ThiefHott Too much of everything

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

ElMaruecan82 Will it matter to know that the director of ''The Out-of-Towners'' is Arthur Hiller, the same who made the highest-grossing movie of the same year ''Love Story'' ? Probably not. Or maybe a little, as there are some touching expressions marital love and understanding (or at least pretensions) between the husband George, played by Jack Lemmon and his wife Glen Kellerman, played by Sandy Dennis. There is also a sort of hidden message lying underneath this series of incredible misadventures that directly puts in equation the kind of life suburbans like George and Gwen wish to commit themselves to, even if it costs George a position as Vice President of Sales in New York City. Literally, the couple will choke on the Big Apple, but maybe for their own good.George Kellerman is appointed for a job interview at 9 am, a formality as he thinks he's is in a shoo-in for the job, the airplane will arrive at night, before 8 pm so he'll have the time to a fancy dinner with Gwen at the Four Seasons restaurant and then a romantic night in the Waldorf Astoria hotel, everything is planned. But there's a way why Arabs say « If God wills » because naturally, nothing goes as planned. As soon as the plane starts circling around for hours and hours swallowing in the process the Four Seasons dinner, and when it lands to Boston while the luggage with George's medics for ulcer are you know that the film will follow a simple pattern : « whatever can go wrong, will go wrong » you've heard it before, Murphy's law, a feeling of deja vu from a movie you probably watched before that one ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'', and indeed, the couple is never short of bad luck, one that get to the smallest detail. After George and Gwen wait for two hours to get at the train restaurant, only bread and olives are left, talk about a stretch from the restaurant dinner and even the airplane meal George didn't let his wife had because he still thought he could make it in the Four Seasons.You can't even label the couple as unlucky for they have that subtle thing we call in my family 'luck in bad luck'. If anything had made him miss the train from Boston, the interview would've been canceled, but they get enough luck to keep moving toward their Holy Grail, just sleeping in the hotel. And the taxi strike didn't make it easier, nor the fact that George forgot to confirm the hotel booking. The power of the film is to avoid a feeling of repetitiveness by toying with the funniest bureaucratic procedures related to transportations and make them the source of excitement in a sort of « what next ? » anticipation.It feels like a gimmicky movie, but this is a script written by Neil Simon, who made some of the funniest movies from simple situations, ''The Odd Couple'' was one of them. And of course, the performances of Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis elevate the film to another level, because they're not just a couple, but they work like a Laurel and Hardy pair, he's the maniac husband who's trying to prove his wife that he means business and ask every uncooperative worker for his address and name, while she sort of plays it like her mousy Oscar-winning character in « Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf » a devoted wife whose only satisfaction comes from her husband's but whose patience isn't unlimited. We also wait for the moment she won't stand it anymore because that will mean they're in serious trouble and George will finally read the hidden message.Indeed, something progressively evolves as George get less and less confident and Gwen more and more tired of all these tiresome manifestations of hard luck. The evolution reaches its paroxysm during a beautiful climax where George who finally got the job announces it to Gwen, and she finally lets the most beautiful part of her personality bloom in a tender and serious moment where she questions her husband's decision. Why not taking a lesson from this hard day in New York and get back to their quiet town in Ohio. The look on Jack Lemmon's face is of a hypnotic fascination that foresees more dramatic roles to come, you can tell he loves his wife and knows she's her love life from what she says. And I loved that very scene because it touched a sensitive chord. Lately, I had to go back to Paris for a job interview, I took the train, the subway, went through the crowded streets, the same places I spent almost a third of my life in. And for some reason, I started asking myself if I really wanted to get back to that again, if it was worth it.Is it worth it? That's the question the film asks, the tone is comical and lighthearted but never underestimate a movie written by Neil Simon, played by the late Lemmon and Dennis, and also by ''Love Story'' director, behind the laughs, it provides many touching moments and powerful insights about commitment whether professional or marital, but it doesn't forget to bring you a little twist at the end. A cocktail of gags and sweetness to savor without moderation !

Baccchewa I love this film. Jack Lemmon is outstanding and Sandy Dennis is great as the supporting wife (she's very sweet and I love the way she says "I'm getting a bit irritable" about half way into the chaos). The script is superb with funny, witty dialog. The direction and camera-work is great - sometimes almost documentary in style, sometimes very original and groundbreaking. I also love the 70s style with the cars, signs, colors, interiors and clothes. And the music! See it, buy it (if you can get hold of it). It's a film worth seeing many times. I've already said my piece, but, you know, there's this 10 line requirement, so I do a bit of rambling here. There, now it's gotten through....

fedor8 Not exactly one of Neil Simon's better scripts. The essential problem with TOOT is that the bad karma that follows Lemmon and Dennis is far too exaggerated, over-the-top, to the point where it can't be funny. If you want gags to work, in this kind of "reality-based" comedy at least, you need to make the characters and events seem real. That's not the case here.Dennis and Lemmon enter the police station exhausted, penniless, recently mugged, and wet – and yet she shows genuine concern for the milk strike in NY. "You mean to say that the children will be without their milk?" Not funny, merely stupid. If Simon wanted his female character to be retarded, then he should have made her properly retarded, in which case this kind of behaviour would be logical – hence perhaps funny. As it is, she behaves in a clear-cut retarded manner on several occasions, which doesn't add to the comedy level but drowns it out.What kind of woman would lose one eye-lash and then plow on with the one that's left? I have never met such a woman. Every woman would remove that other eye-lash straight away. And that's why that whole eye-lash business isn't funny at all. Perhaps a bag-lady or a loony woman might behave that way but not your normal, average 70s housewife, mother of two. Simon wants to have his cake and eat it too: have Dennis represent an average middle-aged woman, but also have her behave as if she's totally unbalanced and half-insane in order to get a few cheap laughs.The scene where Lemmon tries to find money in the kid's pockets? Unfunny. Total nonsense. It's stuff like that which makes this comedy rather forgettable, worthy of a few chuckles here and there, but that's about it. The pair getting filmed by reporters in front of the Cuban embassy was one of the few funny moments, especially in the overly silly second half."Plains, Trains & Automobiles", an 80s comedy with an almost identical premise, was hilarious, i.e. it worked far better, for the simple reason that the bad luck is mostly plausible, relatively realistic so that the viewer can identify with the situations and find the events funny as a result. Simon quite mistakenly thought that by making the bad luck increasingly absurd, this would somehow make TOOT funnier and funnier. The opposite happens; the increasing stupidity of what's happening to the couple just serves to bore and annoy until you just stop caring too much what happens next."After Hours", a superb comedy in which the main character also survives an abysmally unlucky night in New York, worked because it was clearly intended to have a slight fantasy slant, not to mention that the bad things that happen to its main character were mostly quite unpredictable, totally unique. In TOOT, there is no element of fantasy and most situations can be anticipated, some even minutes in advance. The element of predictability in TOOT is its second-biggest problem.For a proper Neil Simon comedy, check out "The Sunshine Boys", "Murder By Death", "Plaza Suite", or "The Odd Couple". Watch this only if you have very strong reasons to, such as Lemmon being your distant cousin or because it is the only movie being shown at the same time on 57 channels. Now, THAT would be bad karma for sure.

mancuniangr The real fascinating thing about cinema,is that no matter how many movies you might have seen,there are always going to be films that you have missed and are great ,to say the least.This is the case with the "Out of Towners". I saw a few years ago the remake with Steve Martin and as a big fan of Steve's i liked the film.Actually i didn't know back then ,that there was an original with Jack Lemmon.Anyway i have bought the DVD and just put it in a box to watch it sometime. I never thought, that this was an absolutely hilarious comedy ,with Jack Lemmon, for me ,being even better than "the odd couple". His character is similar to the one he played alongside Matthau ,but we are talking about an amazing performance here.I'm really surprised that he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar(he was nominated though for a Golden Globe). A couple (Sandy Dennis plays the wife)starts a journey to N.Y ,because Lemmon has planned an interview for his new job.He has a strict schedule that includes dinner at the "4 Seasons" restaurant and spending the night with his wife at his luxury hotel. I really can't describe what's happening after the boarding on the plane.EVERYTHING THAT COULD GO WRONG WENT WRONG. But the real magic of the film is that at no point in the film ,you can accuse the writers that they overdid it with the story.And Lemmon has a big part to do with that, because he plays amazingly. Sandy Dennis also plays her part extremely well and has a fine chemistry with Lemmon. A classic in my collection ,with out a doubt in the top-5 of all the comedies i have ever watched. Watch it and enjoy yourselves.