I laughed quite a bit at the 2003 remake of The In-Laws but I still am not quite sure why they bothered. Films like this just don’t do big box office–IMDB shows a final US gross of just over $20M–but then Michael Douglas, who stars as the CIA agent here, has a big name but little recent track record of delivering results and Albert Brooks, cartoons aside, never has.
Most people would probably prefer the 1979 original, with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin in the roles played by Douglas and Brooks here, and I can’t argue that too much. Today’s bigger budgets and better special effects technology are nice but in some ways they make things too easy, too smooth. And Falk just has a little bit more in the way of cranky idiosyncracies that draws one into his clutches than the slick as a used car salesman Douglas.
mildly amusing
BillSaysThis 