The Odd Couple II is the 1998 sequel to 1968's The Odd Couple. It reunites Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in their last film together.
Plot
It's been 17 years since Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar have seen one another. Oscar is still a compulsive gambler and an untidy slob, now retired and living in Sarasota, Florida. One day, he is called by his son Brucey with an invitation to California for his wedding the following Sunday. A second shock for Oscar -- the woman his son is marrying is Felix's daughter.
On the flight from New York to Los Angeles, it becomes clear that Felix hasn't changed his ways -- he's still a fussy, allergy-suffering nuisance. Oscar and Felix are reunited at the airport and very happy to be together again -- at least for a few minutes.
They take a rental car to San Malina for the wedding. But the trip begins with Oscar forgetting Felix's suitcase at the car rental, including the wedding gifts and wardrobe inside. Oscar also loses the directions to San Malina when his cigar ash burns them.
He and Felix become hopelessly lost on their way, unable to even remember the name of the town where they are headed. They end up in the desert, where the car rolls off a cliff and catches fire. If that were not enough, they get arrested several times by the local police, first for driving a truck carrying illegal Mexican immigrants, and then for being inside a car with a dead man.
Irritated, exhausted and convinced that they'll never get to the wedding, they get arrested yet again for consorting with armed rednecks who believe Oscar and Felix were flirting with their wild women Thelma and Holly. The boys are freed and driven to the local airport by the police, who are only too pleased to be rid of them.
Felix and Oscar make it to the wedding, but not before Felix falls for a woman on the airplane. Her name is Felice. (He calls her "leece," which causes Oscar to ask Felix if she calls him "lix.")
They arrive to find that Brucey is having second thoughts about the wedding due to his parents' bad history with marriage. Felix and Oscar argue with their ex-spouses, after which Oscar persuades his son to go through with it. Felix's suitcase is returned and the wedding goes off without a hitch.
The next morning, Felix and Felice leave on one flight and part ways with Oscar, who returns to Florida. Oscar is telling his poker friends about the wedding when the door bell rings. It is Felix, who says things with Felice didn't work out.
Felix wonders if he could move in with Oscar until he finds his own place. Oscar says no, but eventually he relents. Before long Felix is cleaning up the apartment and Oscar is overcome with a sense of having been through all this before.
Cast
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- Joaquin Martinez as the Truck Driver
- Amy Parrish as the Computer Girl
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Reception
The film was regarded as a failure critically and commercially. Despite the fact Lemmon and Matthau had success with their Grumpy Old Men films in the 1990s, this project was not a hit.
Stephen Holden's review in the April 10, 1998 New York Times called it "a dispiriting, flavorless travesty, the equivalent of moldy tofu mystery meat."
The Odd Couple II grossed a low $18 million at the domestic box office and although Lemmon and Matthau's previous film Out to Sea also disappointed, it was received better by critics and had a slightly higher box office gross.
Each actor made only one more theatrical film: The Legend of Bagger Vance for Lemmon and Hanging Up for Matthau, both in 2000.
Miscellany
- The film holds the record for time between sequels (thirty years) while featuring the original stars.
- When Oscar and Felix are about to have their third and final run-in with the police, the footage of their car being stopped is actually from their first arrest, used again in this scene.
External links
