The In-Laws
(2003)
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Michael Douglas plays Steve Tobias the undercover CIA agent and Candice Bergen plays his ex-wife in this remake of the Peter Falk original from 1979. Tobias is a Bond-style plane-stealing bullet-dodging agent, whose son (Ryan Reynolds, VAN WILDER PARTY LIAISON) hopes his wedding to stress-free Jerry 'the podiatrist' Peyser's (Albert Brooks) daughter will go as planned. POIROT's David Suchet plays an arms dealer who hysterically insists he's not homosexual. An action-packed comedy of mismatched families who ultimate need to pull together for a good cause. |
The gap between an original movie and its remake is closing, as this unnecessary reworking of the 1979 Peter Falk/Alan Arkin comedy demonstrates. Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks take over as, respectively, a secret agent and a nervy medical professional — a dentist in the first film, now, for whatever reason, a podiatrist — who are united by the impending marriage of their offspring. Once Brooks has accidentally rumbled Douglas's true profession, he becomes involved in a madcap mission which involves being taken along to a crucial meeting with nutty French arms dealer David Suchet. Candice Bergen and Robin Tunney are among the supporting cast but are sorely under-used because, after all, this is very much a boy's day out. Unfortunately, the underwritten and overplayed film relies solely on Douglas and Brooks for comic momentum but the partnership eventually cracks under the strain.