Out to Sea (1997)

Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dyan Cannon, Gloria DeHaven, Elain Stritch, Rue McClanahan and Brent Spiner star in this 1997 comedy. This focuses on pals, Herb (Lemmon), a widower and Charlie (Matthau), a gambler. Charlie talks Herb into going on a cruise with him where they can look for women, but have to be dance hosts because they can't afford it. Soon, Herb finds romance with divorcée, Vivian (DeHaven) and Charlie with Liz (Cannon) who is single, but is on vacation with her mother, Mavis (Stritch). The late, McClanahan (The Golden Girls) plays Ellen, the ship's owner and Spiner (Independence Day) plays obnoxious, cruise director, Gil. This is a good comedy with a good cast and The late, Lemmon & Matthau were great together as usual. I recommend this.

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 ****

A bit of the plot from Moon Over Miami and even more from The Monte Carlo Story has Walter Matthau as a degenerate footloose gambler getting a bit long in the tooth persuading an equally aged, but more square Jack Lemmon to take a cruise and try and fleece the old ladies in Out To Sea.Matthau needs Lemmon because Lemmon can cut it on a dance floor and he's signed them on as dancers for the unescorted women on the cruise. Of course Lemmon doesn't know that. What he does know that Matthau who is the brother of his late wife has come to him with one scheme after another for years. And Matthau owes some big money to the bookies and that's why he needs cash.So they go on the cruise and as for Matthau he gets involved with Dyan Cannon and her mother Elaine Stritch and its poker not the dance floor where he meets them. Matthau has to deal with a pompous Englishman in Edward Mulhare who really is a sitting target for Matthau's cons.As for Lemmon he gets involved with Gloria DeHaven who is accompanying her daughter and husband on a holiday. They don't think she gets out enough. Oddly enough that's how Matthau feels about Lemmon.As for the rest of the cast, Star Trek's Data Brent Spiner has a great part as an obnoxious twit of a performer and dancer who lords it over the others of greater talent who also include Hal Linden and Donald O'Connor. Matthau bounces some great lines off him and Spiner's reactions are priceless. I'd also have to single out Elaine Stritch who comes into her own explaining the facts of life to Cannon.During the Nineties we were fortunate indeed to have Lemmon and Matthau in some great films, specifically written for them. In Out To Sea you can see that a great supporting cast was assembled for them. Like some of the comedy teams, these two comic actors did variations on their first film together The Fortune Cookie where Matthau is the con artist who is always dragging Lemmon into one of his schemes.Out To Sea isn't as good as The Fortune Cookie or the first The Odd Couple, but it's still plenty funny.

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, both of whom are sadly missed, proved once again that they were a team dedicated to their craft of bringing hilarious moments to the screen. This film is just another example of this.This time out they play two brothers-in-law who land on a ship as dance instructors on board.Of course, their boss is a perfectionist and miserable person named Gil Godwin who just enjoys harassing these boys. It's hilarious how Lemmon gives a quick lesson in dancing to Matthau and how the latter dances a riotous rumba with the boat's owner Rue McLanahan.Too bad that fellow dance instructors Hal Linden and Donald O'Connor are given so little to do but their parts call for that. Matthau falls for Dyan Cannon, on board with her fellow gold-digging mother, the usual outrageous Elaine Stritch. Unknown to them, Matthau has no money either. The widower Lemmon falls for Gloria De Haven, looking lovelier than ever.The film belongs to Matthau and Lemmon and will serve as a further tribute to their illustrious careers.