Release: Friday, November 1, 2013
[Theater]
In Vegas, high-priced hookers are a dime a dozen; senior citizens crashing parties, hooking up with girls half their age and going on a bender — eh, not so much. Those types are a little harder to find.
Fortunately, four such individuals may be found parading around the infamous Strip in Last Vegas, as Billy (Douglas), Paddy (DeNiro), Archie (Freeman) and Sam (Kline) head to Sin City for a weekend of debauchery (thanks, Geritol!) in order to pop the final corkscrew for this group of lifelong friends as Billy finds himself engaged to a 30-year-old woman whom he barely identities with.
Right from the opening shot it’s clear this is not a movie that is to be taken seriously. Or, well. . .at least not too seriously. While it has its moments of tenderness, the whole point of Last Vegas is about enjoying life as it comes to you, and saying sod it all, I’m here to have a good time and get on with the getting on. To that, I say cheers, and raise many a beer to this commendable, collaborative effort between a stellar cast and a director who know exactly what they are setting out to do — making visual jokes at the expense of an aging group of stars, while ruminating on the nature of relationships amongst friends as they age together.
Granted, the plot’s paper-thin, and there will be more than a few times throughout where someone is going to be wondering how many times déjà vu can hit them in a single movie — there’s no doubt there are similarities to the outrageous hit comedy, The Hangover (what with all the drunken banter, inexplicable behavior and general distrust of one another in a city that likes to bring out the worst in people). But this is no Vegas Vacation reincarnation or an attempt to repackage Todd Phillips’ vision of Vegas for a less-hip crowd. It’s much too formulaic for the former, and the presence of the four actors gives a script far more weight than what Helms, Cooper, Galifianakis and Bartha could ever bring to their own, insane lines.
Indeed, a story about four six-decade-long friends coming together to celebrate the last guy’s fleeting bachelorhood in this group of highly likable characters is its own brand of enjoyable. It’s not daring, nor really that adventurous. But it’s good, harmless fun, and that’s all that it needed to be. Nothing more, nothing less.
Last Vegas is a great last hoorah involving four top-notch actors who simply cruise their way to another nice paycheck, having a grand old time poking fun of one another’s (likely) real-life insecurities and charming some lovely ladies along the way. Look to DeNiro and Douglas to do some of the dramatic heavylifting, and Kline and Freeman for the best goofs. Jerry Ferrara makes an appearance as a casino punk who has a small run-in with the gang; Mary Steenburgen plays the charming Diana who they meet in a small club their first night in town. And of course, a film is never complete until you get Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson to make a cameo. For those desperate to continue to draw comparisons, consider him the Mike Tyson of this outing.
Recommendation: Unless you somehow just severely dislike any of the actors or are opposed to sentimentality inspired by its highly likable cast, Last Vegas should prove to be a fun enough escape for a little while. Nothing particularly memorable, but this wasn’t the goal in the first place and it shouldn’t be taken for anything more than that.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 90 mins.
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Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.imdb.com
Thomas J 
Meh. Yeah – one to watch if you have nothing better to do and need something “light”. I may watch it just to see Morgan Freeman drunk. 🙂
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hey, that’s as legit a reason as any to see this! he does get good and bubbly, spoiler alert. 😛
See also: old men with strippers.
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Sounds decent to pass the time and not be taken too seriously.
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Yep, yep and yep! and the more I think about it, the more I liked it. it was a great time.
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Will look into it then!
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Great review.
“It’s not daring, nor really that adventurous. But it’s good, harmless fun, and that’s all that it needed to be”: exactly what I expected.
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Appreciate it Fernando! Yep. Its an easy to predict movie, but I had concerns about it even being all that funny. Turns out I was safe to assume it would be hilarious, cuz it is. 🙂 Just not close to being an award-contender (which is funny, having 4 stars being Award-winners).
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Yeah, I would be surprised to see it in contention for some awards but I’m glad it’s enjoyable.
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Great review. I agree. It was fun. and the more I watched it, the less inclined I was to draw comparisons to The Hangover. I enjoyed this for what it was.
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Cheers man, Last Vegas isn’t anything too special but I was glad these great actors made a relatively unimaginative plot a great deal more interesting. It was a lot funnier than I expected it to be, too.
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The trailer for this did make the film look pretty funny, glad to see it didn’t include all the good bits!
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The trailer does leak a lot of good parts, but there’s certainly a lot more where that came from fortunately. A very nice little flick here, and it’s more divergent from The Hangover than I think some people are giving it the cred for 🙂
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I’m seeing this, in addition to several others, later today. You’re giving me he hope where little of it. After I’ve seen it, I can tell you whether or not I agree. 🙂
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Several others. . .in theaters?? Man, I wish I were able to do that in one day! 😀
I hope you enjoy this James, it’s certainly no contender for Oscars but man is it fun to watch these four legends act completely immature.
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Yeah. It’s how I see most of my theater movies. I get a day off every now and again. Sometimes when I do I spend it at the theaters.
And I did like Last Vegas. It’s better when it remembers it’s a comedy. I think it skips a beat when it tries to be dramatic. Overall it’s fun, though.
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Yep. Completely agree there. It’s much better as comedy, a bit overreaching/cliched as a drama, but even still. It’s hard not to like the relationship between Billy and Paddy. I look forward to getting to your review.
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Nice review Tom. I’ll be giving this a look eventually but my expectations aren’t too high to be honest.
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Cheers Markus!!! It’s amiable, but that’s not surprising. What is, though, is how the movie didn’t manage to fall apart — I could predict the almost insurmountable perfection of a cast like this seriously outweighing the story at hand (and they do, just a little bit). . .but somehow things are always kept interesting. There’s a few too many conveniences here and there but overall a really fun movie, exactly what I had hoped for. Loved it.
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