The In-Laws

A buddy comedy with action, a mismatched couple of in-laws, loose ends and a general lack of sense. I can't claim that I had high expectations for this... but I gave it a chance, and I wanted to like it, I really did. Michael Douglas is good, as always. He delivers, action, acting and comedy. The only real problem is, apart from the first-mentioned quality, no one else delivers in this film. Brooks is usually good... at least as far as acting goes, and I could have sworn he had me laughing in at least one of his roles... maybe not film-wise, but his guest-roles on The Simpsons were hilarity itself. Reynolds has limited talent, and he's unfortunately cast, in that he isn't playing the typical womanizing teen-ish guy that we've grown used to him being. I haven't seen enough of Sloane to rate her performance according to how well she typically is, or compare her role to what she usually portrays. Tunney isn't really bad, she just has too little to do, and a character that is fairly uneven. She is a tool to bring about certain circumstances throughout, and that's too bad, because she does have some talent. One of the problems is that it's quite simply not very easy to accept these characters as people... they're too extreme, caricatures of perceptions of people. The ex-wife, for example, is stitched together of all the bad and "far out" qualities one could think of. One would hope that fairly few people in the world are quite that bizarre. The seemingly endless sub-plots are another mistake... for a film that lasts just over an hour and a half, there's story enough for a *saga*. Shakespeare could hardly have thought up more story for just one production. And they seem to just show up at random... as if the writer didn't want to deal with just one story or one pile of complications, so he had to think up more, and just kept adding until he had enough to make a film out of. The material just doesn't work well. We've seen the "odd couple" before, the idea of putting two people who have little in common isn't new... and it really isn't put to terribly good use here. The spy stuff and the action aren't bad... though the tension did seem tame at times, and the threat of the bad guys, the sense of danger just... isn't really there. Douglas makes a fine spy, though I'd wager that Peter Falk made a better one(I have yet to see the original, though I certainly intend to look for it). I didn't find the film particularly humorous... occasionally entertaining, but never really funny. The music was almost all good, though. And that's pretty much it... for those wanting spy-stuff, it'll do. And if you like your movies with a side of feel-good music, this certainly isn't the worst you could do. But for most anything else that this could offer, there are better movies out there. I rate this just above average, for the good things that it does hold. I recommend this to fans of the actors and the genre, and anyone with an hour and a half to kill who'd prefer something spy-related with music that is kind to the ears. 6/10

A new "odd couple" is born with a new spy-film twist.

Michael Douglas is Stephen Tobias, a rugged deep-cover CIA agent, who focuses more on his work that his life with his son, Mark (Ryan Reynolds) or his now ex-wife, Judy (Candice Bergen).

It turns out that Mark is about to get married to beautiful Melissa (Lindsay Sloane) but has yet to meet Mark's parents. Mark assures her that is a good thing. But Melissa's parents, Jerry (Albert Brooks) and Katherine (Maria Ricossa) insist on meeting at least Mark's father.

During the first meeting between Mark's father and Melissa's parents, mild-mannered foot-doctor Jerry stumbles in on one of Stephen's spy plans and finds himself swept up in Stephen's mess on the eve of his daughter's nuptials. How will this revelation effect the up-coming marriage and will the two fathers live long enough to get back to the wedding?

"The In-Laws" is one of the biggest surprises I have seen this year. I never thought in a million years that this film would be as funny as it is. The odd pairing of Brooks and Douglas pays off tenfold. Their odd pairing and hilarious antics made me think some of the classic film, "The Odd Couple". The film also reminded me a little of the 80s comedy, "Real Men" because of its off-beat way of bringing the audience into the story.

Brooks hasn't been this funny in years. His neurotic schtick, which is probably more famous when played by Woody Allen, gives his character such innocence. There were so many priceless moments involving Brooks and how he relates to the spy-world.

Douglas seems to have journeyed back to his Jack Colton character, which he played in "Romancing the Stone". There is definitely some of Colton in Tobias. You can really see it when Douglas allows Tobias to put his guard down. That was always the funniest part of Colton and it is the same for Tobias.

Another great thing about this film is the caliber of people who are in the cast. You have some great upcoming comedy actors like Reynolds and Sloane and on the other side veterans like Bergen and Brooks. I wanted to see more of Reynolds since he is such a great comedic find. I have high expectations for that guy. I also really enjoyed Sloane when she was in the short-lived WB series, "Grosse Pointe". I so miss that series. She to has a great potential to be more if given the chance in comedy.

This film knows where its strengths are and it continues the laughs over and over. I just wish we could have had more time with the supporting cast.

The film also has some interesting uses of music in its soundtrack. For instance the opening scenes involving Michael Douglas escaping from one of his spy missions involves a great car chase and a gun battle but the whole scene's overture is accented by Paul McCartney's infamous James Bond theme, "Live & Let Die". It is a great addition as it seems to help build the spy feeling of the scene. Throughout the film there are interesting musical additions, which help put interesting slants and accents on the various scenes.

"The In-Laws" was such a surprise and is by far the funniest movie I have seen this year, thus far. (4 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.

Judging by reviews in the press and the user comments here, this version of The In-Laws is a pale imitation of the 1979 classic with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin. I didn't find it so, this film has a lot of good laughs in it and some fine comic performances.

In his TCM tribute to his father Michael Douglas says that when he was starting out in the picture business he avoided taking roles as action heroes because he did not want comparison with his father. At this point though he's definitely not worried about that. The part that Michael Douglas plays, the CIA agent whose life prevents him from having any kind of home life that was done by Peter Falk in the original, I could easily see being done by Kirk Douglas in the Forties or Fifties.

Douglas's son Ryan Reynolds is going to marry Lindsay Thorne the daughter of a mild mannered podiatrist who has more phobias going on than Adrian Monk. But Albert Brooks as the podiatrist is just a little concerned about this mysterious father of the groom that keeps avoiding meeting. When Brooks and family eventually do meet Douglas, he bungles his way into a mission that Douglas is on. After that it's one wild ride from Chicago to Paris and back with both bad guys and the FBI trailing both.

The In-Laws has some very nice moments and the stars work well together. But the best performances are from David Suchet as the international arms trafficker who's gay and who Douglas convinces that Brooks is a regular Dirk Diggler. And the other great performance is from Candice Bergen who is Douglas's estranged wife and Reynolds mother. As she says she's the only one who really has her husband's number, but she's still crazy about him in certain ways.

This version of The In-Laws is an amusing comedy, a worthy next century successor to the original.

Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) is an undercover and efficient CIA agent, supported by the lower-ranked CIA agent Angela Harris (Robin Tunney), and assigned in a dangerous and secret international mission. He is trying to retrieve a nuclear submarine and arrest some international drug dealers and smugglers. Steve is also a reckless and absent father. His son Mark (Ryan Reynolds) is a lawyer, who is going to get married with Melissa Peyser (Lindsay Sloane), the daughter of the housewife Katherine Peyser (Maria Ricossa) and Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks), a conservative podiatrist of Chicago. Jerry is the opposite of Steve, being afraid of airplanes and living a routinely life. When the two families meet for a dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant to celebrate the forthcoming wedding, Jerry is mistakenly identified as a secret agent, turning his life upside-down. I found this movie extremely funny. The combination of Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks was amazingly (and even surprisingly) good. The performance of David Suchet, as the gay French drug dealer and criminal Jean-Pierre Thibodoux, is also excellent and very funny. KC and the Sunshine Band playing an old hit is also great and completes a highly recommended comedy. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'Até Que os Parentes Nos Separem' ('Until the Relatives Get Us Apart')

'The In-Laws' has a mediocre script but the actors successfully elevate the material. Albert Brooks in particular is very good as a neurotic podiatrist. Michael Douglas gives an energetic performance and the two work work well off each other. There are some consistent laughs throughout the film. David Suchet is fine as (MINOR SPOILERS) the gay international arms smuggler who falls in love with Brooks. The script is a gentle spoof of spy films and works well as long as you ignore the various plot holes. Douglas's family is shortchanged by the script, his relation with his estranged wife specially feels incomplete. Still watchable.

Overall 7/10