There’s no Senor Wences shtick and there’s no “”serpentine! serpentine!” gag. And where Alan Arkin was a mild-mannered dentist in the 1979 original, Albert Brooks is a phobia-plagued podiatrist (from teeth to feet!) in the new version of “The In-Laws.”
Let’s see, any other big differences between the first “In-Laws”and the latest? Well, the one with Arkin and Peter Falk was a lot funnier.
But let’s not be cranky and curmudgeonly about it. Worse things could happen than finding yourself in a theater watching this forced but agreeable comic construction about two soon-to-be-fathers-in-law – Brooks and Michael Douglas – involved in James Bondian hijinks and bonding, finally, in a wedding day ceremony complete with hostages, the FBI and a submarine in Lake Michigan.
With its covert gizmos and cartoon villains (David Suchet, as an effeminate arms broker), “The In-Laws” at times feels more like “Spy Kids” than a screwball buddy flick for grown-ups. Premise: the impending nuptials of a foot doctor’s daughter (Lindsay Sloane) and a CIA agent’s son (Ryan Reynolds) brings said podiatrist and spy together. But Steve Tobias (Douglas), a deep-cover operative with a curvy protege (Robin Tunney), has to squeeze the wedding plans into a schedule crammed with deadly bathroom stall encounters and top secret trans-Atlantic assignations.
At first, Jerry Peyser (Brooks) thinks Steve Tobias is just a pompous nutball – a Xerox salesman with delusions of grandeur. But then Jerry finds himself caught up in Steve’s capers, strapped into a private jet and heading for a meeting with an international crime lord. Intrigue, and a running joke about Jerry’s fanny-pack, ensues.
The original “In-Laws” was sparked by Arkin and Falk’s wacko chemistry – a kind of spontaneous comic combustion – and while Brooks and Douglas are fine together, there’s a stiffness there. Douglas seems creaky and overtaxed amidst all the farcical fisticuffs and high-speed badinage.
Director Andrew Fleming (“Dick,” “The Craft”) moves things along briskly enough, Brooks’ brand of neurotic angst results in one or two sublimely funny bits, and Candice Bergen is mildly amusing as Steve’s embittered, New Age-y ex. But this “In-Laws” feels, in the end, formulaic and unnecessary, especially when the original is yours for the renting at the video store.
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raises concern for board
