That was an excellent one.

Fantastic!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

As a huge fan of Kevin Kline and the others in this movie, I must say that this was below them. It obviously wasn't going to be as great as A Fish Called Wanda or as funny as There's Something About Mary, but geez! This movie is like eating potato chips with no flavour that are overly saturated with salt. I totally love Kevin Kline and he actually does a good job in this. He plays a high school English teacher named Howard Becket who is the most loved teacher in his school. Things seem to be going great for him: he's up for teacher of the year, he's about to finally get married (to Joan Cusack), and his old student Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) is the favourite for an Oscar win. Drake's Oscar-winning role is him playing a gay soldier, and when he wins he thanks everybody including his "gay" teacher Howard Becket. So of course, everybody thinks it to be true. Is Howard hiding something? Does Howard not know himself?One thing that stung this movie was its predictability. It became very evident when Howard officially declares himself gay and what gags would come about soon after Drake's speech. But predictable or not, none of the jokes were funny! The only part where I giggled a little bit was at the climax. Other than that, very few times did I even crack a smile.As I said, Kevin Kline is fine. His sheer talent as an actor made the character of Howard Becket somewhat interesting. Howard pulls off some partially gay vibes that are extremely subtle and easy to miss. Only the most talented can do subtle traits at this level. He was perfect. But the lousy script prevented him from pushing it to higher ground. The same years as this saw Kline star in the phenomenal flick The Ice Storm. Watch that and skip this.The supporting cast is good too. Joan Cusack was nominated for an Oscar. If the film was better, she could have won. Tom Selleck was fun in this, but nothing special. Howard's students were good and so was Bob Newhart. Kevin Kline and company couldn't save this, they just made it worth watching until the end. THat's why the rating out of 10 isn't lower.

Inspired by Tom Hanks's tearful speech when he accepted his 1994 Oscar (for his role in Philadelphia), in which he mentioned his high-school drama coach Rawley Farnsworth, and his former classmate John Gilkerson, "two of the finest gay Americans, two wonderful men that I had the good fortune to be associated with." Comes on of Hollywood's first mainstream "Gay" comedies. Plot In A Paragraph: Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline) is a high school teacher with an attractive fiancé named Emily and respect from everyone. Everything changes in one night when a former high school student of his, named Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), now a famous Hollywood actor wins an Academy Award for his portrayal of a homosexual army soldier and 'outs' Howard Brackett as his inspiration for his role. The media circus immediately begins as Howard desperately keeps protesting that he is not gay and that the whole thing is a simple misunderstanding. All the cast do a great job, with the stand outs being Kevin Kline and Joan Cusack. Matt Dillon, Tom Selleck, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Newhart, and Wilford Brimley all give great support, and are a lot of fun. Joan Cusack (Whom I have loved since I first saw "Working Girl") was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, and can consider herself unlucky to lose to Kim Basinger for "L.A Confidential". The end is a bit weak, but that is only nit picking!! And it does not spoil the enjoyment of this movie.

Other than what must have been a desperate measure on the part of Kevin Kline for taking on the title role, there is nothing good about this movie. For my taste and sensibilities this film is truly out in left field somewhere. It's not that the acting is bad...it's the story that I simply do not and cannot fathom...and I happen to be gay! It is said that this piece of brilliance was hatched from a true story concerning the acceptance speech given by Tom Hanks, upon winning his best actor Oscar for "Philadelphia." During the "Let me thank everyone for everything that has happened throughout my life" phase it seems Mr. Hanks accidentally outed one of his teachers and another student in the bargain. So, here we have the premise for "In & Out," presumably a spoof on that "Oooops" moment, but even as a spoof it fails. It's simply not tongue-in-cheek enough, funny enough or ridiculous enough to cover the territory. Using the same backdrop as the original incident, the Academy Awards, and with many, many fine uncredited stars appearing, the writer offers up a very well respected, well liked teacher and coach as the outed victim. He is from the mid-west and is just about to be married to a "Twinkie" eating and overfed, Joan Cusack. It seems that on Oscar night, the entire population of the town is watching the broadcast because a native son is up for the award for Best Actor and they are suddenly catapulted into a world they know very little of because of his acceptance speech. There doesn't seem to be any other closeted or suspected homosexuals in the town...and certainly no one that is out! OK...fair enough, but from here the story takes on an Oz like twist. Our outed teacher does not lose his fiancé, friends, family or the support of his students and while he does get fired from his teaching job, comes back "to support his students" at graduation and sits on the stage with the school officials! Scores of reporters descend upon the town to cover this news "event" and one of the reporters (Tom Selleck) turns out to be gay! There is neither horror or hilarity at this unveiling, however, and our teacher tries to show he is not gay. He is being married in just a few days and the wedding is still on. In all the situations set up to make one laugh, the writer falls short of his intended reaction. In the scene with the priest we should have roared, the scene listing the many tips that might have revealed his sexuality should have made us fall down in laughter, his fiancé's continued befuddled reaction to all of it, the revelation that he has never slept with his intended and his hasty attempt to do so before the nuptials, the bachelor party replete with blow-up doll and good-old-boy innuendo, his parents puzzled reaction and ongoing stiff upper lip demeanor, the eventual wedding service when he finally utters the dreaded words..."I'm gay"...all should have us sitting with tears rolling down our cheeks from laughter but it all went for nothing. In all, it would seem his only real penance is that he ends up not winning the "Teacher of the Year" award! There is but one very funny moment in the film and that is when the lady who uses a walker is dancing to "Macho Man" by The Village People near the end of the film. Paul Rudnick, who wrote the screenplay, is himself a gay man and, as such, I cannot understand his treatment of the subject matter. This should have been a hilarious piece for both the homosexual and heterosexual communities and might have brought them closer together, through laughter, as co-inhabitants and neighbors in a crazy world. The film has not accomplished that either. Mr. Rudnick just didn't capitalize on the funny scenarios he, himself, created because he gave all of them short shrift. I only know that I bought the film, watched the film and am selling my copy as soon as humanly possible to some poor unsuspecting movie goer who cares naught for quality, truth or real comedy!.

Stock script of mistaken identity with the standard twist that the mistaken identity is actually real. This is a sweet sanitized story for those who like Oprah and don't question the realities of a story but just go along for the "chick flick" ride.Kevin Kline is a straight teacher who evidently never has been laid and has never really had any sexual urgings at all. He is a teacher who is old enough to have taught a student who has gone on to a TV career but he is dumb enough not to know whether or not he likes to play dingle dangle dingle with the same sex.He is also a humorously tortured buffoon of an English teacher whose whole approach to be noted as being gay as to run around and say "I'm not gay" without people believing him.In other words, the Kline character either has or has not had a hard on in his life. He either has or has not masturbated. If he has not masturbated he has the bluest balls of any English and why for the sake of everything would I care about this character. If he has masturbated then what gets him off? Fantasies about men or women or both? To accept that this character doesn't know he is wanting to have same sex physical contact is as ludicrous as his parents driving up with a 4 tiered wedding cake sitting in the back seat of the station wagon. There is no box around the cake and the wedding is a couple of days off...yet his folks drive around with the cake laying loose in the back seat of the vehicle where one wrong turn could smudge the icing???? Yep...I see stupid people.