Last Vegas   

Review: written 2020

Grumpy Old Men have A Hangover in Vegas

What a cast! what a concept! what a setting! What a disaster.

What if you take The Hangover, but use some of the finest actors possible and twist the pitch to be about pensioners? That’s the hook, here.. and while there are a few moments of forced ‘heartwarminess’, they taste somewhat sour mixed in with what can be quite uncomfortably salacious and leering. Mary Steenbergen’s character aside, women are ill-served here, and even she is a character who tries to persuade a man to split up with his long term partner to be with her, after a day or two knowing them. It’s hard to feel enlightened or warm to characters whose sweet moments of self-realisation amount to pearls of wisdom such as, “hey you know what, maybe it’s the right thing to NOT have a one night stand with a woman 50 years younger than me just because she is throwing herself at me, and just possibly faithfulness to my wife is more important?”. Heart-warming, or stomach churning? You decide.

The plot for what it is worth, has Douglas telling his 3 best friends he is getting married and inviting them to a Las Vegas bachelor’s weekend. There, their differences surface, get patched up, and they all learn a little bit about women as they judge bikini competitions and party with youngsters. It’s got a certain watchability as DeNiro, Douglas, Freeman, Kline and Steenbergen all give a bit of that star quality as they pick up the paycheque. But all told, I think I’m going to go have a shower and watch something else to get this one out of my mind.