Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:
Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotter Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More
Sign me up
No thanks
By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's
Privacy Policy
and
Terms and Policies.
Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.
Let's keep in touch!
>
Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:
Solid source material and a cast of talented comedians aren't enough to make The Out-of-Towners worth hosting on a screen of any size.Read critic reviews
Watch The Out-of-Towners with a subscription on Paramount Plus, rent on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, or buy on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video.
Rate And Review
Super Reviewer
Verified
Super Reviewer
Verified
Super Reviewer
Rate this movie
Oof, that was Rotten.
Meh, it passed the time.
It’s good – I’d recommend it.
Awesome!
So Fresh: Absolute Must See!
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer
Step 2 of 2
How did you buy your ticket?
Let's get your review verified.
Fandango
AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
Cinemark
Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Regal
Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer
Rate this movie
Oof, that was Rotten.
Meh, it passed the time.
It’s good – I’d recommend it.
Awesome!
So Fresh: Absolute Must See!
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
How did you buy your ticket?
Fandango
AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
Cinemark
Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Regal
Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
The Out-of-Towners videos
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Frisky
CLIP 2:09
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Hanging From the Sign
CLIP 2:13
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Love in the Park
CLIP 2:12
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Andrew Lloyd Webber
CLIP 2:04
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Wife Turbulence
CLIP 2:05
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Cross-Dressing Dance
CLIP 2:07
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Getting Ready High
CLIP 1:57
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Sex Therapy
CLIP 2:13
The Out-of-Towners: Official Clip - Terrifying New Yorkers
With the children out of the house, Henry (Steve Martin) and Nancy Clark (Goldie Hawn) head to New York City to embrace their cosmopolitan dreams. Henry has set up a job interview with an advertising firm, and Nancy hopes to add some spice to their marriage. But nothing goes according to plan for the couple, as they endure lost luggage, muggers, a diffident desk clerk (John Cleese) and a disastrous tour of the city that never sleeps -- and won't leave them alone!
Oh my goodness, I have finally been allowed by the movie gods to finish watching this movie. To give you a bit of perspective on how impossible it has been for me to watch this, I started watching this on Monday, August 14th. It is no Sunday, August 20th and today is when I was finally able to squeeze it in. I already went over this in a prior review, reason I stopped watching this, originally, was simply because I was tired and I wanted to rest, so I shut it off. Come Tuesday, I find no time to watch it and I watch another film instead. Come Wednesday, I start watching another movie and I'm forced to stop it as a result of the WiFi going out. I am without WiFi from 11 pm Wednesday until, like, 5-6 pm on Friday. That night I watch The Outcasts without any issues. Come Saturday morning, around 2 am, we have a brownout here. That means that I lose some electricity, but not all of it. I can charge my phone and use the WiFi, but I can't turn on the TV or my PS4 (which is the device I use to watch movies). Electricity doesn't come back until noon. I go to sleep, since I hadn't slept at all, and we have another brown out at around 2 pm or something. Comes back at 4 pm, which is finally when I'm able to get even a few hours of sleep. Yesterday I'm able to watch Desierto on Netflix. And, finally, almost a week after the fact, I can finally finish watching this. After all that build up and waiting to see if I could find a moment to watch this, did this end up being worth the wait? Eh, not really. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad movie. It definitely benefits from Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin's performances. But, realistically speaking, the movie relies too much on them. What I mean by that is the fact that there's no real effort into making sure that the script is strong enough and chock full of funny situations to put the characters in. I didn't see the original movie, but I saw its trailers and there's some similarities, for sure, but I'm certain the whole scene (in this one) with Henry and Nancy having sex in public (and in front of the mayor at the time, that sycophant Rudy Guliani) was unique to the remake. It's not that the film can't rely on Goldie and Steve's comedic talents, but I also believe it has to be a bit of a give and take. And they just take and take without giving anything back to Steve and Goldie. While the idea is obviously that Nancy and Henry go through a lot of shit during their stay in New York (they were mobbed, sex in public, public urination, drugged, climbing down the side of the hotel, etc, etc), this just ends up feeling like a series of skits with no real connection to one another. Goldie and Steve are the glue that holds this together. I will say that they do try to give the characters some sort of marital strife (ie: they're bored with each other now that both of their children have left home) and that's decent enough. Not that it's anything revolutionary, but at least it's something that the leads can sink their teeth into. As much as I thought Steve and Goldie kept this from being less than what it was, I really do think that John Cleese stole the show with his character as an arrogant, rude hotel manager. This movie would have been so much better if it was just John Cleese finding clever ways to insult all the people staying in his hotel. So much better. Mr. Cleese has always been a tremendous comedic actor. His timing and delivery really is second to none. This is certainly a screwball face, but it all feels so forced. None of the shtick, outside of Cleese's, feels natural. Much like The Outcasts ticking off every high school stereotype available, this movie does the same thing but with its shtick. And again, this isn't a bad movie. Goldie, Steve and Cleese are troopers and they make the best with what they've got, but they're not miracle workers. They can't improve on a script that is inherently flawed. Maybe even purposely so, they felt they could get away with it since they had two talented comedic actors as their leads. It doesn't work that way, though, you need more than that. There's needs to be a better, more fleshed out script. I digress, its flaws are obvious to anyone with some form of sight, but this is not a bad movie in the slightest. It's just average at best, but it could have been so much better and that's what's really disappointing about it. The people behind the scenes didn't put in the work that was necessary in order to make this a good comedy. I'm not saying they didn't work hard in other aspects, but that effort was needed in the script and...it just wasn't there. I can't recommend this, but there's considerably worse ways to spend a night. Decent movie.
Verified