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BY MARK BAZER
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There’s so much wrong with this remake, but it’s easy to know where to start: Albert Brooks climbing out of a hot tub wearing a thong. Throughout Andrew Fleming’s film, Brooks is asked to carry the comic load and do his whiny shtick. But here’s the problem: Brooks’s character should be the straight man. In the original 1979 incarnation of The In-Laws, Alan Arkin plays a normal, well-respected New York dentist whose daughter is about to be married. He becomes, against his will, involved in a counterfeit money scheme cooked up by his future son-in-law’s father, a CIA agent — though he may be rogue — played by Peter Falk. You empathize with Arkin as he’s driven crazy because you can see yourself in his shoes, but it’s also hard to resist the crusty, lovable Falk. The story’s pretty much the same in the remake, though only the most neurotic will relate to Brooks (who isn’t a dentist but an oh-so-much-wackier podiatrist). Michael Douglas, as the CIA agent, is more smarm than charm, and for some bizarre reason Fleming turns much of film into a lame action flick. Tack on a villain who is — get ready to laugh — a homosexual and you’ve got one great insult to a classic comedy. (95 minutes)
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