Of the many wildly-belated film follow-ups being cranked out in recent years, perhaps none is so left-field as this one. Last Flag Flying is, more or less, a sequel to Hal Ashby’s 1973 classic but not exactly block-busting The Last Detail. That film was based on the Darryl Ponicsan of the same name; it saw two sailors (Jack Nicholson, Otis Young) escorting a third (Randy Quaid) on a Northeastern road trip to a naval prison. Last Flag Flying is based on Ponicsan’s like-titled sequel novel, following the same trio as they make a similar but more somber journey decades later. Richard Linklater directed the film, and though he for some reason changed the characters’ names, the premise remains the same. Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and Laurence Fishburne star.
Here’s the trailer. From the looks of it, you could do a lot worse as far as recent “old guys reconvene for a wild misadventure” movies go. By watching Stand Up Guys, Last Vegas, or Going in Style, for example.
Last Flag Flying arrives November 3.
