Last Vegas

 LAST VEGAS

Director : Jon Turteltaub
Year : 2014
Genre : Comedy
Rating : ***

 

While it's humour may be hit and miss at times and while it certainly lacks the flair of recent teenage - aimed ensemble comedies, 'Last Vegas' is still a fun and completely inoffensive romp from director Jon Turteltaub. Starring Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Mary Steenburgen, the film tells the story of a group of elderly friends who travel to Las Vegas to celebrate one of their stag nights. Throughout the weekend, the group explores their friendships, the loss of independence that comes with age and their eventual deaths that are going to happen in the relatively near future. Unfortunately, the film doesn't do enough to sufficiently explore these various ideologies and human emotions and replaces them with somewhat raunchy and sometimes embarrassingly crude gags and sadly conventional and cliched character developments, but the movie still works thanks to some reserved and well judged performances from it's reliable and legendary cast and a light hearted and mischievous screenplay from Dan Fogelman. Don't get me wrong, 'Last Vegas' is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but just like 'Grudge Match', it provides welcome relief and a more relaxed tone to the current cinematic landscape which is full of cerebral and more challenging fare such as 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', 'Dallas Buyers Club' and '12 Years A Slave'. 

Michael Douglas plays Billy, a 70 - something year old  pensioner who has become engaged to his short term girlfriend 30 years his younger. To make the most of his controversial and unorthodox proposal, Billy plans to send his 3 eldest friends played by De Niro, Kline and Freeman to Vegas to give him the greatest stag night in history. Unfortunately, the group of life time friends aren't as young or as carefree as they once were and old wounds and past grudges are soon opened up once the friends rendezvous in the gambling capital of the world. However, truces are formed and the lifetime friends begin a weekend of fun and debauchery that people of their age really should know better than to take part in.

Best known for his more family friendly, light hearted filmography such as the 'National Treasure' movies, 'Cool Runnings' and 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', Jon Turteltaub was the perfect choice to direct this silly and blithesome escapade. Full of laugh out loud moments, scenes of surprising emotion and an overall benevolent ambiance, 'Last Vegas' should prove to be a good time killer for younger teenager and more less cynically minded adults. Sure it is a target for a heaping helping of criticism, but the Academy Award winning actors come off quite well and Turteltaub's somewhat more laid back direction proves to compliment the convivial material and Fogelman's snappy script.