A romantic comedy movie from 1993, Grumpy Old Men stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Ossie Davis, and Buck Henry. It was directed by Donald Petrie and written by Mark Steven Johnson. The sequel, Grumpier Old Men, comes next. Winona State University film student Mark Steven Johnson wrote the script for Grumpy Old Men (Minnesota). John Davis and Richard C. Berman pitched bill Gerber the screenplay. Johnson intended for Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Sophia Loren to star in the film. Lemmon and his son Charles Matthau were able to persuade Matthau to participate despite his initial reluctance. Although Loren was slated to appear in the follow-up, Ann-Margret was cast as the lead. The script was also changed during pre-production to be funny rather than serious. Despite arriving in Minnesota in January 1993, the actors and crew couldn’t begin filming until February 2 due to a lack of snowfall.
LET’S EXAMINE THE PLOT OF GRUMPY OLD MEN MORE WISELY
Max Goldman and John Gustafson, two seniors who live next door to one another in Wabasha, Minnesota, are at odds. Living alone, they gossip, play cruel practical tricks on one another, including John dumping a dead fish in Max’s pickup, and go ice fishing. Their friend Chuck, the proprietor of the local bait shop, and Max’s son Jacob, who is running for mayor, get irritated by their competition. While avoiding IRS agent Elliot Snyder’s attempts to collect a significant debt, John helps his daughter Melanie when she divorces her husband, Mike. Ariel Truax, a free-spirited English professor who moves in across the street, attracts both John’s and Max’s attention. Chuck invites Ariel to Thanksgiving dinner, which causes John and Max to vie for her attention. Max finds out about John’s IRS debt after Chuck passes away. John spends time with Ariel and reveals that he and Max were pals when they were younger.
HOW DID THE AUDIENCE REACT TO GRUMPY OLD MEN
The movie has a 64% approval rating on aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews, with an overall rating of 5.8/10. “Grumpy Old Men’s actors are better than the material they’re given — but their hilarious chemistry is so good that anytime they share the screen, it scarcely matters,” the site’s user consensus reads. The movie has a weighted average rating of 53 out of 100 on Metacritic, which is based on reviews from 16 critics and indicates “mixed or mediocre reviews.” Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the picture an average score of “A” on an A+ to F scale. The movie is “the kind of holiday movie many people are seeking,” according to Caryn James of The New York Times. She continued this is due to the film’s “cheerfulness, short running time, and lack of any significant social ills unless you think Jack Lemmon throwing a dead fish into Walter Matthau’s car is the reason for alarm.”
LET’S HAVE A GLANCE AT THE SEQUEL OF GRUMPY OLD MEN
American romantic comedy Grumpier Old Men, released in 1995, is a follow-up to Grumpy Old Men. It features a cast that includes Ann Morgan Guilbert, Burgess Meredith (in his last acting job), Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, and Katie Sagona. Howard Deutch helmed the film Grumpier Old Men, with a script by Mark Steven Johnson and an original score by Alan Silvestri. Meredith was mentored through his role in the movie because he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. 1997 saw his passing. Despite having a $25 million budget, Grumpier Old Men made $71 million in North American theatres. Grumpier Old Men made $70 million more than its predecessor while producing it for $10 million less. The movie was made available to the public in the UK on March 1, 1996.
LET’S HAVE A GLANCE AT THE FILMING LOCATIONS OF GRUMPY OLD MEN
The story of this movie is, as we all know, based in Minnesota. When the producers gave the movie they were OK, the actors and crew began to arrive in the state. Grumpy Old Men ultimately started filming in February 1993. The state lacked the snowfall required for several vital parts of the movie. As a result, Paisley Park Studios became a popular choice. The shots where there is a lot of ice are those that were filmed at Lake Rebecca. It required maneuvering through temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius to shoot on ice for the movie. While working on the film’s set, Matthau developed pneumonia. This, in turn, caused the entire procedure to be delayed by many months. All this occurred while the actor was filming a fight scene with Lemmon.