The In-Laws (1979)

I'll tell you why so serious

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Having read a number of reviews, I have to wonder if I saw the same movie everyone else did. I will have to admit that I do not like Allen Arkin, but not even Arthur Hiller, an actor, and director that I very much respect, could breathe life into this flaccid and boring script. I happen to have seen this film recently, and I discovered that I disliked it even more than I did when I saw it in a theater in 1978. One has to question a film's worth when its best joke/gag consists of Falk and Arkin fleeing from gunfire screaming, Serpentine, Shelly...Serpentine...big yuk!!! Perhaps I expect too much from film comedies, but I like to laugh as much as the next guy, but I found myself checking my watch wondering when this experience would be over

I watched this movie when it first came out. My mom and I laughed so hard throughout the whole thing. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin are superb! They make the best comedic pair and both played their parts perfectly.I saw that they remade this with Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas. It was a good and entertaining movie but not nearly as funny as this one. I just finished watching the remake and saw that this original was available on Amazon Prime so I watched it. It is just as funny today as it was when I first saw it.Serpentine! Serpentine! LOL You must watch this movie. It is pure genius.

Whether you are talking about the Guacomoly Act of 1907, or flies with beaks, there are uncountable lines from "The In-Laws" that bear repeating. Alan Arkin absolutely steals the movie with his deadpan bewilderment. The scene where Peter Falk rambles on about flies carrying away little brown babies is priceless as Arkin simply rolls his eyes in amazement. "Oh God don't let me die on West 31st. Street". "Four years at Mt. Holioke, so she can marry into this?" It just goes on and on. Arkin's comatose expression as the airline attendant is going over the airline safety rules in a foreign language is hilarious. Then when Arkin does speak "It's over the ocean to Scranton Pennsylvania?" Quite simply, "The In-Laws is one truly funny movie, that is infinitely quotable and very re-watchable. - MERK

It's hilarious. A successful NYC dentist (Alan Arkin) whose daughter is about to marry the son of a lunatic CIA agent (Peter Falk). The high-strung Arkin goes from neurotic to completely insane as Falk gets him into one pre-marital predicament after another. They end up on the run from a lot of face-less goons all the way to Central America. This isn't as much a buddy film as it is an antagonist film. Arkin & Falk have great chemistry and they're both hysterical (interestingly, there is no straight man). Directed with a lot of finesse by Arthur Hiller from a very clever script by Andrew Bergman. The supporting cast is excellent and features Richard Libertini, Ed Begley Jr., Nancy Dussault, and Arlene Golonka. The fun music score by Mel Brooks' regular John Morris adds a lot.