Grumpy Old Men (1993)
Directed by Donald Petrie
For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nearby, their bad blood erupts into a high-stakes rivalry full of naughty jokes and adolescent hijinks.
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What critics compared Grumpy Old Men to
It’s no longer just the teenagers learning life lessons anymore; now an elderly duo, sporting a “Grumpy Old Men” vibe (along with themes from “City Slickers”), takes over half of the show.
The all-ages spread stretches its predecessor's nostalgic, Breakfast Club -style premise to accommodate Grumpy Old Men -like routines: cue jokes about hips and hairlines.
This sequel swaps The Breakfast Club out for Grumpy Old Men , which doesn’t work as well, especially when the movie tries to do both at the same time.
We’re barely given time with them before they get sucked into the game, and their Grumpy Old Men -style dialogue gets old quickly, especially because we all know how their storyline is going to develop before it even starts.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we nominate Walter Matthau or Jack Lemmon for Grumpy Old Men? Biased critics may look at Clint's work in Gran Torino and want to see something edgy, but it's really just a caricature of things that he has done before and done better.
It's impossible to absolve someone when they wear those hats - some of the disapprobation goes to director Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men), but the lion's portion is reserved for Bullock.
Director Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men) does nothing flashier than get out of the way of the jokes.
This new disc comes with two full-length commentary tracks, a funny one by Bullock and the co-screenwriter Marc Lawrence, and a second one by director Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men).
Unfortunately, director Donald Petrie (of "Grumpy Old Men" fame) can't figure out how to make similar hay out of Candice Bergen, who, as pageant director Kathy Morningside, never rises above the stereotype of a shrewish washed-up beauty queen.
Phoning in this Pygmalian update with by-the-numbers storytelling and uninspired direction, Donald Petrie (" Grumpy Old Men ," " Mystic Pizza ") fails to mine the comic gold here, instead opting for easy laughs and predictable motions with such an obvious target.
But damn director Donald Petrie ("Grumpy Old Men," "Richie Rich") for mistaking Michael Ritchie's 1975 pageant-palooza "Smile" for some Steven Bochco cop show.
That aside, the bigger problem is in how writer/director Mark Steven Johnson (director of "Simon Birch," writer of the "Grumpy Old Men" films) has brought the character to the screen.
His 1998 directorial debut, Simon Birch , and his screenwriting credits, Grumpy Old Men and the astoundingly bad Jack Frost , hardly seemed on a par with an action adventure feature like this.