The Odd Couple (1968)

CLAY

One cant go wrong with these old-timey comedy classics. If you didn't already know it--FYI--tOC first lived as a popular stage play that was converted into this full-length feature, and eventually into the inevitable television series. The movie stars the unforgettable Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (who later reprise VERY similar roles in 1993's Grumpy Old Men) as two men discovering an age old truth: friends don't always make good roommates.

I hardly feel the need to say much about this movie, other than that it is an essential element of Americana film. The film is, at its core, a black comedy of angst and annoyance. Lemon's neuroses are so bitingly real and frustrating that the audience empathizes with Matthau's fury, while Matthau's own hostility and selfishness are simultaneously understandable and reprehensible.

Its a fun film, great for a laugh, a solid classic. I give it 6/8 pizza slices; "Average Great".