Peter Falk is a grumpy old curmudgeon who owns a small deli in upstate New York. His shiftless nephew Andrew McCarthy agrees to sponsor an inner city kid for two weeks, but forgets to tell Falk and then saddles Falk with Aaron Meeks, a young black kid from NYC, and takes off for Atlantic City.
You already know everything that's going to happen in this. Falk will reject Meeks, but he'll come around and everybody's cold heart will be melted. When you find out that Falk's only son was killed in WWII and Meeks has a brother in Vietnam (this is set in 1969) ... I don't need to connect the dots for you.
This is a remake of a 1970 TV movie written by Rod Serling. I haven't seen the original, but I can say that 30 years later, there's no reason to tell a story this familiar. Falk kind of sleepwalks through this, giving you some grumpy Columbo schtick, but not really stretching and really not giving you any convincing emotions in the weepy finale. McCarthy is kind of fine in a very undemanding role, but Nastassja Kinski is epically miscast as well-meaning upper class socialite.
This really feels like a "I need to keep my union card active" project for Robert Wise.
You already know everything that's going to happen in this. Falk will reject Meeks, but he'll come around and everybody's cold heart will be melted. When you find out that Falk's only son was killed in WWII and Meeks has a brother in Vietnam (this is set in 1969) ... I don't need to connect the dots for you.
This is a remake of a 1970 TV movie written by Rod Serling. I haven't seen the original, but I can say that 30 years later, there's no reason to tell a story this familiar. Falk kind of sleepwalks through this, giving you some grumpy Columbo schtick, but not really stretching and really not giving you any convincing emotions in the weepy finale. McCarthy is kind of fine in a very undemanding role, but Nastassja Kinski is epically miscast as well-meaning upper class socialite.
This really feels like a "I need to keep my union card active" project for Robert Wise.