Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
moonspinner55
Crack comedy writer Andrew Bergman penned this intentionally erratic farce involving a Manhattan dentist with his future in-law, a mysterious CIA operative who took part in the rogue robbery of the U.S. Mint in order to expose an inflation conspiracy begun in Central America. Overtly nutty, high-decibel nonsense takes two potentially funny characters, played by Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, and soon has them dodging bullets and running from the law. Director Arthur Hiller keeps the mania moving briskly enough, even though the plot is superfluous and occasionally offensive--the real humor is in the character portraits. Still, a box-office hit, remade in 2003. *1/2 from ****
Hitchcoc
I wasn't expecting much when I went to this movie. The plot is silly and outrageous. What makes it, however, are the performances of Peter Falk and Alan Arkin. Fall is a person's worst nightmare. Totally sure that no matter how crazy things get, you will always land on your feet. Arkin is the opposite, scared of his own shadow and wanting to avoid any sort of strain or physician exertion. As soon as they meet, everything goes a hundred miles an hour. Arkin ends up in a confrontation with some Latin American soldier who talks to his own hand and is absolutely unbalanced. The result is slapstick and funny. The soldier is so wacko that Arkin is absolutely done in.
dimplet
The In Laws could use some improvement. The secondary dialog could have been clever and interesting, but instead seems like filler. And the secondary acting is merely adequate.What makes The In Laws worth watching is the interaction between Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, two great actors. It is the yin and the yang, the hot and the cool. And when you listen to them, particularly early on, it seems like improv. They really are reacting to each other.The plot is a bit contrived, and makes little pretense of realism after awhile. But it works. You really don't know what, exactly, Falk is doing, and which side he is on, or even whether he is just crazy. That is fundamental to the movie.Once they arrive in South America the roots of the movie become clear. This is a revamping of ideas from Woody Allen's Bananas - 1971, particularly the crazy dictator, and the American accidentally caught up in Banana Republic politics. Then the style of The Inlaws makes sense: the lightweight acting, the silliness and absurdity. It is a genre where the bar is set fairly low, but not as low as some of the so-called comedies that followed.My favorite part, aside from the banter between Falk and Arkin, is the bit where James Hong gives a one-on-one "flight attendant" spiel to Arkin in Chinese.Of course, Richard Libertini is great as the cracked general.
sddavis63
This is a movie that definitely has its moments. I have to give credit to Peter Falk, who put on a very strong performance as Vince Ricardo, a CIA agent whose son is getting married to the daughter of a pretty straight-laced dentist (Dr. Kornpett - Alan Arkin) who has trouble dealing with his future in-law's apparent eccentricities but ends up on a mission with him in Central America. The car chase scene is one of the better car chases I can remember in a movie, and the scene when Ricardo and Kornpett end up in front of the firing squad is worth a few laughs. I did think that Arkin came across as a bit too low-key in this movie (although he also had his moments) and to me the movie really weakened once they arrived in Central America and began to deal with a truly bizarre (to the point of being unbelievable) general (Richard Libertini) who has come up with a plan to print all the US currency he could possibly ever want.It's largely fun to watch this, although to be honest I thought this was one of the few occasions when I would say that the remake (the really over the top 2003 version with Michael Douglas in Falk's role) was actually both stronger and funnier than the original. Still, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. It's a fun movie that will keep you entertained. 6/10
