Last Vegas Review

Four old men walk into Vegas...

Last Vegas

C+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Hey what if old guys went to Vegas to try to be kids again? Hey what if those old guys just happen to be famous actors?  Like Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Klein famous. That’s the entire premise to Last Vegas, the latest film from National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub, a superfluous piece of fluff that shouldn’t merit much of a reaction other than maybe a shrug. The film isn’t bad enough for it to be offensive, nor good enough to be a fun guilty pleasure, instead it’s just okay. It’s a film that if dragged to by a significant other or older family member is bearable, nothing more nothing less.

Last Vegas opens with Billy (Michael Douglass), an older wealthy man, proposing to his much younger girlfriend Lisa (Bre Blair) at a funeral. For the bachelor party he invites his best childhood friends, Patty (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman), and Sam (Kevin Kline) for a bachelor party in Vegas. Of course Patty and Billy have unresolved issues that come to a boil in Vegas when they meet a nice night club singer Diana (Mary Steenburgen) who rekindles old emotions over a past love triangle. Mostly, though the film is about the four of them being old and going crazy in Vegas, shenanigans included.

Last Vegas for the most part isn’t very well written. While the script provides a laugh or two here or there, it ultimately fails to go beyond the one joke premise of a bunch of old actors go to Vegas and try to party. The joke isn’t all that great to begin with mind you managing to have the staying power of just under two hours. There is an attempt at an emotional subplot for each of the characters but they all fall very flat especially the one with Billy and Patty which most of the time doesn’t make a lick of sense and just seems downright crazy. The characters lack any sort of development outside of the fact that they all are old and have some sort of one dimensional emotional problem.

The acting doesn’t really elevate the flatness of the script as much as one would want either. All four of the men seem to be having fun for the most part- despite the fact that Robert De Niro looks like he’s sleepwalking again because he’s probably given the dullest role of bunch- and they do add a bit of a nostalgia factor. Having all four of them around also allows for plenty of references to their past work (a hint here and a nod there) and it does at least provide a decent amount of nostalgia factor to the film. Without the four veterans the film would have been a complete debacle, with them having fun, it’s bearable.

The film is very generically shot as well. While the Vegas party scenes work well (which essentially boiled down is just a bunch of musical montages), much of the other bits just feel cheep or underdone. In particular the opening flashback to the men’s childhood looks kind of awful, and more like a bad television movie than anything made for the big screen. It seems at times that the entire budget was spent on getting the actors and the location. The music is a nice mix of modern pop and older tunes that fits with the overall premise of the film.

Last Vegas is the definition of a just slightly bearable film. It has a few laughs here and four famous actors there to keep the flat screenplay and generic look to drag it down too much. Last Vegas is a film that is ultimately very forgettable which is a little disappointing considering the talent that is in front of the camera.