SunnyHello
Nice effects though.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
davidhughescomper
Pardon the pun, I couldn't resist it.*In my opinion this original version starring jack lemon is far, far superior entertainment than the remake with Steve Martin many years later:It's the difference between a Boeing and a bucket.(In the farfetched Martin 'attempt" the lead pair's acting is totally unconvincing. One scene in the remake was, however, hilarious, viz John Cleese in drag, replete with high heels, miming in his botel bedroom to the vocals of a record. Priceless. Elsewhere in this much later offering a massive goof for me was when the main character, having spent a night out in the open, not only appears for his morning job interview without a trace of midnight shadow on his face but, miraculously, sports his large cv portfolio despite one of the many mishaps he'd earlier suffered being the loss of his airport luggage - and never a trace of a shoulder bag which, HAD there been one, might just possibly have been big enough to contain an illustrated A5 presentation display.)Back to the Lemon movie. The whining, scatterbrained wife forever mouthing "Oh my god" amused me immensely; the acttess in this case - not so her successor - succeeded in persuading me that she really WAS the wife of her endearingly pathetic husband.The pair are riotous fun! Eleven out of ten for Lemon squeezing every drop of comic reality from the script. (*Opportune wordplay again I confess.)
GeoPierpont
I have been visiting NYC since the early 70's, so I was most interested to see if any fond memories highlighted this collaboration. As a huge fan of Lemon, I knew this film would be first rate. Oy Vey! What a challenge to watch even 5 minutes between commercials for another film.First, you have a high level executive interview which translates, at least to most I assume, this guy has it going on. They used Travel Agencies back then, hence this big time NYC company would use only the best. Of course they would be aware of the perils of taking a late flight the night BEFORE an early appointment which might POSSIBLY lead to difficulties. Hence, right off the bat I am being conned into the ramifications of implausible events.Comedy typically comes from unexpected actions and consequences and when you see them coming at every turn it gets EXTREMELY boring! Whoever read this script and kept laughing every five minutes to give the green light owed Mr. Simon a HUGE debt or knew where the bodies were buried.I believe Lemon accepted the role without reading the script and this explains his involvement in such a deleterious role. Dennis was bad enough in WAOVW, so was prepared for yet another annoying performance.Perhaps if you had him coming to town to visit a dying relative and develop the comic action in the ICU this would have more credibility. I advise anyone considering this worse than drivel of a film to complete avoidance.I can only recommend for those who want to see reminders of the old NYC and how it was regarded as a languid, sorrowful, corrupt city and how mightily it reincarnated and rose from the ashes to become the shining star of destination locations in the world.Simon, this was your town and no one wanted to live there anyways then, so why the F U??? Please explain if we ever meet.
mark.waltz
Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon play two mid-western Americans who come to the Big Apple when Lemmon has a job interview with a prestigious agency. It's not enough that their plane is re-routed to Boston because of a fog-in, but the train they're on has no food to sell them and once they do arrive in New York, their reservation at the Waldorf has been canceled. Con-artists rob them; A man in a cloak takes Lemmon's watch willingly without even demanding it; Spanish-speaking visitors to Central Park accuse Lemmon of being a child molester; They end up in the limousine of a foreign ambassador who is the victim of a protest; Lemmon chips his tooth on the prize in cracker jacks and just about goes deaf when an exploding man hole misses his head by an inch. So don't think you'll hear Dennis or Lemmon humming the wispy tune that plays over the opening credits. All they want to do is get out of Manhattan as fast as possible, and I don't mean to the Bronx or Staten Island too.This hysteria comes from the delightfully demented mind of the usual New York cheerleader Neil Simon who wrote about "Sweet Charity", gave us newlyweds prancing around "Barefoot in the Park", and lamented the life of a "Prisoner on 5th Avenue". Those were all Broadway shows that eventually ended up as films, and this film went straight to the screen without a stop where Seventh Avenue meets Broadway. This means you get a lot of great location footage of New York during the age of Aquarius and get to see visitors to one of the world's greatest tourist attractions being taken advantage of for being, as Roz Russell sang in "Wonderful Town" about her own people far from New York, "Babbity, Provincial!".Unlike the later Steve Martin remake (and his similar comedy "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"), Lemmon and Dennis simply accept things as they happen, her occasional "Oh my God!" being more like "Here we go again!" rather than "Can you believe this crap?" Yes, Lemmon may threaten to sue every cop, hotel manager or bus driver who gives him a hard time, but its out of sudden frustration, and it is identifiable for any naive tourist or business visitor who had to get a bit tough when the city around them started moving faster than they could keep up with. New Yorkers, as kind as they can be to tourists and business visitors, on occasion like to see the darker side of what its like for outsiders to come to the city, and the results are hysterically funny. It may not be funny as you go through the situations that Dennis and Lemmon go through, but you can tell that in 30 years, their characters would go down memory lane and laugh when the other one said to them, "Remember when..."
FilmCriticLalitRao
American director Arthur Hiller's "The Out of Towners" can rightly be hailed as a perfect film for the entire family with its primary focus on the quintessential "American Dream". It is a common knowledge that an American person is identified solely through American dreams. Through the making of this film, Arthur Hiller and his writing partner Neil Simon deftly show all the pressure and stress which an American couple handle in order to land on time for a job interview in New York City, a grand metropolis which remains a city of dreams for many people. New York City has been filmed in a very subtle manner that nobody can remain aloof from its charms. Those who are new to New York City would take immense pleasure in watching the magnetic quality of the city especially the portions which were shot around Central Park and surrounding areas. The film also touches upon various ethical issues as all big cities have their unique ethical mechanisms with which its inhabitants like to identify. This may not be evident to somebody who is not familiar with them. This aspect has also been handled reasonably well in "The Out of Towners" as viewers learn that it is difficult to trust complete strangers in a big city. Lastly, one is aware of the maxim that too much planning goes bust at the last moment. It is conveyed to viewers through actors Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis who shine as a perfect yet whimsical American couple.
