MOVIE REVIEW - Last Vegas

Here comes a great example of a movie that the critics are going to hate, and the fans are going to love.  The Hangover for the Viagra set, Last Vegas.

This stars Morgan Freeman, Robert Deniro, Michael Douglas and Kevin Kline.  This is the story of 4 men from New York City who have been friends since childhood, and now for the last 58 years.  They have all gone their separate ways but have stayed in touch.  Life has happened to all of them.  But when one of them who has never married decides at 78 to finally do so, they have a bachelor party in Las Vegas.   And the Vegas antics are on.  That's the story.

This the Facebook of movies.  You know how it works.  You post something, anything, and a bunch of people "like" it.  What they "like" is you by and large, and not really what you just posted.  That is this movie.  Fans love all these actors and their careers so much, they will love seeing them in this movie, acting silly and enjoying Vegas.  Most will pay little attention to the fact this is honestly not all that funny.  And that is is amazingly predictable and insanely formula.  This is pretty tame for the most part and not near as edgy as The Hangover by necessity, but it is the same movie.  And it would appear that they will not leave this alone, there will be more.

But forgetting that this is simply an average movie with a huge cast, there is some fun here. And there are some very nice moments where these characters actually do celebrate their decades long friendship and realize how special it is.   And Mary Steenburgen as the beautiful Diana, the new Las Vegas friend that strikes the fancy of one of our stars, is simply lovely.  She is the only real fresh thing in this movie. She plays a lawyer who leaves the law, to be a lounge singer in Vegas. Her character is by far the most developed and interesting. She is simply perfect in this role.  She does her own singing and some of those scenes are the best in the movie.  In short, this movie is better when she is in it.  Thank goodness she is in it!

It does appear that our big four are going through the motions here and they were counting on simply their presence to carry the day, and it will.  The comedic writing is basically low brow, drunken stuff, with some near female nudity tossed in, and some feeble crass talk by our stars.  All of it super easy to come up with.  There are also a few too many characters in this movie that slow it down.   Some of the more poignant moments are better written and certainly better acted.

Last Vegas.  Moments of fun, 2 hours of predictable and unimaginative content, with big stars and budget.  For critics, they will love taking it apart.  And the fans will put it all back together with their laughs.  Some fun, and there are certainly worse movies out there.