Sorry, this movie sucks

Good concept, poorly executed.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I thoroughly enjoyed this outing, but I can readily understand all the negative reviews. Let's face it: The appeal of any movie depends almost entirely on the age of the person watching it, and there is absolutely nothing in this movie that would appeal to teenagers and people in their twenties, thirties, forties and possibly fifties. In fact, not only does the movie have no appeal to these groups, the vast majority would actually hate it. But I found this film most entertaining. And it was good to see Sophia Loren looking so alluring. I'll admit Ann-Margret wasn't quite so startlingly sexy, but she was still looking quite attractive. I wouldn't mind a date with her myself! I'd also admit that Walter Matthau tended to way over-act, but that's Walter Matthau. He always over-acts. That's his shtick! Director Howard Deutch did a pretty good job, though he tended to use far too many close-ups and was way, way over-fond of unflattering shots of Walter Matthau. I might be wrong, but at a guess, I would say his training was in TV. As a general rule, TV directors seem unable to shake off their training when they move over to the big screen.

Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, Kevin Pollack, Daryl Hannah and Burgess Meredith star in this 1995 comedy sequel. This takes place about 6 months later where John (Lemmon) is now married to Ariel (Margret) and he and Max (Matthau) are sort of getting along. This time, Max finds romance when he meets Maria Ragetti (Loren), an Italian widow who moves into town and opens a restaurant. Jacob (Pollack) and Melanie (Hannah) are also engaged and things start to get a bit difficult for them which makes their dads feud with each other, but only temporarily. The late, Meredith (Rocky) also returns as John's father and this was his final film. This is a good sequel and like the first film, it provides laughs and a bit of heartfelt moments as well. I recommend this.

It may be just me but I found Grumpier Old Men way way better than Grumpy Old Men. I laughed more and got involved in the plot much more. That it is totally 100% predictable every step of the way is only one of its charms... its how you get there where the fun is. And these actors turn in surprisingly memorable performances for such a slight film. I thought Sophia Loren turned in one of her most charming and funny performances, as did everyone else. The story was just more interesting and three dimensional than the first film and flowed more organically.The story line is simple ancient classic romantic comedy that these veterans had done so many times, it seemed for them like doing a well-known dance. The fun is not in surprises but in going through the old steps with joy. The actors move through their paces with simplicity and enthusiasm and the film actually captures very well the effects of love.The whole film hangs together and works in a way that, for me, the first one didn't. It gets airborne. It deserves a higher ranking than my seven except the story is a little too well-worn. It also allows the two protagonists to get a little more real with each other.Even the three charismatic animal actors get caught up in the spirit of fun.One thing about the film that gave me trouble was that all four women being courted in the film are talented, accomplished, strong and magnificent while all four of the men are hamstrung. I found it mysterious that these women, dropped by some miracle into this tiny town, would be so strongly attracted.

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