I have no idea what this film is doing in our cinemas considering that its original release date was November last year, but hey. I’m a huge fan of three out of the four oldies in the movie and it’s been forever since I’ve seen Kevin Kline in anything. So why not.

Here’s my round up of Jon Turtrltaub’s (of the National Treasure fame) Last Vegas.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

The film opens with a series of photo booth pictures introducing four young friends who’ve deemed to name themselves ‘The Flatbush Four’, who are currently busy getting in trouble in their local neighborhood. Fast-forward to fifty-eight years later and we find the four geriatric friends dealing with some of the problems that old people usually face.

Archie (Morgan Freeman – Lego Movie), twice divorced and recently suffered an “episode”, is living in New Jersey with his son and his family, trying to adjust to the way he is being coddled and treated like a child for fear of another stroke. Sam (Kevin Kline – The Extra Man) and his wife (Joanna Gleeson – Boogie Nights) are living as a retired couple in Florida but Sam can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to life than this. Paddy (Robert De Niro – American Hustle) is alone in Brooklyn, living as a recluse grieving the death of his wife Sophie. Billy (Michael Douglas – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), on the other hand, just recently proposed to a woman half his age and wants to round up the gang for a reunion/bachelor’s party in Las Vegas.

THE GOOD:

1. The talent is undeniable. You can give these fogies the stupidest story and script possible but somehow they would still make it work. Fortunately, in this case, the story isn’t half-bad so the four leads did wonders.
2. That you would be able to relate with one of the old dudes to your dad/dad figure. They managed to do this by writing incredibly generic characters facing the “usual” problems that the elderly are facing but because the film makers cast amazing actors, the characters were all well fleshed out.
3. Mary Steenburgen was very charming. A feat, considering her character was very a very poorly written plot device that the film makers pull out of thin air whenever they needed a Vegas tour guide.

THE BAD:

1. The lame jokes about being old. Sure, they were tame and did elicit a few chuckles in the beginning but after a while they became tiresome and sometimes borderline offensive.
2. The lack of chemistry. These four, as great as they were, never really gelled well together. They’re fantastic doing their own bits in the movie but it didn’t seem like they were able to strike that perfect chemistry whenever they were together on screen.
3. The serious lack of debauchery. For a film entitled ‘Last Vegas’, it was pretty tame.

THE UGLY:

1. That the film felt more like a live advertisement for the Aria hotel than an actual movie. I’m not sure if they allowed the movie to be shot there for free because that’s the only sensible explanation I can come up with for all that exposure.

All in all Last Vegas was an ok movie. God knows that it should’ve been an awful one, but thankfully the film makers were able to cast fantastic actors to flesh out their two dimensional characters. It’s not anything like the Hang Over movies, so don’t expect anything crazy to happen. Expect, however, touching performances from some of the greatest actors of our generation.

THE VERDICT: 7.3/10. Worth seeing on the big screen if you have money to spare.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.