The Odd Couple II (1998) - Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau movies, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, or one or the other

"You still maintain that pain in the ass quality that drives me berserk."

Director
Howard Deutch

Cast
Jack Lemmon - Felix Ungar
Walter Matthau - Oscar Madison
Jonathan Silverman - Brucey Madison
Lisa Waltz - Hannah Ungar
Mary Fogarty - Flossie
Alfred Dennis - Morton
Alice Ghostley - Esther
Peggy Miley - Millie
Rebecca Schull - Wanda
Florence Stanley - Hattie
Estelle Harris - Peaches
Ellen Geer - Frances Ungar-Melnick
Doris Belack - Blanche Madison-Povitch
Richard Riehle - Sheriff of Santa Manendez

After recycling the comedic formula from 1968's "The Odd Couple," the movie that made Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau a duo, and inserting it into the movies "Grumpy Old Men," "Grumpier Old Men," and especially "Out to Sea" - the last movie I reviewed - Hollywood writers and producers evidently arrived at the conclusion to just make a sequel to "The Odd Couple." Since Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were still alive at the time and still had their chemistry, it was best they get on that task while they could. The result was "The Odd Couple II." 

It's a sequel I somehow didn’t even know existed until years after its release. Back then, I was attending a Catholic boarding school and didn't have a lot of knowledge about what movies were coming out and basically whatever else was going on in the world. But being the huge fan of the first movie, and a fan of Lemmon and Matthau, one would think I would have known "The Odd Couple" had a sequel written by Neil Simon. It was released 30 years after the original and is directed by Howard Deutch who also directed well known pictures such as "Pretty in Pink," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "The Great Outdoors," and the aforementioned "Grumpier Old Men." 

When I first heard about it, I thought it was a joke. But no, it's real. 

This time Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) are back in each other's hair because Oscar's son, Brucey (Jonathan Silverman) and Felix's daughter, Hannah (Lisa Waltz) are tying the knot. 

Oscar is living down in Sarasota, Fla., still working as a sportswriter. Brucey is still living out in California as referenced in the first film. 

Despite his chagrin over the engagement, he flies out to California and runs into none other than Felix at the airport. 

So, they share a rental car to drive out to fictional San Malina for the wedding. 

During their road trip, they go through their usual bickering as luggage is lost, cars are destroyed, arrests are made, weird people cross their paths, and more arguments ensue. 

"The Odd Couple II" starts off like the original movie. The first half is clearly trying to recapture the humor and feel of the original film. It's when the familiar jokes and call-backs from the part one are carried out, such as another restaurant scene with Felix obnoxiously clearing his throat, then it starts trying to be its own movie once all the first film call-backs are used up. Felix and Oscar start trying to get past their differences to find something they both have in common. They've managed to raise relatively good children. That realization is apparent but nothing about it has depth. And they're about to become in-laws. Who would have thought?  

It concludes on an all too familiar Odd Couple scenario. 

While it's fun to see Lemmon and Matthau reprise the characters that made them a comedic pair and then put these characters in a car together driving along California roads rather than going back to Oscar's New York City apartment, overall, the movie doesn't feel as organic as the 1968 movie. For instance, Felix's hypochondria feels more forced than before. That's not to say Lemmon isn't funny in this sequel. He is. I got some laughs out of his performance. Matthau's performance is, well, Matthau. He plays with the same lax and care-free demeanor audiences in saw in Lemmon and Matthau's last couple of movies together. He's playing Oscar Madison again with all the same mannerisms and habits Oscar had back in 1968. Funny enough, the sloppy aspect seen in the first movie isn't quite there. He's more careless than sloppy. Maybe Oscar learned and retained a little something about order and cleanliness from Felix when he invited him and then tossed him out of his apartment.   

But Oscar's negligent qualities seem spot on. And the conversations they have in the car from "how long has it been" to "is your daughter anything like you" is some of the best dialogue in the movie 

Thankfully, the film's dependence on nostalgia doesn't stick around for long. That can be fun for a while before it starts feeling repetitive and lazy.

Also, the emotion in "The Odd Couple II" is much thinner compared to the first. Oscar and Felix's friendship is really tested in the first film. The annoyance and the comedy of the situation play out way more organically. It's easily convincing. It appears effortlessly. 

In the sequel, the whole thing is more overplayed for laughs since anything they needed to figure out, they already did back in '68. But they still annoy each other. Isn't that hilarious?

Nothing between the characters of Felix and Oscar is really tested in part two. Their friendship certainly isn't tested like it was before. The movie is just a nostalgic trip, and not much more than that. 

The story does touch on aging, loneliness (the first movie really touched on that, too) and regret of past decisions. The key word is "touches." The story doesn't dig deep into these topics. Had it done so, that would have likely made "The Odd Couple II" more interesting and memorable. 

The difficulty with a continuing premise from the 1968 movie is how to get Felix and Oscar back together in a new situation that lasts long enough for them to drive each other crazy with all that hilarity like before. A road trip is a good enough premise to accomplish that. But where would they go? And why would they go together after all these years? The marriage of Oscar's son and Felix's daughter makes the sequel its own movie, putting Felix and Oscar in a new scenario where they're forced to be in each other's company over a long enough period of time. 

Having their kids marry seems like a plot to a T.V. sitcom. In the original film, Still, it's an easy setup to get Felix and Oscar back in each other's lives and in close quarters where the bickering and intolerable habits can resume. 

There's a running joke where Felix and Oscar keep finding themselves in situations that lead to their arrest. They don't actually break the law so the police chief, whose desk they keep finding themselves sitting in front of, is forced to let them go each time. But he quickly gets sick of seeing both of them. And as this keeps happening, they both drive the local police chief crazy. That's a nice touch to add to a third party to the already odd couple.

There's no way part two can be as memorable or as sharp as the original. Still, this sequel gives audiences a side of Felix and Oscar the first film didn't go into. I got a few laughs from Lemmon and Matthau, but it doesn't have the natural comedic flow that makes the first a fantastic comedy. The comdey comes in waves. It tries to give us the same thing we've seen before, but in a different premise, and then shifts to give us something new.  

Of course, by the end, Felix and Oscar realize they're stuck with each other for the rest of their lives. It's a creative touch as "The Odd Couple II" is Lemmon and Matthau's last movie together. As they play Felix and Oscar in this final performance of theirs together, it's a bittersweet experience. 

This sequel gives audiences one last opportunity to watch them slip back into the characters they're most associated with.

Regardless of its weaknesses, it's still enjoyable seeing where this odd couple would be 30 years later.