Last Vegas (2013)

I saw this movie on a plane and it was pretty alright, nothing spectacular. A bunch of old friends meet up in Las Vegas to throw a retirement bash for one of them. This is like Hangover but with the elderly. Nonetheless the star wattage alone should get you interested and all the stalwarts such as Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline and Robert De Niro are fun to watch. A nice one time watch for the old bunch.

Hollywood loves hi concept, loves anything shot in Vegas and loves anything with an ensemble cast especially if they are older and you can get them cheap.So this was a film they were going to make anyway, regardless of the viewers or the critics, so may as well try to enjoy it.Your humble reviewer, with over 1000 reviews on the IMDb, grew up with these guys so the experience was not as painful as it could have been. Can't say the same for anyone born after 1990 -- they might not see the magic.My notes: Mary Steenburgen is the only cast member who escapes the carnage. Dignity is her middle name, or should be. In her early 60s she is getting good roles, like this one, and her character in Justified. De Niro made a decision to try comedy some years back and he succeeds, sort off. Freeman could read the phone book and make it interesting. Kline could read a menu and make it funny. Douglas is a little lost in this film, and is mainly playing a self-caricature.All we can do is hope this is really is the last Vegas, because a sequel would be dangerous enough to alert Homeland Security.

This movie deserves mad respect. You have four legends in the main roles and they work so well together. I mean the concept isn't new but they do it so well. Their self-deprecating style of humour stops it from being a geriatric wannabe film and instead makes it cool. It's very The Hangover but I personally found it more funny.One of my favourite parts of the movie is the beginning where you get to see the mini versions of the four friends. The resemblance is uncanny. On the flip side, the one thing that unsettles me is the love triangle storyline. It's trying to be selfless but instead it just makes me sad. Other than that it's a great movie.

Last Vegas' main tagline is that it stars five Oscar winners of roughly the same generation: Robert De Niro (Godfather II, Raging Bull), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Michael Douglas (Wall Street), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), and Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard).Still as Wild Hogs and Old Dogs demonstrated, packaging together a random bunch of aging legends as the sole reason for greenlighting a comedy ranks up there with a Transformers sequel, splitting up the last part of a trilogy, and ironically titling a horror film Not Another Teen Movie in blatant commercialism.However, the actors of Last Vegas have a certain chemistry with one another that takes away any of your cynicism in ulterior motives. Mary Steenburgen, who has been marketed in the last decade or so as a senior citizen who's still got it, really gets to show off her mature sex appeal opposite aging casanovas like Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas. Similarly, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline have a relaxed demeanor here that movies with thicker premises might not allow. That it's set in a city where excess and blatant commercialism are the norm allows the film to pass through the tropes of a romantic comedy with a wink and a smile but the story twists and turns a little to buck the unexpected. Thumbs up.