The In-Laws
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 23, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
18
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
Fans of the original may be disheartened by this glossier, action-packed version, but the brisker pacing and showy shoot-'em-up scenes are exactly what will appeal to the film's target audience. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It's as if the director, Andrew Fleming, and the screenwriters, Nat Mauldin and Ed Solomon, set out to make a movie that would be mediocre in every respect. If so, they have completely succeeded. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
The 2003 edition written by Nat Mauldin and Ed Solomon and helmed by Andrew Fleming places the Douglas-Brooks combo inside a much more complicated if not quite as funny world. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Big, bloated and only intermittently amusing. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Everything sly and low-key about The In-Laws, a 1979 comedy...is supersized and coarsened in Andrew Fleming's remake. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Brooks has long since mastered his whiny/neurotic persona, and Douglas does a passable version of giddy craziness. The young folks get lost in the shuffle, which leaves Suchet to steal the show with his fey, moist-eyed delivery. In this case, that's petty larceny. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Coarse and chaotic remake. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Like too many movies these days, takes a clever little idea and all but pounds it into the ground. Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
This In-Laws isn't a disaster, it's just not very good. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It seems downright unfair to harp on the remake’s differences from the original when both films are having such a ball. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
What's cutting- edge comedy for one generation can become generic filler for the next - that's the lesson to be learned from The In-Laws, a strenuous attempt to recycle a vastly funnier minor classic. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
While much of The In-Laws feels stuck in time, what really does it in is the script's boring, modern sensitivity to fatherhood, and bonding with one's kids, and all that enlightened parenthood crap. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Overdoes it and falls on its farce. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Seems conventional in its ideas about where it can go and what it can accomplish. You don't get the idea anyone laughed out loud while writing the screenplay. It lacks a strange light in its eyes. It is too easily satisfied. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Tolerably tepid. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Perhaps the oddest thing about The In-Laws is that it's aimed at an audience old enough to remember not only the original, but also how much funnier it seemed at the time. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Why do filmmakers persist in remaking films that were already great to begin with? Why not instead remake bad movies that had terrific premises? Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
It winds up like all Hollywood comedies these days--merely resembling something funny. Read full review
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