This movie probably should never have been produced. But it was due to the box office successes of Lemmon-Matthau films like Grumpy Old Men, et al that governed its production. While it was sheer delight seeing these two film legends reprising their 1968 film roles, I also found it difficult to be kind to the script after being away from the original for so many years. The original Neil Simon scripted film is such a classic that revisiting it and coming up with amusing original material is an almost impossible task, even for the "herculean" playwright, Neil Simon. Thirty years have passed and we are to accept these classic characters as if time has stood still almost - this subtlety in the film makes the movie very difficult to watch. Seeing Lemmon and Matthau look so old since we last saw them in these characters was very unsettling for me and I found myself cringing in places where humor was supposed to be. Yes, there are some amusing situations and classic "Simon" dialogue" but the whole film is way off the mark and just unoriginal because a sequel to a classic just never seems to work. In summary however, this will go down in film history as another one of the classic film teamups with the great Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. On that basis alone, the film is worth one viewing at least.
Review of The Odd Couple II
