The Odd Couple

Rating:
Summary: Ok if you like Neil Simon
Review: The Odd Couple is much like most Neil Simon"comedies" - 1st act of humorous setups, 2nd act of conflict(and in TOC the conflict is pretty mean-spirited), 3rd act everyone kisses & makes up. I guess this paved the way for 80's & 90's TV sitcoms where all the humor is "dissing" the nerd or geek (actually unlike the TOC series). Matthau's Oscar comes off as a scummy, loud drunk with repugnance for all, most of all Felix - if you see the humor in that go ahead & buy this.

Rating:
Summary: Deservedly a Classic
Review: The pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau was pure genious and the interaction between them is the obvious heart of this film. Nothing they did together in later years compares to this.
The story is well known from the TV series and the equally well paired Klugman and Randall. This original is still very funny and holds up well after repeated viewings. The DVD quality is good, not great.

Rating:
Summary: The Original And Still The Best, With An Exception or Two
Review: The story is a classic. Poor neat Felix is going through a divorce, and old, sloppy friend Oscar takes him in. Both go through mid-life crises, and we get to meet some great character actors along the way.. besides Matthau and Lemmon, of course! John Fielder is magnificent. We all know the film by its countless viewings on TV ... and of course the TV series. It's FINALLY nice, through the magic of wide-screen, to see the ENTIRE poker game. To see the ENTIRE messy apartment ... and those classic New York street scenes. What's not so nice are the color and sound. Neither has held up that well, though Paramount must have made their best efforts to put together something out of bad '60's negatives and/or prints. The color is so muted, and so is a lot of the sound for whatever reason. Still, the DVD version is much better than the pan-and-scan VHS version currently offered. Can't do too much about that '60's color.

Rating:
Summary: Great Classic - How about Wide-Screen
Review: This film is great. I love the poker scenes, and the classic bachelor pad setup, with Oscar (Walter Matheau) playing a classic performance. But, on VHS some of the scenes are cropped. Like when Felix and Oscar are meeting the neighbor "goyls" from upstairs, you miss Felix's or Oscar's reactions to each other when Felix makes embarrassing statements. I'd like to hear if the DVD wide screen makes up for this, and how the DVD sound quality is. Of course, you can't expect to much in sound, since it was recorded before today's sound standards were available.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Movie from a Bygone Milleau
Review: This is a New York movie from the New York of the post-war years. A city in which a sports writer like Oscar Madison could afford to rent a seven room apartment on Central Park West. It is a film from an era where Felix could be heterosexual and a man could be rejected by his wife because he was too neat. The plot is full of ironies and scenes which demonstrate the bizaare predictiment of personality extremes Felix and Oscar and their relationship to each other. Last and most importantly, the movie is incredibly funny. None of the jokes are cliche or recycled and each reveals something about the extreme personalities of Felix the neurotic and Oscar the ultra-slob. The city is always the star, even as we are focused on the conflicts and complements of the Odd Couple's relationship. But it is always there, in a way which is familiar to someone who lives in Manhattan. Once of the last scenes of the film have Felix and Oscar arguing on the roof of their building, with the New York City Westside Skyline in the background. That is one of the best New York scenes in any movie. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthaw are brilliant and the Odd Couple. I only wish that a movie of the genre could be made now, films about personalities and men and New York which are beyond today's narrow box of social types.

Rating:
Summary: It Doesn't Get Any Funnier That This!!!
Review: This is THE funniest movie of all time. Every scene is truly FUNNY and BELIEVABLE. See how what promises to be an evening of pleasant conversation... and perhaps more... turns into a 3-way crying jag, much to the dismay of would-be playboy Oscar. Or how one man can drive another totally up the wall. The scene where Mathau breaks down is pure classic. It's totally hilarious and one of the best-acted scenes ever. If you like comedy, you MUST see and OWN this one. I don't own many, but this is the very best. It's the only movie I never tire of seeing again and again.

Rating:
Summary: The Lemmon/Matthau Icon
Review: This is the movie that stated the anthagonic characters that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau played together ever since.And how brilliant they are on turning their differences into an incredible comedy!Lemmon as the annoying perfeccionist is a riot,but Matthau is the real clown here,as the disgusting slob.One of the many great lines:'You guys get this one night a week. I'm cooped up here with Mary Poppins 24 hours a day.'Don't miss it!An all-time comedy classic!

Rating:
Summary: HAHAHAHAHA
Review: What a great, funny movie! everything works perfectly in this movie. See it before its too late!

Rating:
Summary: The best comedy - especially in Widescreen
Review: Who says opposites attract? Well, that isn't entirely true when it comes to The Odd Couple. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau star in this hilarious comedy that brings laughter to a new level. Felix breaks up with his wife because he is a neat freak. His best friend Oscar decides to take him in to his eight room New York apartment. The only problem is that Oscar is a slob. The two make a horrible combination, but add to the laughs that keep on coming through the whole film. The film is meant to be seen in Widescreen! When the film is cropped for TV, you really do miss a lot. Since the film was shot in the 2.35:1 Panavision Widescreen format, two shots become one shots and wide-shots become close-ups on the TV. When seen on DVD, you can see everything director Gene Saks wanted you to see! It is a great DVD and I just wish they put more features on it. It is also nice to see the original trailer. I recommend this for any fan of Lemmon/Matthau or Neil Simon comedies.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT COMEDY CLASSIC GETS EVEN BETTER ON DVD!!!
Review: With this version, you do get to see a lot more then even most current DVDs of movies let you see. The widescreen lets you see everything as it was meant to be seen. Among them are: the nasty shocked look the waitress gave to Oscar when he went "ain't she c-cute?!", the whole poker table instead of half and half, and the natural triple play Oscar missed when Felix called just to remind him what not to eat that night.
There were plenty more things on here, including a theatrical trailer, which (if you pay attention to detail like I do) shows how they had to reshoot footage for the trailer (which I can tell by how certain things were spoken, etc.) because they lacked the technology to make multiple copies of the same footage.
Worth it to see a classic comedy the way it should've been seen.