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Four Friends and a Funeral in ‘Last Vegas’ (Movie Review)

Last Vegas TNOn the surface, after seeing multiple television spots as of late, Last Vegas appears to be nothing more than a cash grab at the box office as the older generation’s version of the wildly popular first entry in the franchise, The Hangover.  Heck, it’s even about four friends and a bachelor party in Vegas!  How much more convincing can I be in my initial assessment?  And guess what?!  The movie poster’s tagline even reads that “it’s going to be legendary.”  I got to be honest with you.  I feel like I hit a grand slam here.  The Hangover involved four guys, Las Vegas, a bachelor party and it was…L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y.  However, we’re always taught in life not to judge a book by it’s cover so was I right or was I so wrong?  Let’s roll the dice and find out!

So here we are for the old folks version of The Hangover starring the modern day rat pack of Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman as four friends in their late sixties who decide to have a bachelor party in Las Vegas for Billy (Douglas), the last of them to be getting married.  Armed with just that sentence I could probably stop there and you would know all you need to know about the film going in, but I wouldn’t be doing my job as a reviewer if I slighted you in that way.  Besides, don’t you want to know how funny a rated PG-13 film in Vegas can really be?  Yes, you read that right.  I said a rated PG-13 film.  I probably should have stopped there, huh?  Well at least you know if nothing else, the movie has weighted star power going for it.

Well, my title up above may be a little misleading.  I’ll drop a spoiler on you.  There was not a funeral.  However, for most of the runtime it felt like I was at a funeral.  It wasn’t because the movie was boring, slow or overly tame (although it was a little of the latter), but it was because of the fact that I was looking at real life versions of what I will most likely become some thirty-years from now and it scares the bejesus out of me to think that way.  I grew up with all these actors in films I love and to see them now like this, taking medications left and right and guts hanging out, just makes me sad.  I’m sorry.  I can’t help it.  It made me think of how fast life goes by and if you can to live every moment to the fullest.  But how?  So much of our lives we are trapped doing things we don’t want to just to survive on a monthly basis.  Not all of were born with a silver spoon in our mouths.  How do you enjoy life still?  I guess that’s the “age old” question, isn’t it?  Simply put, most of us never do enjoy life and before we know it we’re in an early grave.  Depressing huh?  But so true!

So Last Vegas is a tame film as I made mention to above.  You knew that going in with the PG-13 rating.  I think if it was R, I could have let myself go with this one and had so much of a better time.  Things are played safe here…maybe too safe…but you have to.  You’re bound by a rating.  But come on!  You have four horny old men stomping around the wilderness of Vegas.  You think you can have a good time with a PG-13 rating here?  I know I can’t.  I want and I expect nothing less than the raunchiness of The Hangover, but I simply didn’t get it.  Yes, there were some good jokes here and there, but let’s face it.  This movie was made for that rare older quadrant and if you train your mind/expectations and choose to go in with that mindset, you won’t be disappointed.  However, I will warn you of the following.  Titanic showed more skin than a movie set in Las Vegas about a bachelor party.  I’ll let you chew on that for a moment to see if my ranting finally sinks in and is warranted/justified.

Now that’s not to say that Last Vegas is a bad movie.  It isn’t.  In fact, it’s far from being the bad movie I expected it to be when I first arrived to the press screening and hardly saw anybody there.  Usually these things are packed.  Usually die hard moviegoers camp out for these screenings.  But that wasn’t the case this past Monday night.  That’s okay.  Despite the two ladies that sat next to me, which I wanted to stab in their jugulars because they would not stop talking, I had a decent time with this one.  It was warm, heartfelt and endearing.  It taught important lessons in life and made me laugh from time-to-time.  Would I say spend $15 in the evening to see it?  No, I would not.  But if you are a fan of these guys and up in your years, I say what the heck.  Go see a matinee!  I don’t think you will be disappointed.  I was not, and that’s saying a lot.  The chemistry between these four legendary screen actors is what truly made this a film to see, not to mention the always attractive Las Vegas setting.

I took the following from Last Vegas.  Life is too short to squander savings and worry about things that may or may not happen.  You have one chance to live it.  So whether you are on skid row or whether you are lucky and your parents pay for your life, enjoy it.  However, please don’t flaunt it.  Stay off Facebook.  Life’s too short for that crap.  If you constantly got to tell your 10 friends who read your newsfeed what you are doing every moment in life, then you are not living.  You’re dead to me.  Last Vegas is full of hope and upward challenges and emotionally teaches us that it’s never too late to have what you want in life, but more importantly, cherish the love ones, friends and loyalty you have in your life.  You know who those people are.  Don’t ever let stupid little things get between you.  You don’t have to be a priest, but keep in mind that even little lies, which we don’t think will hurt, always feel like a bee sting when exposed.  Remember that and you’ll be fine.  Enjoy the show!

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2 Responses to “Four Friends and a Funeral in ‘Last Vegas’ (Movie Review)”


  1. Gerard Iribe

    I would have told the two women to STFU.

  2. Brian White

    LOL. That’s what Kori said. The one time the one woman went to the bathroom and she asked her friend to recap what she had missed. Keep in mind they were in their 60’s 🙁 And the only reason they were sitting by me was because not much press came out for this one Monday night. My parents enjoyed it though.