namashi_1 A sequel to the thoroughly enjoyable Grumpy Old Men, 'Grumpier Old Men' is A Sweet Film, with Lively Performances. The sequel has the spirit of its prequel & the amazing cast, led by the impeccable talents of the Late/Great Jack Lemmon & the Late/Great Walter Matthau, are in full form! 'Grumpier Old Men' Synopsis: John and Max resolve to save their beloved bait shop from turning into an Italian restaurant, just as its new female owner catches Max's attention.'Grumpier Old Men' works well as a romantic-comedy, as it has moments of humour & subtle romance. I loved the prequel & I must say, the sequel doesn't fail to deliver. The film has sustained its energy & wit, that one would expect from it.Mark Steven Johnson's Screenplay is entertaining, although initially the pace is slightly slow. Howard Deutch's Direction is top-class. Tak Fujimoto's Cinematography is good. Editing also is ably done. Performance-Wise: Lemmon & Matthau shine all through. Its their sheer on-screen chemistry, that alone is worth watching the entire film. Sophia Loren is top-notch. Ann-Margret is impressive. Kevin Pollak & Daryl Hannah leave a mark. Late/Great Burgess Meredith is memorable in his part.On the whole, 'Grumpier Old Men' is a smooth, relaxing watch.

Steve Pulaski It's not uncommon for a movie sequel to do little to the formula that made its predecessor so financially (and hopefully critically) successful. The old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" method of filmmaking has been used in the Hangover, Home Alone, and Taken franchise to only modest success in terms of quality. However, in Grumpier Old Men, the sequel to the fine comedy Grumpy Old Men, handles the rehashed formula better than many film sequels do.While I'm getting to sound repetitive and out of descriptive words, this is largely because of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau's chemistry together on-screen. From the moment they appear, it's almost impossible to believe the men's friendship in real life wasn't lifelong and consisted largely of playful torment, vulgarity, and several boys nights out. Had the film been a sequel with few returning cast members (say Lemmon and Matthau were substituted by two other actors), this sequel would've likely been a somber affair to view.In a way, I'm thankful the town of Wabasha Minnesota hasn't really changed much since our last outing, with the exception of John Gustafson (Jack Lemon) marrying Ariel (Ann-Margret) from the original film. In the meantime, John's dad still lives off a diet of beer, cigarettes, and bacon and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau), John's cantankerous neighbor, still finds himself engaging in petty neighborhood battles with John about outwitting the other man. However, the big ordeal this time is not competing for a new neighbor's love but trying to save a local bait shop from becoming a "restaurante" for Italian cuisine. The restaurant is managed by Maria Ragetti (Sophia Loren), a gorgeous but uncompromisingly strict woman who catches the eye of Max even as him and Jack plan to foil the restaurant's forthcoming prosperity.Other events (aka subplots) occurring in Wabasha are the wedding between Max's son Jacob (Kevin Pollak) John's daughter Melanie (Daryl Hannah), a plot which would later be used by the same director Howard Deutch in The Odd Couple II, also starring Lemmon and Matthau, along with John trying to get his father (Burgess Meredith in his final role, which was burdened by spouts with Alzheimer's and difficultly remembering lines, some female company as he gets older. One of Grumpier Old Men's immediate issues is that there is simply too much going on between plot-strands that involve marriage/romance troubles (I counted four including John's brief trouble with Ariel later in the movie) ad others that involve trying to sabotage the bait-shop-turned-restaurant.Grumpier Old Men may have too many new ideas for cutesy subplots, but it keeps the tone and feel of its predecessor alive and well. It still feels like Wabasha is the location of a sitcom with its oddball situations that seem to consistently bear hefty consequences for its residents, but its characters still feel like real people we've come to known and care about.Unsurprisingly, Lemmon and Matthau share unbelievable conversational beauty in the way they engage in simple discussions that seem to constantly end in uproariously funny bickering. Once you minimize your focus on that aspect in the film, you have just an average comedy that, while charming and pleasantly safe (a good and bad quality for this particular kind of picture), is just grateful to be buoyed by two very talented leading men.Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Kevin Pollak, Daryl Hannah, Sophia Loren, and Burgess Meredith. Directed by: Howard Deutch.

matt_tawesson-1 This sequel to Grumpy Old Men is as funny as the original. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and the rest of the cast from the original movie reprise their roles. John and Max are still feuding, but the tension between them has softened. There are, however, some changes: Ariel and John are married and there's a new girl in town named Maria Ragetti. She's moved to Wabasha to open up an Italian restaurant at the former Chuck's Bait place. When the boys discover what Maria's intentions are, they hatch a scheme to ruin the grand opening of the restaurant and try to keep Chuck's business going, even though the inventory of the former business has been cleared out and the interior remodeled to look like an Italian restaurant. Max and Sophia meet, but there's a disagreement about what the place should be. Maria goes to the neighborhood bar to try and reason with Max, but to no avail. It seems as though Max and John have trouble saying goodbye to what is no longer there. The humor between Lemmon and Matthau's characters is still spiced up and is still able to put viewers in stitches. Then, Max and Maria get married, and the restaurant starts selling bait, as well. Great movie, great cast, great fun!!

sddavis63 To make a good sequel requires a very delicate balancing act that few film-makers seem able to pull off. On the one hand, because it is a sequel, there has to be enough connection with the previous movie to give the viewer a sense of familiarity with what's happening. On the other hand, there has to be enough originality to the story to make the sequel worth watching. Unfortunately, "Grumpier Old Men" seems to fail the originality test. Having said that, this isn't a bad movie. Filled with a galaxy of old pros, it couldn't be. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, Burgess Meredith – these actors know what they're doing and they know how to hold a movie together. They do that here. The performances are excellent, and the movie's worth watching just to see the teamwork among them. It's in the story where things fall down.You can only watch a couple of old men insult each other for so long before it becomes tiresome. John (Lemmon) and Max (Matthau) already spent the entire first movie doing that. "Grumpy Old Men" was a very funny movie, but listening to them call each other "Putz" and "Moron" has lost its appeal, quite frankly. Like the previous movie, the men of Wabasha are fixated on fishing, and they're still intent on catching "Catfish Hunter" – a giant catfish who lives in the lake. Like the original, a beautiful woman (Loren) shows up in town and distracts everyone from the fishing business at hand. It all seems too familiar. Then, where there does seem to be promising originality, it ends up not being sufficiently developed.I thought that the budding romance between John's dad (Meredith) and Maria's mother (Ann Guilbert) had comedic potential, but the two ended up only having 2 or 3 scenes together, and the "stop the restaurant" campaign could have been (and seemed for a moment as if it was going to be) the comedic centrepoint of the movie, but in the end, all we got was about 10 minutes of what were essentially vignettes of the various things John and Max tried to do to stop Maria. The romance between Max and Maria was not as interesting as the competition for Ariel (Ann-Margret) in the first movie, because there wasn't any competition for Max, and the other highlighted story was the romance between Jacob (Kevin Pollak) and Melanie (Darryl Hannah), and, to be honest, I just didn't care much about them.I give the movie credit for the wedding twist at the end which I have to confess I didn't see coming, and the cast did a great job. Unfortunately they can only work with the story they're given, but on the strength of the good performances, I'll rate this as 6/10