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Reviews Counted:125
Fresh:44
Rotten:81
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Bigger and slicker than the original, but not necessarily better.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: When prospective fathers-in-law Steve Tobias (MICHAEL DOUGLAS) and Jerry Peyser (ALBERT BROOKS) meet for the first time to celebrate their children's upcoming marriage, the cake hits the... [More]
Starring: Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks, Robin Tunney, Candice Bergen
Director: Andrew Fleming
...there’s nothing really “relative” about The In-Laws. This is a jumbled jaunt that gleefully flashes its hyperbolic hokum without regard to offering reflective characterizations or an involving storyline for that matter.
Both Fleming ... and the writers are smart enough to know when to leave a classic alone and when to replicate certain situations.
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Top CriticThis In-Laws isn't a disaster, it's just not very good.
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The In-Laws, as if released from a time capsule, will delight those audiences who value nostalgia and highly unsophisticated fun.
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The memory of the first film isn't sullied by this version, but neither is it eclipsed.
Funny, if a bit broad.
Its laughs are sweet-natured, and Heaven knows the lead players earn every one.
If it's hot this weekend, and your air conditioner is broken, you could do worse. Otherwise, audience annulment proceedings will probably begin in a week or two.
Fans of the original may be disheartened by this glossier, action-packed version, but the brisker pacing and showy shoot-'em-up scenes are exactly what will appeal to the film's target audience.
If you've ever enjoyed watching Bergen, Brooks or Douglas, or ever been to a wedding you wish you'd missed, The In-Laws will make you laugh.
The jokes in The In-Laws are pretty good. The special effects? Not so much.
No tension. No edge. Halfhearted action. You could meet these parents, but what's the point?
Douglas has rarely been more lighthearted or likable, and Brooks can only be described as effortlessly Brooksian. Unfortunately, the lameness of the humor, the ludicrous plot and the uninteresting characterizations don't make it nearly as much fun for us.
You know things are bad in The In-Laws when the funniest thing they can do with Brooks is put him in a thong.
Generates enough mindless laughs to compensate for and occasionally overcome its various deficiencies and problems, but not enough to make it great.
It's a pleasure to see Douglas in a rare movie where he doesn't have to grit his teeth in tension, just as it's always a pleasure to watch Brooks get mentally tortured.
Screenwriters Nat Mauldin and Ed Solomon, and director Andrew Fleming, miscalculate badly by putting the best stuff up front.
April 20, 2006:
Critical Consensus: A Weak "Sentinel," So-So "Dreamz" Are Made Of This, "Silent Hill" Not Screened
This week at the movies we've got a Secret Service agent on a mission ("The Sentinel"), an "American Idol"- skewering political satire ("American... More...
April 29, 2003:
From Father of the Bride to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there's something about marital comedies that tends to pay off; this In-Laws may skew old for summer, but we like its chances. 
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