A 1998 comedy film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison, respectively. It is a sequel to 1968's The Odd Couple, starring the same actors. Neil Simon, who'd written the screenplay for the earlier film (as well as the 1965 play on which it was based), wrote and produced.
The film begins with Oscar and Felix, who haven't seen each other in years, finding out that Oscar's son is marrying Felix's daughter, and the wedding is in less than a week. The rest of the plot revolves Felix and Oscar traveling to California trying to make their way to the wedding together, which of course evolves into a wild, wacky adventure which makes it seem like they will never make it there. Hilarity ensues.
While it enjoyed neither the critical nor commercial success of the original film (or even Lemmon and Matthau's Grumpy Old Men films from a few years earlier), it is acknowledged as a somewhat enjoyable movie if watched just for laughs.
This film provides examples of:
- Downer Ending: Subverted/zig-zagged. The final scene of the film revealed that it didn't work out for Felix and Felyce, but also led to Oscar inviting Felix to come and live with him again.
- Hello Again, Officer: Taken to the point of insanity. By the time the third act happens and the couple finally leaves for their children's wedding, the cops of the town they've been stranded on for various days have seen them nearly arrested for anything from apparent coyote runs to apparent murder, and the chief simply says that if they ever come back, no matter what, they are to be never arrested.
- Idiot Ball: Oscar. He forgets Felix's suitcase at the airport, destroys the directions to the wedding and gets them lost on the way, and nearly gets the two of them killed by the bikers for flirting with their girlfriends. Is it any wonder that Felix was ready to choke him by the end of the movie?
- Innocent Innuendo: The first time Felix and Oscar get arrested, Felix wonders outloud if this is due to him offering money to that kid in the restroom (It Makes Sense in Context).
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While walking through the desert, Oscar says that he and Felix are in a Clint Eastwood movie, to which Felix responds with The Good The Bad And The Stupid, all while the famous soundtrack from you know which movie is playing.
- Metaphorgotten: Played straight in a conversation between Oscar and Felix:Oscar: The wick is almost out, Felix. I just want the candle to glow rather than curse the darkness.Felix: It's not going out, Oscar. Not yours, not mine. And I still hope that someday, we will both find the right lamplighter.Oscar: You know, we just used so many metaphors that I forgot what the hell we were talking about.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Final scene of the film when Felix comes back to live with Oscar.
- Precision F-Strike: Twice with Felix.
- "In your suitcase, they are going to find your broken, mutilated, and dissected body if you don't go back and find MY fucking suitcase!!"
- "If you say the word 'trifecta' one more time, I am going to choke you until you are dead! And then this man can arrest me one more time for one more crime in his office, and HE's gonna have a fourfecta!! Now you shut the FUCK up!!"
- Slower Than a Snail: In the second day of their odyssey, Felix and Oscar hitch a ride with a Southern Gentleman who drives his 1937 Oldsmobile at 5 miles per hour. At one point a bunch of bicycle drivers and an elderly man with a walker pass them by. Oscar and Felix are most definitely not happy when they figure out that it will take them 12 hours to get to the next town over (let alone to the one with their childrens' wedding). And then the gentleman pulls over and dies quietly of a heart attack and the cops arrest them for allegedly murdering him.
