The In-Laws (PG-13)

This movie has more misfires than hits.

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Movie details

Studio: Warner Bros.
Directed By: Andrew Fleming
Cast: Albert Brooks, Michael Douglas
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 05/23/2003
Video/DVD Release Date: 10/07/2003
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA Explanation: suggestive humor, language, some drug references and action violence.

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this movie has some very strong material for a PG-13. This includes crude jokes about the criminal's homosexual attraction to Jerry and Steve's ex-wife (Candace Bergen) explaining that she and Steve used to have great "angry sex." A bridesmaid gets drunk and confesses that she and the groom had sex before he met the bride. There's comic peril and violence, and characters are killed.

Families can talk about some of the stories of bringing their own in-laws together for the first time.

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

All major characters white. Homophobic humor.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Drinking and smoking.

Violence

Action violence and peril.

Sex

Very explicit sexual references for a PG-13.

Language

Some strong language.

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Nell Minow

In this remake, Albert Brooks plays Jerry, a worrywart of a podiatrist who is obsessively planning every detail of his daughter’s wedding. Enter Steve, his daughter's prospective free spirit father-in-law who is some sort of secret agent. Steve's case involving an arms dealer and a stolen submarine is concluding just as the wedding approaches, and Jerry gets mixed up in a series of wild adventures that include Barbra Streisand's jet, parachuting off a skyscraper, and a dip in a hot tub with a high strung international criminal who is having something of a sexual preference meltdown.

Is it any good?

It's hard to blow a premise like this one -- color-in-the-lines, risk-adverse man meets his daughter's overly adventurous father-in-law just before the wedding. It worked pretty well in the 1973 original starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. But this retread has more misfires than hits.

It's always fun to watch Brooks unravel, Douglas gives an appealingly loose performance, and there are a couple of genuinely funny moments. But the film lacks the energy and zaniness of the original.