Going In Style (Blu-ray Review)
When I saw the cover for this movie I was immediately not interested, a bunch of old men paired with the title Going in Style had me thinking it was going to be a movie about a bunch of old guys who do something extravagant one time then they die (or something to that effect). However, the reality was that this is a feel good and fun movie that you can enjoy either alone or with your family. There is a nice twist that leaves the viewer feeling like the apparent villain received the consequences they deserved and that the “good guys” received the positive outcomes they deserved, something I find increasingly rare in todays movies. For a remake of a 1979 film with George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg it’s a solid update made for today audiences.
Film 
I stated that I went into this movie expecting it to be bad and generally boring, but it was neither. It was fun and entertaining with packets of laughs. The basic premise of the film is that you have the three gentleman that are friends because they worked together at a factory. They are all three now retired and the movie starts off with the viewer thrown smack dab into their particular lifestyles in their respective retirements.
The three gentlemen are all good natured hardworking people that spent their lives putting into the system and made good life choices to ensure a proper financial future for themselves and their families. One of the gentlemen is the grumpy old man (Alan Arkin), the other is a family man deep into spending time with his family (Michael Caine) and the other one (Morgan Freeman) is also a family man, but with a hidden secret. He is slowly dying of kidney failure.
The movie promptly throws the three of them into the same situation of chaos, their pension checks start bouncing. The film then follows them with other retirees and the current workforce of the factory they worked at listening to the CEO use double talk to explain that the company was being sold and moving to Vietnam resulting in the collapse of their pension fund “No US factory, No US Pension”….
So the meat and potatoes of this film is that Michael Caine’s character is at the bank (the same one he shares with the other three characters) discussing with a shady loan officer why he is behind on his payments (pension checks bouncing). The loan officer does not care at all about his plight as he has already made his money off of him. Caine’s character then lets him know that he is getting letters telling him that he is facing a home foreclosure if he is unable to pay. Again the loan officer does not care, at that moment 3 assailants enter the bank wearing masks and they rob it. I t is at this moment that the light bulb goes off in Michael Caine’s head about how he can solve the dilemma that he and his friends share.
This is honestly where my only real criticism for this movie comes in, story wise this movie is eerily familiar to anyone that saw the 1996 film Set It Off. The formula is almost identical with slight modifications (four women that have terrible things happen to them that really need money – Set it Off).
(Three old men that have terrible things happen to them that really need money – Going in Style) In Set it Off the idea comes from a bank employee done wrong by her boss at the bank after witnessing a bank robbery. Vice versa in Going in Style the idea comes from a customer of the bank being done wrong by the bank while witnessing a bank robbery. This is why there is some loss from my overall score of the film. Objectively this represents a lack of creativity that is somewhat made up for by the surprising very end of the movie. The heist is well thought out in the end and the main characters are able to secure the resolution to their issues in a way that exceeds their expectations. As a result as a moviegoer you leave feeling good about the whole experience. What more do you want?
Video
- Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC (31.81 Mbps)
- Resolution: 1080p
- Aspect Ratio: 2.39.1
- Clarity/Detail: This presentation is very sharp for 1080p resolution and in my opinion is right up there with the best of Blu-rays for at least 90% of the movie. The remaining 10% are just some errors of the focus puller during production. Furthermore close ups reveal the subtlest of details such as pores, skin defects, etc.
- Depth: Due to the sharpness the presentation exhibits a three-dimensional like quality with examples of figures in both sets and landscape environments.
- Black Levels: The black levels for the most part are at least 90% as deep as they should be, which for a movie like this is plenty enough goodness.
- Color Reproduction: This Blu-ray presentation has nice color reproduction, which showcases a slightly muted look rather than a super saturated one.
- Flesh Tones: Skin tones are accurate in all daylight shots, but exhibit some magenta in them during darker scenes.
- Noise/Artifacts: I observed no apparent banding, noise, motion artifacts, etc. in the print.
Audio
- Audio Format(s): English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps), Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
- Dynamics: The Blu-ray’s audio presentation has an average mix and sounds professional at all times with nothing out of place. Furthermore, channel separation was sufficient without being noteworthy too. Given the type of film this is, what more do you want?
- Low Frequency Extension: Subwoofers have some usage, but this movie is definitely not going to give them a workout by any means.
- Surround Sound Presentation: The surround sound use in this movie was very run of the mill for a comedy. It was sufficiently utilized, but definitely not reference worthy by any stretch of the imagination.
- Dialogue Reproduction: This movie has great intelligibility in regards to the dialog so no issues here at all.
Extras
This movie does come with a HD Digital Copy, which is always welcome in today’s day and age. There is also a selection of deleted scenes that give you a couple of extra laughs for good measure plus an audio commentary from the director, which is usually more important for films that are not so well spelled out for the viewer in the first place.
- Deleted Scenes (HD) – At least there were some funny ones to be found here.
- Audio Commentary (HD) – Here you can choose to watch the movie with audio commentary from the director Zach Braff.
Summary
Personally I really liked this movie and although initially I was turned off by the marketing of the movie I ended up being a fan of Going in Style because its characters win you over and are memorable. I think it’s the type of film that has a good replay value after a few years of watching it initially. I would recommend buying it especially if you enjoy movies with happy endings because this has a very happy ending.
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