Movie Review: ‘Last Vegas’

Last Vegas achieved a 3/5 by Iowa State Daily movie reviewer Nick Hamden.

Nick Hamden [email protected]

“Last Vegas” achieved a 3/5 by Iowa State Daily movie reviewer Nick Hamden.

Nick Hamden

If I learned anything about the advertising campaign of “Last Vegas” (Trailer), it is that sometimes people do not like seeing the same ad every 15 minutes. “Last Vegas” was produced by CBS Films, so it has the benefit of being advertised on a channel that is watched by the millions during football games every Sunday.

Unfortunately for the movie, I know plenty of people who wrote it off solely on overexposure, a likelihood probably expressed around America.

“Last Vegas” takes us into the lives of four kids who grew up best friends, but into their adulthood, their lives began to veer in different paths.

But Billy (Michael Douglas) is getting married to a girl half his age. So he wants to invite his old pals to the wedding: Sam (Kevin Kline), who is currently living a sad life in Florida in a sexless relationship, Archie (Morgan Freeman), who is living with his son (Michael Ealy) who is constantly on pills, and Paddy (Robert De Niro), who has not left his apartment since his wife died a year ago and also really hates Billy now.

Why does he hate Billy? Well, that is a spoiler. But he gets tricked into showing up for the bachelor party/wedding.

Thanks to pension funds and a little luck, the four gentlemen end up having one of the wildest weekends imaginable, while also allowing time to air out their grievances and fix their standing in life.

Mary Steenburgen plays Diana, a lounge singer who helps create conflict; Romany Malco, their butler like character; and Jerry Ferrara, a recurring jerk.

I think I figured out a pattern in new comedies. First we had a group of guys in Vegas with “The Hangover” in 2009, then a group of girls in Vegas with “Bridesmaids” in 2011. Another two years later we were given old guys in Vegas, so I expect in 2015, we will get either old women in Vegas, or elementary school girls in Vegas. It depends on if this relationship is linear or a ramping sine wave, respectfully.

Overall, I guess this movie delivered exactly as the previews showed. A lot of old people jokes. Old people jokes are a subset of jokes, where everything is funnier, just because the characters involved happen to be old. So old people talking about drugs, going to clubs, flirting, being hungover. This movie has the bonus aspect of seeing Morgan Freeman do all of these things, one of the more revered older actors currently out there.

But after awhile, it becomes obvious that all of the jokes are basically the same, so it is hard to still find them funny across the entire run time. The movie also took its sweet time ending, with what felt like at least three endings thrown on.

Of our actors, Douglas was not at his best, which is a shame given his last role in “Behind The Candelabra.” De Niro was also hit and miss in this film. The best two were Kline and Freeman, arguably supporting actors in this movie.

Most of the plot lines for the characters went the obvious routes, so nothing felt surprising. Everything gets wrapped up by the end, the conflict presented is not too huge, and it is just a simple movie. It was odd to see E from “Entourage,” so thin. There were two cameos: LMFAO, an already outdated reference, and 50 Cent, who was a welcome surprise.

If you go into “Last Vegas” expecting a lot of cheap laughs and some touching moments, then you will enjoy it overall. Not a game changer by any means in the comedy genre, but an okay one all the same.

3/5