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Two of the greatest actors of our time

Seeing this movie really reaffirms that the late Jack Lemmon and the late Walter Matthau are two of the funniest comedians of our time.

Set in Snowy Minnisota, Matthau and Lemmon are two old, bitter, longtime neighbors that always seem to be bickering about something. Things really get nasty between these two when a eligible college professor(Ann Margret) moves in across the street. What happens is the adventures of two bitter old ice fishermen that compete for the affections of their new neighbor. Some of the pranks they pull on each other are so funny you'll find yourself laughing hysterically.

Some subplots of the movie include their children(John Cusak and Darryl Hanna)falling in love and the antics of Jack Lemmon's father(Burgess Meredith)are also sidesplittingly funny.

The casting, directing, and cinemetography are excellent. I high reccomend this title.

"We're Having A Heatwave. A Tropical Heatwave".

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] Our story opens in the little town of Wabashaw, Minnesota in early winter. On one street lives John Gustafson and Max Goldman. They've been the best of enemies for 50 years. Always greeting each other with insults and in competition in pretty much everything. But there's one thing John and Max have in common: they love fishing. They have their ice shanties set up on the frozen lake. But little did these men know that something would come along that would change their lives for the better, for someone new was moving into the neighborhood.It was a beautiful, red-headd middle aged woman named Ariel Truax. She paid John a visit in the dead of night and rode her snow mobile up and down the street every other night.
From then on, John and Max tried to win Ariel over. Even their friend Chuck who ran the bait shop took a liking to her, as John's geriatric father pointed out hilariously. Though John and Max didn't like each other, their kids, John's daugter Melanie and Max's son Jacob, were taking a liking to each other.
The hijinx between John and Max continue when Max towes John's shanty onto thin ice, or when Max changed John's TV channel right when they announced lottery numbers. Soon came Christmas and John fell ill. Their relationship was in the balance. Max visited him in the hospital as a friend and helped ward off IRS agents come to reposess John's house. And before long, a wedding day arrived. The wedding of John and Ariel. Max hid a little surprise in their limo as they drove off: a fish. John had pulled that same trick on Max earlier. So our story has a happy ending and we can see a small friendship between John and Max. A very small one.
Well, what can I say? Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are priceless together. And Burgess Meredith adds a hilarious touch as Grandpa Gustafson. Other familiar faces include Kevin Pollak as Jacob Goldman, Daryl Hannah as Melanie Gustafson, and Ann-Margeret as Ariel. Ariel was a real pile, I think. But John and Max were crazy about her. So if you're a fan of any of these people, I recommend Grumpy Old Men!-

A great Lemmon and Matthau movie... but not a good movie.

At first glance, this would seem to be a very enjoyable movie with many funny parts... unless you stop and think about it, and then you realize the ONLY reason it's enjoyable and funny is because Lemmon and Matthau are in it. It's the entire selling point of the movie: Lemmon and Matthau, together again. If you were to replace those two with different actors, it would not be a very good movie. It has a weak script, and all the supporting characters (except for Burgess Meredith) are either underwritten, or just there for filler. This is not good. A well-written movie should be good no matter WHO is acting in it--but this one would probably crash and burn if it wasn't for Lemmon and Matthau.Also, I think Lemmon gives a better overall performance. He makes some actual effort to get into character, whereas Matthau just glides through the movie with his trademark bumbly-grumbly Matthauisms. It's almost as if he knows he doesn't have to try that hard; you're just guaranteed to like him because he's Walter Matthau.That said, it is still funny to watch them playing off each other. It's an enjoyable movie, but only because those two excellent actors are in it. If you took them out... well, you'd have nothing.6.5/10 stars

Matthau & Lemmon are perfect grumpy odd couple characters!

Hollywood screen legends Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau crack me up as I watch them play two Minnesota next door neigbours who have a bitter sweet feud relationship going on between themselves against a woman they love. The dialouge with Lemmon & Matthau they have real chemstryand it's a pure comedy going on herewhen their in a movie together!

Believable

Time and again I watch this movie. It makes me laugh every time. It is well written. You can believe the characters are people who do exist in the real world. It is set in a small town where the three of the main characters have known each other all their lives.

Very little umph

One joke film has little umph as a comedy for most of its ninety-nine minutes. Only an hilarious Burgess Meredith and a funny bloopers trailer make us laugh.Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau work together well, with beautiful Ann Margaret as the love interest. Daryl Hannah and Kevin Pollak provide a sub-plot that fills in time.Director Donald Petrie was unable to inject life and variety into this narrow idea which is a slight variation on "The Odd Couple", in which Lemmon and Matthau originally starred. Writer Mark Steven Johnson provides a feel good finale that helps lift the film a little.Sunday, June 8, 1997 - Video

A solid and worthwhile comedy.

Fairly amusing movie where two aging neighbors (Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau) in a small Minnesota town whose on-going feud goes to another level when a widow (Ann-Margret) moves into a house across the street. The cast is good especially Burgess Meredith as Lemmon's dad who says some things that I wouldn't expect to hear from my grandpa and the humor here has plenty of zip to it. The lone weak spot that "Grumpy Old Men" (like the title) has is the story which drags at times and alive and upbeat in other moments. Besides that, it's a solid and worthwhile comedy.

Cute, clever and very funny :->

I really, really, really love this movie. I always loved Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau and to see the two of them together was such a treat.
I love the witty rapid-fire banter between the two of them. They love to hate each other in the movie. They are neighbors and 'enemies' (although there are some touching moments toward the end of the film). They are both vying for the affections of their new female neighbor (Ann Margaret) and the results are hilarious.

This is such a cute movie and a feel good movie. It's set at the festive time of Christmas and the beautiful white sceenery is spectacular. Do yourself a favour and rent/buy this movie. It's funny and warm and touching in parts. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

PS. Look for some funny outtakes after the final scene and right before the full credits start rolling. It's excellent.

fun to watch movie!!!!

This movie is my all time fav!!! It's about 2 old men who spend a lifetime fighting over absolutly nothing!! It's just a perfect movie in every way. It has some adult humor and language, but still mild to fit the little ones in the family. Set in Minnesota in the middle of winter in a little town. All was calm untill a beautifull woman moves into a house across the street from who, but the Grumpy old men. And the story of the Grumpy Old Men unfolds, let me add it's a wonderfull funny story that is worth watching. The sequel to this movie is also a great film. Buy the set you will watch them over and over!!!

Lemmon and Matthau's Greatest Movie...

In 1993 Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau played their best roles in this movie together. This movie, "Grumpy Old Men" is a MASTERPIECE! It's funny, joyfull, and heartwarming. These two were the perfect match for an EXCELLENT movie like this. The plot of the movie is great. The setting of cold and snowy Wabasha, MN was a the perfect setting.

The movie starts out on a snowy morning with two rivaling neighbors John Gustufson (Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Matthau). These two have been at each other's throats since they were kids. They always insult each other like calling each other a putz, a moron, or even a schmuck and other rude names. Whatever the two do they compete against each other to be better. One of those things they compete against is they both ice fish everyday and Max always ends up with more fish than John. So one day after they finish fishing, Max has half a dozen fish and John only has two. So Max of course picks on him and John throws one of his dead fishes into Max's car which causes a terrible stench.

That night John is watching the lottery and Max has the same T.V. remote so while John's watching the numbers Max over in the next window switches the channel. Then John switches it back then Max does it again and again. Finally John finds out it's Max and Max's son Jake (Pollak) opens the window to make him apologize and when Max goes to the window, John sprays his garden hose at him. Will these two ever stop fighting?

Then the rivalry takes another step up when a beautiful new neighbor Ariel (Ann-Margret) moves in and catches the attention of Max and John. Ariel is a lovely, warm-hearted, spirited woman who Max and John start fighting over. Max takes her ice fishing where she catches a 3-foot fish that she actually THROWS BACK before Max can take a picture of it. Then John and Ariel have dinner together and then go snowmobiling together and eventually sleep together. MAX IS FURIOUS!!!

Now Max and John are out fishing and Max is thinking of how to seek revenge. So John is in his shanty when it starts moving. He looks out the window and Max is moving it with his car heading straight for THIN ICE. John jumps out and his shanty is sunk. Of course Max is in his car chanting, "Yeah!" The two finally have a brawl and John is convinced that Max deserves Ariel more than he does because John can't support her because his house is about to be taken away from the IRS.

Will John get her or will Max? This movie is a great comedy everyone can enjoy. It's very touching and loving and is full of laughs. Your comedy collection is not complete without "Grumpy Old Men." This is a 5-Star MASTERPIECE!

not all it's cracked up to be

Being an indefatigable admirer of these two actors I looked forward to this movie, but have to report that both my wife and I were greatly disappointed. This is one of these movies that can't seem to decide what it wants to be - a comedy about two old farts who can't stand each other, or a sentimental story about two estranged childhood chums finally making up with each other. As usual in such cases, it fails at both. There are not enough funny moments to make it a real comedy, and what humor there was was weak and forced, while as a sentimental story it's unconvincing. Particularly grating to me was the personality of the widow (Ann-Margret), who we are supposed to see as ebullient and zany; I found her nosy, shallow, inconsiderate and phony, and couldn't see what the two old guys saw in her. Burgess Meredith provides most of the scant humor in his bit role as Lemmon's 94 year old reprobate father, particularly in the credit outtakes (which, for that matter, are funnier than anything in the movie itself).Has some interest as a documentary on ice-fishing in northern Minnesota, but if it's laughs you want, watch The Odd Couple again.

A gift

I look upon this movie as a gift from two incredibly gifted actors--Lemmon and Matthau--to the rest of us. Get a big bag of popcorn and your favorite beverage and sit back and let the magic unfold. It's one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Lemmon and Matthau are at their comedic best in this hilarious tug of war concerning two lifelong friends who treat each other as anything but. Yet underneath all the bickering and pranks, the two men have a genuine love for each other. One of the most important things I learned from this movie is that "the only regrets you have are the risks you never take". I highly recommend this movie to all those who appreciate a little wisdom to go along with their humor. Watch it with someone you love.

Grumpy Old Men

A constant laugh ride propelled by the cinema's finest "odd couple." Their timing is still razor sharp. The story is fun. Lemmon and Matthau chase after beautiful Ann Margaret like two high schoolers. Burgess Meredith is wonderful as Lemmon's sharp tongued father.

Corny, enjoyable comedy

I wasn't expecting much of this movie -- another rip off of "The Odd Couple" -- but my kid insisted on watching it and I was pleasantly surprised.Matthau and Lemon have hated each other since one stole the other one's girl away. (Both wives are gone now.) They play nasty pranks on one another, relishing the other's frustration and anger. Meanwhile Matthau's son and Lemon's daughter are getting to know one another in a subplot. Also meanwhile a ravishing redhead from liberated California (Anne-Margaret) moves in across the street in this small, snow-bound, Minnesota town, and she falls for Lemon. At Lemon's insistence though she has a brief fling with Matthau before the inevitable ending.They're not really the odd couple here. They're new characters who happen to suffer adimadversions to each other. The gags are quick, fast, and sometimes pretty funny. Burgess Meredith, Lemon's Pop, declaims, "The first ninety years go by real fast! Then one day you wake up and realize you're not eighty-one anymore! Mount the woman!" At one point during an argument, Matthau attacks Lemon with a frozen fish and the two old men (68 and 73, I think) go through all the motions of a carefully choreographed action-movie combat scene -- Matthau pinning down Lemon, Lemon holding the threatening fish at bay as Matthau forces it down slowly towards Lemon's chest, both men puffing and grunting.It shoulda stayed a comedy. But it's tough to make a movie about old age that's consistently funny. Death is always around the corner, and impotence and failing health and financial crises are already here. It's easy enough to make a heart-wrenching movie about it, even with an uplifting ending. ("Umberto D.") This one tempers the comedy by putting all of the deficits of old age on ready display. A friend dies in his sleep. ("Lucky bastard.") Anne-Margaret -- "Tell me, Gustaffson, when did you last make love?" Lemon -- "October 19th -- 1978." (First used in "Harry and Tonto.") Thanksgiving and Christmas are captured on screen in all their sentimentality and anguish. Lemon has a heart attack while Nat King Cole is singing "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" on the soundtrack. Speaking of the soundtrack, the soapy score belongs in a Walt Disney fairy tale from the 1940s. Yes, folks, there are heart-wrenching scenes galore. Uplifting ones too. Lemon and Anne-Margaret making snow angels. All of them done is a cornball manner."Old age isn't for sissies," as Bette Davis is supposed to have said, but this movie is. The funny parts redeem the expectable misfortunes. Here is Burgess Meredith watching Ossie Davis visit Anne-Margaret's house on Thanksgiving -- "Looks like he's going to play pat the pony" or something like that. Stick around for the out-takes under the end credits. Looks like they had a good time making this film. It's worth watching too. Thank you, Chopsticks.

Friendly enough sitcom with shock-laughs

In a chilly Minnesota ice-fishing town, two lifelong enemies (who live next door to each other) compete for Ariel, the free-spirited new redhead on the block (Ann-Margret, doing her best with an underwritten role). Comic vehicle for Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon isn't strenuous, it breezes right along, but this type of farce, an insult-slinging sitcom, has been patented and packaged along a cinema assembly-line reaching back many years. The plot is constructed (and constricted) by its one-liners, like a foul-mouthed Neil Simon; the grouchy leads play up the old coot business for all it's worth, but they are so cantankerous that it isn't too likely life-loving Ariel would want either of these guys (her rapport with shopkeeper Ossie Davis, though seen at a distance, appears to be much warmer). Still, there are some laughs on occasion, the locations are well-captured, and the smartly-picked supporting cast is winning. **1/2 from ****

Terrific

I think this is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I absolutely love this movie. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon are the two funniest men, they are great together.

Grumpy Old Men

Loved this movie. If you want to sit back and laugh and enjoy life
for at least a short period of time I suggest this movie.

Grumpy Old Men

From director Donald Petrie (Ri¢hie Ri¢h, Miss Congeniality) this isn't one of the funniest films I've seen, and to be honest I think only the two leading actors make it worth watching. Basically John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) are two old guys that are neighbours, and continuously argue and insult each other, and have done so far over 50 years. And when new neighbour Ariel Truax (Ann-Margret) moves in, both men are attracted to her and their bickering only gets worse as they try and get her attention or affection. Also starring Batman's Burgess Meredith as Grandpa Gustafson, Daryl Hannah as Melanie, Kevin Pollak as Jacob Goldman, Ossie Davis as Chuck, Buck Henry as Elliot Snyder and Mike as Christopher McDonald. There are some quite amusing slapstick moments, quite a good happy ending, and some outtakes in the end credits, but I don't think I would watch this a second time. A sequel, Grumpier Old Men, followed in 1995. Okay!

a funny movie

"Grumpy Old Men" is a movie about two senior citizens, John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) who have known each other their entire lives and love getting the better of one another. They refer to each other as "Moron" (Goldman) and "Putz" (Gustafson) and play pranks on the other. John puts a fish in Max's back seat causing an awful stench in his friend's car while Max uses his remote to change channels while John is attempting to watch the lottery. The two men embark on a competition to win the affection of an attractive woman, Ariel Truax (Ann-Margret), who moves into the neighborhood and each does his best to win her heart. This movie is very funny, Lemmon and Matthau are one of the movie's best comedic duo and their story is filled with touches that show how both men retain their vitality though they are getting up in age. So, this film gets a grade of 7 out of 10 and a pretty strong recommendation.

Bluray features severely lacking, but totally worth it.

Grumpy Old Men is probably my favorite comedy of all time. I saw it in the theater back when it came out, then bought the VHS tape as soon as it was released. Then when DVD's took off, I waited and waited and waited for it to be released. It finally was, but only in FULL SCREEN. So I never bought it and only ever had the VHS version until this Bluray came out. Nothing more needs to be said about this movie, it is hilarious and heart-warming at the same time. A gem of a movie that shows you do not have to act old just because you hit your 60's, 70's or 80's. So I won't say any more about that... I will say it is so nice to finally see this in widescreen, and for a movie pushing 20 years old, the picture quality is great. It is a BIG bummer that all that is included on this Bluray disc is ONE trailer. This is easily the weakest Bluray I own when it comes to bonus features. But... I feel happy to get the movie and since it was only [...] bucks new, I can't complain. Here's to hoping the release Grumpier Old Men on Bluray now, and fill it with a ton of bonus features.