Last Vegas (February 2014)

Official Australian release date: 6/2/14. Viewed: 27/2/14.

Director: Jon Turtletaub

Actors: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline

Genre: Comedy
Rating: M

From the director of ‘3 Ninjas’ and ‘Cool Runnings’ comes ‘Last Vegas’! Those may or may not sound like good pedigree (I’m ignoring ‘National Treasure’ on purpose), but it doesn’t really matter how good a director you are when you have an all-star cast of Douglas, De Niro, Freeman, Kline & Steenburgen. Even Ferrara (“Turtle”) & Malco are good in supporting roles. Needless to say, ‘Last Vegas’ is, to a degree, ‘The Hangover’ for old people.

It has funny moments throughout, with some great laughs in places, but there’s also a fair bit of time spent wasted with parties, girls in bikini’s (it is Las Vegas, after all) and some drama between De Niro’s & Douglas’ that wasn’t really necessary. My main gripe would be that these sentimental moments add on an unnecessary 20min to the movie.

The story is very simple and quite predictable, but what you can’t quantify is the way the four lead actors just work well together. I think special mention must go to Kline who has some of the best lines and laughs, but the four of them together, quipping and joking at/with each other, is great to watch.

Overall: A solid comedy film – enough laughs, but could’ve been made better by some judicious editing.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.