Customer Reviews

The Out of Towners [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Thirty years ago, Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis starred in the original version of The Out of Towners. It was moderately successful with the public and the media. As society changed over time, so did much of what we find humorous. Back then, it was funny when the Beaver disobeyed his parents. Today, much laughter is evoked when an audience sees a kid who does obey. The Beaver would be an outcast, a nerd. We have become enormously more worldly.

As was the original, the remake of The Out of Towners is a comedy about a series of mishaps that befall a naive Ohio couple when they venture to New York City. Their plane is rerouted to Boston. They fail to catch a train from there to the Big Apple. Then they rent a car, which they wreck minutes after arriving in Manhattan. Things go downhill from there.

This unfortunate pair is Harry and Nancy Clark, played by Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. Both stars give it their all, but they are no match for the way Lemmon and Dennis portrayed the couple. Hawn and Martin are comedians whose success depends on the material they are given to work with. [This is why Martin excels in movies he writes and/or directs.] Dennis and Lemmon were serious actors who can cross over into comedy. What was so funny in the original was the way the two took the mishaps so seriously. They looked and acted like an innocent Midwestern pair. Martin and Hawn come off as too glib and sophisticated to ever have such events happen to them.

The movie has its moments, especially when Martin is seemingly allowed to ad-lib. His scene in Central Park, where he winds up after accidentally taking a hallucinogenic drug, is priceless. The incredible Englishman, John Cleese, has his moments as an ultra-snobbish hotel manager.

Perhaps the major problem with The Out of Towners is that the story is dated in ways no rewrite could fix. New York has changed dramatically. I find much of it to be safer and friendlier than many other big cities. Times Square, once the haunt of panhandlers and prostitutes, now seems about as dangerous as Disneyland. Harry Clark is successful in the advertising business, and Nancy was once his partner, Jetting from place to place is the norm for such professionals these days, and it no longer makes sense that he hasn't been to New York before. People from the sticks are way more sophisticated than they were thirty years ago. They simply don't freak out like they used to when they go to big cities. The yokel and the redneck are dying breeds. So, today's Harry and Nancy don't seem like a couple accidentally caught in an urban hell. They seem simply ignorant.

...you're watching a movie with 3 heavyweights (Martin, Hawn and Cleese) and you laugh 3 times. The problem with this remake of the Lemmon-Dennis classic is that we've seen it all before done much better. See "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Dutch", "Fandango" and Martin's own "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". Any one of these "travelling comedy of errors" is considerably more humorous. When the original came out it was something new. It had Jack Lemmon going over the top and really getting the most out of every scene in the film. Lemmon screaming at the top of his lungs-taking down everybody's address, dealing with the cab driver, the dark stranger in Central Park, the fight with the dog over the Cracker Jacks, the chipped tooth, Murray the hotel locator, rain and garbage all over the streets, broken heal and just so much more. Steve Martin's version of George Kellerman is lazy and nearly humorless. It loses sight of the original's comic storyline: New York kicking this simple Ohio couple's butt at every turn and the couple deciding to go back home. It does have Cleese as a closet transvestite (perhaps the films only funny moments). Check out the original or one of the other films mentioned here. This just isn't worth the time.

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn have reputations that precede them, and when they're in a movie together, you know it's going to be a mildly funny screwball comedy. That's exactly what this movie turns out to be.

This is the story of Henry and Nancy Clark (Martin and Hawn, respectively), an Ohio couple who have a son that they've just sent off to study abroad for a year, and a daughter who quit medical school to become an actress in New York. Henry has just gotten fired from his job at an advertising firm and now he must go to New York City to interview for a job at the only company that's interested in hiring him. Nancy tags along on the trip, and before you know it, the adventure begins. They begin by having their plane re-routed to Boston and the airline losing their luggage. They can't get a bus to New York City, they miss the Amtrak by just a few seconds, and then they get stuck with a rental car with a heater that won't shut off. They damage their rental car, get mugged by an Andrew Lloyd Webber impersonator, and get kicked out of their hotel.

All of that happens in just the first 20 minutes of the movie. These problems and inconveniences keep mounting, and during the whole time they're looking for food to quell their hunger, a place to rest, and a way to kick-start their stagnant marriage. Like I already mentioned, this movie is mildly funny, but still not on par with other movies these two actors have made. Steve Martin is a veteran of these types of comedies, but he's not as good here as he was in movies like "Father of the Bride". He's always been great at playing the well-intentioned goof, but he just doesn't sell it as well here. Goldie Hawn is an Academy Award winner, but it's clear that her best work is behind her. She's also been in better movies of this genre.

In the grand scheme of things, this movie will probably rank as one of the lesser works on these two actors' resumes. However, if you're looking to entertain yourself for 90 minutes, this movie will do the job.

I liked this film a lot! Hawn and Martin are just the perfect match in this movie. Lots, lots of humor, see it!

Anyone who has seen the original 1970 version with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis, under the aegis of Neil Simon's tight scriptwriting, knows how an excellent cast, script, and director can put together a comedy masterpiece.

By the same token, it's easy to see how the opposite of that can create another insipid Hollywood bore-a-thon! Despite two stars in the lead that I simply adore, it falls miserably on its head. There are about 2-3 actual gags that evoke so much as a grin, and out of a full length movie that just isn't enough.

While I highly recommend the original, you'd probably be better off skipping this wannabe farce.

I never laughed so hard in my life! I rented this movie figuring it would be O.K. It was so funny. You know a movie is funny when you break out into uncontrollable, eye-watering laughter just remembering a scene from the film, even after you've finished watching the movie. Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin are a classic comedic duo. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to lift their spirits and see something lighthearted, not too serious, and hysterical.

This movie is so uproariously(is that the word?) hilarious, it simply can't be put into words without lessening the quality. IT IS THAT GOOD! I love every movie Steve Martin has been in. Goldie Hawn is one of the greatest. But it is John Cleese who steals the show as a cross-dressing hotel manager. The dancing scene with Cleese high-kicking to "Bad Girls" is virtually unmatchable in hilariousness. This movie definitely stands out above the rest.

A huge disappointment I'm sorry to say. Steve Martin appeared in many great films, such as "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" or "Father of the Bride," however this was the worst comedy I've seen in a while. Why? Well, first of all, the jokes in it have been done a thousand times in thousands of other movies; the acting was bad... and this came as a shock because I know both Martin and Hawn are capable of much better than that... whatever that was. The plot was just as bad as the jokes -- most of the time I already knew what was going to happen before it happen... I found this movie very unentertaining and unfunny.

This movie delievers more humor than the GOOD HUMOR icecream man! I was laughing histerically while STEVE MARTIN and GOLDIE HAWN run amok in New York, in this charming heartwarming movie. I suggest it to all of you. Especially fans of Hawn , and or Martin. I loved this movie, with a passion.

Remake of the Neil Simon film, Out of Towners (1970) starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.
The Clark's son, Alan (Oliver Hudson, Goldie Hawn's real-life son) has finally left the coop and on to Europe. Henry Clark (Steve Martin) has an idea that now is the time to leave Iowa and get a higher-paying job in New York. Actually, he got fired from his weak advertising job and doesn't have the heart to tell his wife, Nancy (Goldie Hawn).
So Henry is on his way by airplane to New York. Could have been an ordinary trip, but Nancy suddenly runs on the airplane to surprise her husband. She announces that she has brought her husband's rash cream. That's not all, they can't land in New York City because it is fogged in. So the plane lands in God-forgotten Boston.
And so with that, getting to New York in time for the important job interview is going to be an adventure of its own. Everything goes wrong.
Also in the cast: John Cleese, Mark McKinney, Carlease Burke, Ernie Sabella, James Arone, Chris McKinney, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
This movie was filmed and released before the reality TV series, "Amazing Race" premiered on Sept. 5, 2001. Perhaps the Out-Of-Towners films gave them the idea.
The Neil Simon version of Out Of Towners (1970) with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis is much more dramatic and realistic, but written to relax and laugh. I highly recommend the 1970 version too.