Grumpier Old Men

Directed by Howard Deutch, Grumpier Old Men follows Jack Lemmon’s John and Walter Matthau’s Max as they revive their feud after a beautiful woman (Sophia Loren’s Maria) moves to town. Filmmaker Deutch, armed with Mark Steven Johnson’s screenplay, delivers a progressively tiresome sequel that fares best within its promising, entertaining opening stretch, as the movie effectively picks up where its predecessor left off and boasts a handful of admittedly compelling sequences (eg a heartfelt moment in which Matthau’s character laments his loneliness) – with the actors’ predictably stellar efforts enhancing the auspicious atmosphere. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Grumpier Old Men segues into an increasingly generic and hackneyed midsection that stresses elements of a decidedly unappealing, underwhelming nature (eg the montage of John and Max pranking each other, a tedious misunderstanding wherein Max assumes John is pursuing Maria, etc), while the third act’s emphasis on several entirely needless fake breakups ensures that the whole thing fizzles out to a rather palpable degree – which does, unfortunately, confirm the picture’s place as a half-baked retread that rarely approaches the affable highs of the 1993 original film.

** out of ****