I love this movie so much

Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Hilarious Neil Simon comedy, that is, if you can tune into 80-minutes of what-else-can-go-wrong laughs. Seems upscale Lemmon and wife Dennis have to get from Ohio to NYC to accept his big time new job. Okay, no problem; except, the flight is detoured to Boston; there's a wrong train to NY; they're mugged in the city; then there's no room at their hotel, and a rain half-drowns them, etc., etc., etc. Like a string of slippery pearls, it's one adversity after another, and a real tribute to both performers that the frustrations are made amusing rather than off-putting. One thing for sure-- the flick's no valentine to NYC. Happily, no one could do jangled nerves better than the comedic Lemmon, while Dennis offers perfectly measured support. Together, they bring off the challenge with artful flair. The rest of the cast appear only momentarily as our benighted twosome move from one frustration to the next. In many years of movie viewing, I've seen nothing like this daring storyline. All in all, it's tricky material done slickly and to the proverbial T. Meanwhile, I won't be going to NY any time soon, and if I do, I'll take a fat paper pad for all the names I'll have to sue to get there. Many thanks, Jack and Sandy.

The good things about this film was the constant non stop excitement where Jack Lemon and wife Sandy Dennis get into one wacky crazy situation after another. It keeps you on your toes and was also often amusing, certainly interesting. Flying from Ohio to New York in 1970 for a big high paid promising job offer in the big city with all the perks. Their nonstop chain reaction of mishaps start and don't stop. First, their plane circles New York in landing traffic for two hours and then diverges to Boston. When they land in Boston, they lose their luggage. Then they barely make the train to New York. Then stand in line for the diner car on the train for two hours, then find that they've now almost entirely run out of food due to the excessive volume of people. Then arrive in New York to find out that there's a transit strike and have to walk to their hotel, and (what a surprise) it right then starts to rain. They also have to walk through tons of garbage due to there also being a garbage truck strike. When they get to the hotel, they find there's a "mix up" and their hotel room won't be ready for another day. They run into a "helpful man" who says he'll walk them down the road to another hotel that'll have a room immediately, and on the way, the man pulls out a gun and mugs them and takes Jack's wallet (of course nobody in modern times would ever fall for that "I'll show you to your hotel" bit in New York, but this was 1970 where the higher crime years in New York were just beginning. Just two years earlier in 1968 "The odd couple", Jack Lemon and Walter Matthou were sitting in Central park after dark not too afraid of anything happening, even though Walter after five minutes of relaxed sitting casually says "well, we better go, the muggers will be here soon". And 25 years earlier in 1945 "The clock", Judy Garland and Robert Walker were embracing in Central park at night in a very romantic scene with no signs in the world of any of the fears and dangers that would someday grow in that exact spot decades down the road).The crazy chain reaction of events just continue and continue, and honestly they probably could've taken a couple of bits out, I think they went overboard with the amount of mishaps just by a smidge. The one thing, however, that was a little irritating sometimes was a little bit too much panicked blabbering from both Jack and Sandy. I totally understand some panicked talk due to the intensity of how many endless mishaps they endured. But I feel Jack could've toned down the threatening to sue talk a bit. I mean I would've thought of suing a few of those people too, but he took it overboard and could've talked slightly quieter and maybe repeated it one less time every time he took down names and mentioned his attorney. As for Sandy, she was very pretty, but she had a slightly annoying way of saying too much aloud about what was happening when things were happening. One example was when the "I'll show you to the hotel" man pulled out his gun and mugged them, Sandy starts wailing out loud as he's mugging them "oh no! We're being mugged! Oh my God we're being mugged! I can't believe we are getting mugged now!". If someone did that as they were being mugged in a more modern movie or while being mugged in real life in more modern times, the mugger usually would've just shot them, or yelled "shut the **** up or I'll shoot!" Sandy does that a few different times in this film. And the repeating things a couple too many times from both Jack and Sandy, they do that a few different times in this film.But Jack and Sandy both have some nice quirky things about their characters too. And so many amusing events keep this film fun to watch. I also enjoyed the dog stealing their only food, a half eaten box of cracker Jacks. I liked the part where the manhole cover makes a bang and pops up right in front of Jack and he temporarily cannot hear. And when Sandy tries talking, it's funny when a few times Sandy speaks and Jack frustratingly cannot hear her. Like when Sandy says something like "I am going to see if I can find us something to eat", Jack says irritatingly "all I can hear you say is 'I..to...can..us..thing..eat'!". Also funny when Jack loses his filling and he can't speak without whistling. Then when they are not allowed to sit in church and pray because of some kind of filming going on, and Jack says "I've been denied in the past 24 hours a lot of things, but never until now have I been denied my divined rights!" Then as he's already said to numerous people already, "give me your name! I'm going to call my attorney!"

"I guess I'm just a little irritable" confesses Gwen Kellerman (Dennis), after the insufferable misfortunes she and her hubby George (Lemmon) have been gone through within a lesser-than- twelve-hour stretch, and end up being stranded in the Central Park of NYC, is probably what a first-time viewer vicariously feels at that exact point, and the misery is far from winding up.A Neil Simon's comedy directed by Arthur Hiller, who was in his heyday with a major awards contender LOVE STORY (1970) in the can the same year in December. The story involves a concatenation of mishaps which are constituted with hoary incidents, befall on the ill-fated couple from a small town in Ohio. George is scheduled to have an interview for a job promotion in NYC, which seems to be a cinch to get. So he arranges a stay in the Waldorf-Astoria, and a fancy dinner in the Four Season with Gwen, but starts with the busy air traffic control and an unexpected heavy fog around Kennedy International Airport, their voyage turns out to be an unabated chain of nightmares, whatever contretemps could possibly happen to the out-of-towners, happens, and they are all heavy-handedly implemented.Jack Lemmon has never looked so jaded and aggrieved, and Sandy Dennis has deteriorated into a ceaseless vent of annoyance as their plight aggravates. The movie is a farce intemperately piles up all possible gags consecutively, without any discretion to varnish a tad of empathy and reasoning onto its rudimentary ballast of cheap laughters. "New York will not stop me", this is the spirit, it is self-boasting individualism Vs. collective machinery of a metropolis, bluntly juxtaposed with a ridicule about bourgeois esprit and a then-topical reference of Cuba. You are aware of the intention, but can hardly buy it for the in-your-face combo-package.How much fun can one get from watching other people's misery? This film provides a feasible answer: nil if you overcook it, that is the unmistakable blunder trips THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS, it's as if you are watching a chapter of FINAL DESTINATION, waiting for something bad regularly occurring but in this case, death is not an option, not even on a hijacked plane to Cuba.

Saw it a couple of days ago following "The Odd Couple" at TCM, and contrary to the opinion of a fellow commentator who also saw them that day, enjoyed both films similarly. These have always been some of my favorite film comedies (I can't help though watching "The Odd Couple" and thinking what Billy Wilder would have made of that film). These are the Neil Simon films I enjoy most (I may add Seems Like Old Times), and I simply have to watch "The Out of Towners" every time they show it on TV. I lived in NYC so it is always a treat to revisit the city. Watch this film to see what real cinema was in the 70's, with real people, real crowds, on location filming and no special effects – except the amazing scene with the manhole cover, which I can't believe was the real deal even though it looked that way. I was also impressed with how much running Lemmon and Dennis do. Lemmon even carries Dennis in his arms up a small hill in Central Park. Like I said, the real deal. Lemmon of course is a physical comedy genius, and I also find Dennis very funny. After repeated watching some scenes – the kid in the park, e.g. – seem now forced and unfunny. I'd also have to agree about Lemmon's poor decision-making, but this is a comedy so that doesn't bother me too much. The Martin-Hawn remake, on the other hand, was simply horrendous.