If you watched Grumpy Old Men and know the ending there, you can't imagine how these two curmudgeonly old geezers could get a feud going again, especially after what Walter Matthau did for Jack Lemmon when Lemmon was really down. And in point of fact the boys seem to lose a step or two from the first film.
Still Grumpier Old Men finds Lemmon and Matthau in their superbly timed best just fighting for sillier reasons. In the first film the rivalry heated up a bit because the two were panting hot and heavy for Ann-Margret and Lemmon got her. Now it's Matthau pursuing and what an object of pursuit he has in Sophia Loren.
In the first film Ossie Davis owned a bait shop where everyone bought bait, but also liked to hang around, just like a barbershop. Davis dies during that film and now we find out that Sophia and her aunt Ann Morgan-Guilbert have taken it over and want to make it an Italian restaurant on the lake. Well when the senior citizens of this small Minnesota town hear about this they're up in arms. Fishing is close to a religion there and Matthau is leading the charge. That interferes more with romance than anything else.
And the Holy Grail of that religion is none other than the largest catfish known to humankind, the legendary Catfish Hunter. Returning as Lemmon's father is Burgess Meredith who has been on the quest for most of his 95 years. When Lemmon's daughter Darryl Hannah finally ties the knot with Matthau's son you won't believe what's going on with our two leads on the wedding day of their kids.
Grumpier Old Men was the farewell performance of Burgess Meredith ending a career that spanned six decades. The man was close to perfection in his performance as the oldest of the old geezers in Grumpier Old Men. This is man who has lived so long he really doesn't feel the need to be subtle and discreet. His courtship of Ann Morgan- Guilbert is a combination of geezer and caveman.
Grumpier Old Men, keeping the Lemmon-Matthau standard of comedy high.
