Finally, the movie we’ve all been waiting for! Two old people doing old people things, talking about old people stuff, and eating old people food. Sound interesting? Probably not. “Grumpy Old Men,” starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ann-Margret, is a film that manages to be one of the scariest things I have ever seen.
John (Lemmon) is a Spam-sucking, gallstone suffering senior. Max (Matthau) is a T.V. dinner-eating, “mature-in-his years,” ice fisherman. Basically, Max and John hate each other. When sexy senior Ariel (Ann-Margret) arrives, the two compete to see who will get this wildly exciting, post middle-aged woman.
Being just a teen, I am certain that there were a whole bunch of jokes that only parents and grandparents would understand. And the old guys were funny, but not enough to make a noticable impression. The acting was fantastic, but the name-calling got a little irritating after the first 100 times. Maybe it’s the kind of slapstick comedy that existed back in the boonies of the 1950s, but that kind of stuff just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Perhaps the best part of the movie was during the credits, as John and his 90-something-year-old father play around with sexual innuendo and “the facts of life.” All in all, “Grumpy Old Men” is an OK movie that really shouldn’t be seen by people in mid-life crisis. It’s probably their worst nightmare. (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
