There’s a scene in Robert Altman’s “The Player” where Buck Henry is pitching “The Graduate 2” to the head of a movie studio. It was an inside joke in an industry that, too often, was so desperately short on creativity that all it could think of was remaking its own classics.
Thus “The In-Laws” with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin became “The In-Laws” with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks. “Arthur
” with Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli became “Arthur” with Russell Brand and Jennifer Garner. There were lame sequels to clever originals like “City Slickers
” and “Men In Black
.” There re-imaginings, shot-for-shot remakes, and on and on. The prefix “re-” should have been re-tired.
Now, along come Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner to poker fun at one of the re-conceiving of one of their cinematic gems…