The Out-Of-Towners (1999)

This remake of Neil Simon's 1970 comedy finds Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin as Ohio yokels cast adrift in Rudy Giuliani's sanitized New York City. With their son recently departed for Britain, the empty-nesters travel to the Big Apple for a job interview and are beset with all kinds of bad luck, starting with their flight being rerouted to Boston. Things only go downhill from there, of course, as they're mugged by an Andrew Lloyd Webber imposter, the high-tech multilingual navigation system on their rented Cadillac goes haywire, and their hotel reservations fall through. Though this movie is marred by some out-of-place slapstick and mawkish romance scenes, it's not without its funny moments. The couple stumbles into a sexual-addiction encounter group and has to try to back out gracefully (not succeeding very well, of course). John Cleese is howlingly funny as he reprises his Fawlty Towers role of a cross-dressing hotelier, and Martin has a great drug-delirium scene, in which he's slipped a hit of LSD in jail (thinking it's aspirin). Just try not to think in terms of comparisons to Neil Simon's original and this remake works fairly well. --Jerry Renshaw Amazon.com

SAM WEISMAN, OPUS 4

*** 1999. Directed by Sam Weisman. When I read that the estimated budget of this film is $40,000,000, I wonder where all the money went. I suppose Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn and John Cleese were well paid but, still, I'm sure there was some money left. I really don't understand why this enhanced stage play cost so much. Anyway, my kids loved the movie, my wife and I laughed two or three times and that's about it. In short, enjoyable but already forgotten. February 12, 2008

Hilarious and exuberant

One comedy that is so American that you may have problems sleeping afterwards because of the jaw pain you will get due to too much laughing. I would advise you to take some kind of Prozac before not to be too much overwhelmed by the silly situations this film develops with gusto and vicious pleasure. The poor people from Ohio do not have one gram or one 176th part of an ounce of luck when they come to New York for a job interview. The plane is out-routed, nearly out-sourced, their deluxe rental car has no air conditioning. They get lost because they don't know how to read a map, and then their rental GPS gets stuck in some kind of French sounding neighborhood and they end up in a fish-market or something like that with crates and fresh squishy things. 2,200 dollars for a 200 mile, at the most, ride. At the hotel they are kicked out because their credit card has been overdrawn by their own daughter. And that's only part of the beginning. Get to that film to discover the hundreds of details and risks out-of-towners run in New York City, an apple in which any smiling friendly face may be the worm that is eating the core of it. Very well done and so dynamic that you may fall for the good old days of Hair in Central Park.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
February 10, 2008

funny flick!

good movie to watch on an afternoon if you called out sick from work and need something to go in and out of nap time with! December 18, 2007

The Hilarity of it All...

I don't know how anyone can NOT give this movie 5 stars...I couldn't stop laughing when I watched it! It was too good not to watch over and over again. Steve Martin & Goldie Hawn were the perfect match for this movie (and others that they've done together).

If you're looking for a good laugh...look no further...The Out-Of-Towners is a comedy you'll be watching over and over again for decades to come. July 20, 2007

The Out-of-Towners

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn have the chemistry together for this comedy to be as good as it is. It is a hoot! You will laugh and at the same time understand about their relationship as husband and wife. A must see movie.
July 9, 2006

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