The In-Laws (PG-13, 2003)

common sense media says

This movie has more misfires than hits.


parents & educators say

What 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.

Violence: Action violence and peril.
Sex: Very explicit sexual references for a PG-13.
Language: Some strong language.
Consumerism: Not applicable.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Drinking and smoking.

More on The In-Laws

What to talk about

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

What's the story?

What's the story?
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?

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.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director: Andrew Fleming
Cast: Albert Brooks, Michael Douglas, Ryan Reynolds
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release: May 23, 2003
DVD release: October 7, 2003
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: suggestive humor, language, some drug references and action violence.

This review was written by Nell Minow
 
 

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ON: Content is appropriate for kids this age.
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