had no "touch- ups", and if so then "her genes need investigating."I remember her many films where her beauty was so natural that it was a wonder any man could concentrate on his lines. She never traded on it, but on her talent as an actress.Carlo Ponti was a lucky man: beauty without guile, talent without pretense.Italian pizza were like street food. When she heard we had so many pizza parlors, she thought we must be a poor country. Then she visited, and dined on American pizza. She reconsidered, gracefully and graciously.
namashi_1
A sequel to the thoroughly enjoyable Grumpy Old Men, 'Grumpier Old Men' is A Sweet Film, with Lively Performances. The sequel has the spirit of its prequel & the amazing cast, led by the impeccable talents of the Late/Great Jack Lemmon & the Late/Great Walter Matthau, are in full form! 'Grumpier Old Men' Synopsis: John and Max resolve to save their beloved bait shop from turning into an Italian restaurant, just as its new female owner catches Max's attention.'Grumpier Old Men' works well as a romantic-comedy, as it has moments of humour & subtle romance. I loved the prequel & I must say, the sequel doesn't fail to deliver. The film has sustained its energy & wit, that one would expect from it.Mark Steven Johnson's Screenplay is entertaining, although initially the pace is slightly slow. Howard Deutch's Direction is top-class. Tak Fujimoto's Cinematography is good. Editing also is ably done. Performance-Wise: Lemmon & Matthau shine all through. Its their sheer on-screen chemistry, that alone is worth watching the entire film. Sophia Loren is top-notch. Ann-Margret is impressive. Kevin Pollak & Daryl Hannah leave a mark. Late/Great Burgess Meredith is memorable in his part.On the whole, 'Grumpier Old Men' is a smooth, relaxing watch.
Michael_Elliott
Grumpier Old Men (1995) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Sequel to Grumpy Old Men have Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau returning with more fights and foul language. This time out Lemmon is still happily married but Matthau is on the move and takes a special interest in an Italian woman (Sophia Loren) who has just moved to town. I think the most remarkable thing about this film is how well Loren looked. Even at 61 she's still a head turner and her comic timing isn't too bad either. I'm sure this film was only made because the first one made money but it doesn't really matter as no one should take this too serious as it's just a silly comedy meant to make you laugh. There are plenty of nice laughs here but I don't think it's as good as the original. This certainly isn't in the league as The Odd Couple but we do get a pretty good throwback to that film here as there's a scene where Lemmon has to spend the night with Matthau but can't put up with his dirty house. Ann-Margret returns but is pretty much wasted as is Daryl Hannah and Kevin Pollak. The perverted Burgess Meredith is back and steals the scene every time he's in it. Both Matthau and Lemmon are naturally very good and they easily slip back into their roles. It's priceless watching the two men work together even when the material isn't as strong as one would hope. Lemmon gets a special notice here due to a very touching scene with Meredith. Another problem is the direction, which has one of those "made for TV" feels to it. In the end this film could have and should have been a lot better but the cast make it worth watching.
sddavis63
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
