“Could we do the elderly man criminal trio of Stand Up Guys, but go for more of the broad ‘these guys are old’ laughs of Last Vegas?” Here to give a solemn nod to that never-asked question is the trailer for Going in Style.
This remake of a 1979 George Burns/Art Carney/Lee Strasberg vehicle sees Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin doing the sort of grumpy old men shtick we’ve seen time and time again—right down to Ann-Margaret still somehow playing the sexy old lady, now 23 years after doing so in Grumpy Old Men. The trio play lifelong friends who learn that their pensions won’t be paid out. In response, after witnessing a bank robbery, they decide to do the same themselves.
In case you find that too morally objectionable, the leaden script jumps through hoop after hoop to excuse its high-concept premise. Between those needless justifications, you’ll fine jokes like a younger criminal asking if the septuagenarians are “5-0,” leading to Caine’s painfully predictable response, “We’re practically 8-0!” Oof.
The film is written by St. Vincent‘s Theodore Melfi, and directed by Garden State and Wish I Was Here‘s Zach Braff, yet it somehow lacks the cloying hallmarks of either. They, and the cast, all seem to just be doing mercenary work for a paycheck here. If there’s anything refreshing about the movie, it’s only that they’re at least holding back the requisite erectile dysfunction medication line in this thing. The same can’t be said for the many, many featured grocery store set-pieces.
