# Odd Couple II, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    THE ODD COUPLE II
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes

    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

"Nothing has changed," says consummate slob Oscar Madison to his sickeningly fastidious ex-roommate, Felix Ungar. "I'm still a pig, and you're still a human vacuum cleaner." Yes, it's been two decades, but the original odd couple, Walter Matthau as Oscar and Jack Lemmon as Felix, are back again in THE ODD COUPLE II. Seen last, and better, in last year's OUT TO SEA, these two old troopers and real-life buddies clearly enjoy every minute of their time together. Their joy in their work is so infectious that the picture, with its recycled jokes, becomes more enjoyable than it has any right to be.

The setup to bring them back together again is that their grown children are getting married to each other. The movie is a road picture, in which our two heroes get lost in the middle of nowhere and spend the rest of the movie trying to locate the wedding. They know it's in one of those "San" something cities in California. Along the way they put the moves on some middle-aged biker women in a bar, and, through a series of misadventures, they manage to get themselves arrested three times by the same police officers.

Matthau gets the verbal humor, and Lemmon the physical. Most of Matthau's lines, like the ones he tosses out to a young policewoman friend of his ("If I call 911 tonight, any chance of mouth-to-mouth?") are funny only because of Matthau's charisma. The lines are so lame that they would fall flat if delivered by most comedians, and even Matthau has trouble with such limp material.

So meticulousness is Felix that he has been through three marriages, countless relationships and five walkout dates - ones where the women went to the restroom and never returned. As Felix, Lemmon can be annoying with his repetitive, bad throat joke that is about as much fun as fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

When the two are together in what feels like ad libbing, the movie really starts to click. Oscar complains, for example, that he is always having to stop for Felix to urinate. Oscar claims that he solves the problem himself by going once for thirty minutes in the morning and then he can skip the rest of the day.

The movie's best visual has them hitching a ride with a rich elderly gentleman in an antique car that goes so slow that joggers and even fast walkers easily pass them by. The scene's end could be considered in poor taste, but it does work in the context of the story.

"There's more to life than a job, a dinner alone and a TV show," Felix says, explaining to Oscar why he enjoyed their adventure despite all their disasters. And the audience shares vicariously in their silly little episodes.

THE ODD COUPLE II runs 1:37. It is rated PG-13 for brief strong language and would be fine for kids around ten and up.

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