By Chris Luckett
4 stars out of 5
When the trailers for Last Vegas first came out, many people had the same thought: Oh
look, they’re made The Hangover for
seniors. Thankfully, it’s not. Some of the jokes won’t humour many under the
age of 60, but by the end of its fitting and warm-hearted resolution, Last Vegas wins over all ages.
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| Photo: CBS Films |
Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin
Kline, and Morgan Freeman play four friends in their late sixties who have been
friends for 58 years. When the playboy Billy (Douglas) gets engaged, the
pacified Archie (Freeman), the restless Sam (Kline), and the grumpy Paddy (De
Niro) throw him a bachelor party in Vegas.
Much of the comedy in the first third of Last Vegas comes from the foursome’s
ages. There are some good jokes made from the subject, but also some that
feebly fall flat. It’s these moments when the movie gets by purely on the charm
of the four leads (or five, if you include Mary Steenburgen as a lounge singer
who befriends the clique).
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| Photo: CBS Films |
Other times, the jokes are just plain
stale. Such scenes expose how much the movie starts off by aiming itself
squarely at those over retirement age. The movie seems to assume that elderly
people wouldn’t have seen The Hangover,
Superbad, or the Austin Powers trilogy, so it recycles jokes and scenes with the
confidence that they’ll be funny if it’s the first time certain audiences have
heard them.
If Last
Vegas remained that way the whole time, it would only warrant three or
three-and-a-half stars, but something very interesting happens after the first
third of the movie. Like a camera that can’t quite seem to find its focus, the
first act works in sporadic spurts. Forty minutes in, though, the movie snaps
in focus and from that point on, the movie is so sharp that it nearly negates
its initial flaws.
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| Photo: CBS Films |
Freeman feels more alive onscreen than he
has in years and Kline steals every scene he’s in, proving himself just as
adept a comedian as he was in A Fish
Called Wanda. Douglas and De Niro are both at the top of their games, and
when their plots tangle in the final act and their emotional history is
ultimately revealed, they grip the screen.
Too much time is wasted in the beginning of
Last Vegas on jokes about Lipitor and
not knowing who 50 Cent or LMFAO are, but once the movie gets going, it’s pretty
irresistible. The four leads are so entertaining together, you want to keep
watching them after the movie’s done. If there’s any luck, this won’t be the
last Last Vegas.
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