The In-Laws (PG-13, 2003)

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.

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.

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.