Grumpy Old Men

In this sequel to Grumpy Old Men, John's daughter, Melanie, and Max's son, Jacob are planning to wed. Added to all the mayhem of planning the wedding, a new woman moves into town. Since John married Aerial, the last new girl in town, it is now Max's turn to snare the gorgeous newcomer. The only problem is that she has come to town to open a restaurant that could threaten the two chums' favorite fishing spot. When the owner of the bait shop, Chuck, died the previous year, he left the shop to his cousin, Maria Ragetti. Maria is a sixty-year-old, gorgeous, olive skinned, Italian, whom Max is instantly attracted to until he finds out that the bait shop is being turned into an Italian restaurant. After Max tells John about Maria and her intentions for the bait shop, they decide to change her mind. The two use all the pranks that they normally inflict upon each other on Maria. They try everything from putting a guinea pig inside the restaurant during a health inspection, to putting up condemned signs in front of the building. In the middle of all this, the old codgers surprise Melanie and Jacob by planning their reception. Unfortunately for everyone, their good intentions bring conflicting emotions into the couple's relationship and Melanie calls off the wedding. As one would expect out of these two grumpy old men, one blames the other for the kids' break-up. The truce is over and the gloves are off. Once again they are up to their old tricks of seeing who can out prank the other. Their shenanigans include cutting fishing nets and pitting their pets against each other. But in the end, it is the love of family and an infamous fish that bring these two friendly old adversaries together once again.

  • Starring: Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau
  • Director(s): Howard Deutch
  • Producer(s): Warner Brothers, Inc.
  • Screenwriter(s): Mark Steven Johnson
  • Distributor: Warner Entertainment
  • Animal Coordinator: Unknown
  • Release Date: Tuesday, November 14, 1995

Featured Animal Action

In one fishing scene, Max pulls a fish out of the water on his pole and puts his net under the fish, unaware that John has cut a hole in the net. As Max releases the fish, it falls through the net and back into the water where it swims away. For this scene, the prop-master purchased seven live fish from a hatchery and one dead fish from a local market. No hook was used on the live fish. No fish was used for more than one take and each was not out of the water for more than a few seconds. When you see the fish fall back into the water, each fell into a specially contained netted area. These fish were held for about a month until it was certain they would not be needed for any additional filming. Since they were indigenous to the area, they were then released to swim free. There is another scene where Max and John go fishing after they hear that Cat Fish Hunter, the oldest and largest cat fish in the lake, had been spotted earlier that day. The two men go out on Max's boat and attempt to catch the fish together. There are several times when a silhouette of the fish is seen skimming through the water as the men patiently wait. Cat Fish Hunter is so big that he pulls their boat on the lake as the two are standing inside, holding onto the line. There are several times when his huge mouth is seen as he is pulling the line or coming close to the boat, teasing the men. When they finally catch Cat Fish Hunter, they pull the fish out of the water and place it on the seat inside the boat. The fish flips his tail and moves his head back and fourth. The guys decide to put him back into the water, letting him go. This scene was filmed in cuts. No live fish were used for this scene. Both a dead and a mechanical fish were used. When you see the head come up and out of the water next to the boat, a dead fish was used. The special effects man had gutted a dead fish. He then put his arm inside the fish and with his hand manipulated the fish's mouth, somewhat like a puppet would be handled. The fish seen inside the boat was mechanical. There is also a scene when Max comes upon Maria fishing in a cove and they lift their lines up to show their catch for the day. Maria has several fish hanging on her line, but Max has only one small fish. For this scene, dead fish were purchased from a local market. When Max and John have "taken the gloves off," John puts his cat inside John's Jeep and the cat, Slick, uses his new seat covers as a scratching post. The next morning when Max opens the Jeep door, the cat runs out. The cat was trained in pre-production to scratch a scratching post when cued by the trainer. During filming, upon verbal command from the trainer, the cat merely scratched the seat covers in the same manner as a scratching post. In another scene, Max decides to pay John back for the ruined seat covers so he goes to a shelter to get a dog. He picks out a one-eyed bulldog, Lucky. When Slick is sitting outside Max's door, looking up at him and meowing, Max immediately introduces him to Lucky and a chase ensues. The two proceed to run through a sprinkler, flower beds, and into the house with their muddy paws. Slick jumps on the couch as Lucky knocks over a lamp and slides into a table. Slick then runs through Aerial's legs with Lucky right behind him. Before Aerial knows what hit her, Slick makes another jump off of the coach. Lucky is not so fortunate and, as he makes his jump, he bumps into Aerial, and runs out of the house. This scene was shot in many cuts. It was broken down into segments where the animals would move from point A to point B. One trainer would release the animal at point A and the animal would run to another trainer at point B where a food reward awaited. There were three bulldogs used for this scene. One was actually a one-eyed bulldog. However, the other two wore a specially made prosthetic eye patch provided by the production company. A small slit was made in the eye patches to provide the dogs with clear visibility. The animals were shot together for some segments of the scene and separately for others. They had been prepped for weeks prior to filming, therefore were familiar and comfortable working with one another. All furniture, lamps, props, etc. were special breakaway items used to insure the animals' safety. There is a scene where John and Max go to the bait shop/restaurant, and let a guinea pig in through a window while the health inspector is there. John places the guinea pig on the floor in front of the window. Maria sees the guinea pig scurry across the floor and picks him up. The scene was shot in cuts. The actor merely placed the Guinea pig on a mat on the floor just inside the window where the trainer was waiting to retrieve him. The guinea pig had been conditioned prior to the scene to go to the a trainer who waited with a food reward. When Max is courting Maria, he takes her out in the woods to hunt for night crawlers. He points one out to her as it slowly moves through the grass. As she bends down to touch the worm, she looses her balance and the commotion causes the worm to scurry into a hole. This scene was also shot in cuts. The prop department had purchased worms from a local bait shop and after filming they were liberated. There are a few scenes of Lucky sitting on the floor, in the front seat of a limo and in the shelter. While at the shelter, other dogs can be seen in the background in kennels. This scene was filmed at an actual shelter and the trainer merely used hand and voice commands to cue the dog actor. In a lake scene shot at night, a large fish is seen jumping gracefully out of the water and back in. Earlier in the film there is a shot of a Canadian goose swimming in the lake. The trainer merely placed the goose in the water for the shot and immediately retrieved him at completion.