Watch Out to Sea For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon (both looking winded) find themselves on the run, eventually hiding out on a cruise-ship under the guise of dance escorts for ballroom broads. Perhaps a decade ago, this may have been a great opportunity for the two leads to mine big laughs from a highly-contrived scenario, but here they're just too old to make the material sail. Matthau, in particular, doesn't seem as mobile, and Lemmon has to work overtime to make up for the obvious lethargy (not successful for a comedy). Dyan Cannon (doing an Ann-Margret) is sprightly, and familiar TV faces--plus a tap-dancing Donald O'Connor!--show up in small roles, however it is Brent Spiner as a wormy entertainment coordinator who steals the show. ** from ****

Noticeably, if I review a comedy, I noticed that I lower my standard automatically in order to watch it. This could mean one of two things. Either: 1)I don't like to laugh.... Or: 2)the movie just isn't funny.It would have to be the second, because I do appreciate decent comedy. This is just not in that category. While it is not the worst, it is, as suggested, another "Grumpy Old Men" scenario. The scenes are at times a bit too embarrassing. Matthau, while funny, just too hard to believe as a card shark, even for a laugh.Dyan Cannon looks amazing for her age (Is she really 75?); there are several gratuitous bikini scenes to compliment her plastic surgeon. One great appearance by Elaine Stritch, always managing to be sarcastic and funny, even with minimal screen time. All in all, not the worst, you may get a few laughs. 5/10.

Once again, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau team up as a pair of elderly grouches. "Out to Sea" is basically "The Odd Couple" and "Grumpy Old Men" set on a cruise ship, with the two guys trying to meet and defraud old widows. I personally think that they could have done without all the romance stuff and just had JL and WM get on each other's nerves. But don't get me wrong, there are some great lines (namely the one about shark-infested waters). Also starring Dyan Cannon, Gloria DeHaven, Brent Spiner, Elaine Stritch, Hal Linden and Donald O'Connor (in his final role).Oh, and in case Dyan Cannon is reading this: STOP GETTING FACELIFTS!!!!!!!!!!! YOU LOOK TERRIBLE WHEN YOU DO THAT!!!!!!!

I never heard of this film when it first came out. It must have sunk immediately. :o) I saw it on cable while sick in hospital so I hardly had enough energy to watch it, let alone turn the channel. Better choice than the Style Channel. ;0(. Filmed on location, this travelogue should have been on the Travel Channel. The plot is recycled from ship board farces of the thirties and forties. The cast seems to have been recycled from the fifties. Donald O'Connor, star of musicals and Edward Mulhare as a card shark. As to the main cast, Walter Matthau is still playing the same part as he did in Guys and Dolls or was it the one about the orphan girl? Wiseacre irresponsible gambler and rounder. But it just doesn't take with a man of his age. As to Jack Lemmon, he plays his part so straight, he can hardly dip and glide when dancing. And as mentioned, Dyan Cannon is outstandingly attractive as another swindler sailing with her mother who thinks Walter is rich, while he thinks she is rich. Elaine Stritch plays Dyan's mother, another retread from the fifties. The most fun is the running feud between Brent Spiner as the domineering and snotty cruise director who immediately spots Walter as a poor dancer, and spends his time trying to get him dismissed so he will have to pay for his free passage. In the end, though he receives his comeuppances. Meanwhile Jack mopes about, meets an attractive woman, with mutual attraction, but their affair is broken up by Walter's lies that Jack is a doctor, when he was actually a retired department store buyer. But finally, the two men take to the sea in a rubber boat to intercept her seaplane and all is well. There does not seem to be any principal player under the age of fifty.