Last Vegas (2013)


Last Vegas Poster.jpg
Drunken Old Men

Three sixty-something friends take a break from their day-to-day lives to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal.


The idea of assembling a quartet of casting legends for a film of drunken debauchery is an enticing one, packed with possibilities. This could have easily worked as a drama, focusing on how these characters are dealing with old age and trying to recapture the good times they once shared by going on this drunken bachelor party in Vegas, while also casting a light on the tattered friendship between De Niro and Douglas. Instead, Jon Turtletaub chooses to focus on telling the story in a comedic light, which isn't a bad thing, but could've done with something worth laughing at.

Instead of putting actual laughs in the film, we get cheap, repetitive gags on how old the characters are, the generational gap between them and todays generation, and the most basic of sex gags. The generic and predictable script certainly doesn't help things either, but to the films credit, the history between Billy and Paddy is handled well.

Reservoir Old Dogs
It's no surprise that the four main stars manage to put in great performances, sharing wonderful chemistry with each other that you could easily believe they've been life-long friends, but the rest of the cast all manage to do a good job, with nobody standing out for the wrong reasons.

Last Vegas is more notable for the concept of taking four Academy Award winners and putting them in what is essentially a geriatric Hangover film, as opposed to succeeding in the execution. The actors all do their best, but it's the poor jokes centered around the same three topics that's this films undoing. Now spare a thought for Robert De Niro, who went from being Martin Scorcese's muse to having Redfoo shake his junk in his face.

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