It's 30 years after the original film, and guess what? Felix Unger and Oscar Madison aren't young men anymore. No problem at all... after all, even Odd Couple characters themselves can't stay young forever. So that's why people need to get past that and enjoy this criminally underrated sequel for what it is --- which is a good, wholesome film that happily re-teams Lemmon and Matthau as that cinematic pair of unlikely roommates.
Perhaps this reunion would have been better received if audiences hadn't already been "GRUMPY-OLD MEN'd" out by now; I don't know. But having Felix and Oscar driving around the country to get to a wedding and meeting all sorts of stumbling blocks (not the least of which are each other) is a recipe for easy laughs and a good time.
Comedy is a subjective thing, it's true. And I found this film quite humorous throughout. But whether one thinks it's funny or not, I've never understood what often sounds like a lot of unnecessary animosity towards its existence (especially according to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide). It was just what we needed when it was released in 1998, and it's about as worthy a followup to the classic 1968 original as a 30-years-later sequel can be. *** out of ****
Perhaps this reunion would have been better received if audiences hadn't already been "GRUMPY-OLD MEN'd" out by now; I don't know. But having Felix and Oscar driving around the country to get to a wedding and meeting all sorts of stumbling blocks (not the least of which are each other) is a recipe for easy laughs and a good time.
Comedy is a subjective thing, it's true. And I found this film quite humorous throughout. But whether one thinks it's funny or not, I've never understood what often sounds like a lot of unnecessary animosity towards its existence (especially according to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide). It was just what we needed when it was released in 1998, and it's about as worthy a followup to the classic 1968 original as a 30-years-later sequel can be. *** out of ****