Review – Last Vegas
Some cynics may question why four Oscar winning actors of a certain age, would see the need to appear in a film such as Last Vegas (2013). The new comedy from director Jon Turteltaub and writer Dan Fogelman, starring screen legends Michael Douglas, Robert De Nero, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Klein, would appear at first glance to be little more than a rehash of The Hangover (2009) for an older generation. However likening this feel-good romp to that other comedy of dubious taste is tantamount to missing a trick, with a film which, though often cringe-inducing, is equally witty and heartwarming.
Billy (Douglas) is a man who has never let his age stand in the way of a good time. So, when he decides to take the martial plunge with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter, there is only one place for him and his childhood buddies, Paddy (De Niro), Archie (Freeman) and Sam Kline) to celebrate his bachelor party. Las Vegas! But Sin City has a way of drawing you in, and the four sixty-something friends soon discover that they’re not as young as they might like to think.
When you have had such successful careers as the four stars of Last Vegas (whose combined ages total an impressive 281 years), you could be forgiven for thinking the time had come to take it easy, kick back and enjoy the fruits of your labours. The film’s background support (whether in the form of the opulent Las Vegas setting, feisty supporting cast or sharp and frequently pathos laden script) though marvellous, are in truth only there to make the main quartet look good. However as these old pros hardly need help in this department, everything other than them seems superfluous.
Why though do actors of the calibre of Douglas, De Niro, Freeman and Kline see the need to take part in a film the scenario of which requires them spending most of their time partying and chasing anything in a skirt. This may be acceptable (in fact almost expected) of men half their age. However when you have passed the age when you’re eligible for your bus pass, there seems something a little desperate, if not to say sad, to think you can still get away with behaving like a twenty-something.
That’s not to say once you’ve reached a certain point you should give up, but simply that the majority of men have sown their wild oats when they were much younger and as a result got it out of their systems. Which, if you look closely, is the very thing this film is trying to tell you.
Each of the characters in their own way (except perhaps De Niro’s Paddy who has to virtually be pulled kicking and screaming along on the weekend) is trying to escape the parameters which society places on their generation – Douglas’s Billy by marrying a much younger woman, Freeman’s Archie by escaping the clutches of his well-meaning but overprotective son and Kline’s Sam by acting on his openminded wife’s advice to ‘play away’ if the urge takes him. It’s hardly surprising that by the film’s conclusion each of the men discovers ‘acting your age’ brings more fulfilment, than any amount of trying to recapture your lost youth ever could. As in reality however, this wisdom is often only learnt after a lifetime of trial and error.
***1/2 Stars
Cleaver Patterson
Genre:
Comedy
Distributor:
Universal Pictures UK
Rating:
12
Release Date:
3rd January 2014 (UK)
Director:
Jon Turteltaub
Cast:
Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Romany Malco
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