Last Vegas *** (2013, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen) – Movie Review

Lifelong sixty-something buddies Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline head for Las Vegas to throw a bachelor party and celebrate their last remaining single pal Michael Douglas’s planned wedding to a much, much younger woman. She’s less than half his age at 32, but he compensates by being orange suntanned. No wonder he looks so wrinkly, he’s had too much time in the sun.

It’s good to report that Last Vegas is funny, not consistently funny, maybe, but mostly funny. The main attraction is the four old guys, and they are on great form, gamely plugging gaps in the writing.

Unfortunately, the character-driven, plot-driven script by Dan Fogelman (the producer and writer known for 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2010’s Tangled and 2006’s Cars) isn’t perfect. Few comedy scripts are. But it’ll do till something better comes along. The premise is a good one, providing gainful work and decently written roles for four beloved old-time stars. There are too many ageist gags, so it gets repetitive and a tad depressing, especially as a lot of these jokes are on the obvious, lazy and unwitty side.

Douglas and De Niro have told the press they think growing old is ‘very depressing’. No one wants to hear about it. Why couldn’t they simply have made a movie like The Hangover that just happened to have sixty-somethings as main characters? That would have been kind, cool and old folk lib of it, wouldn’t it? As it is, Last Vegas is much more like Grumpy Old Men (1993), just with four of them instead of only Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Clever actors though the present quartet are, it has to be said they are not in the category of Lemmon and Matthau are comedians. But then who is? Again, they’ll do till something better comes along. And, as actors and screen presences, of course the quartet are irresistible, and a huge attraction.

And the special star quartet are also undeniably funny, sometimes hilarious, when the script lets them, giving boisterous, charming performances. And occasionally they are touching, too, though this is the bit that will be to taste. Probably many of us could do without the hear-string tugging and romance but at least this keeps the plot driving along nicely.

And then, something unexpected comes along. The 60-year-old Mary Steenburgen steals the movie right out from under them, giving the film’s best performance as a romantically inclined Vegas lounge singer who turns out to quite fancy old Douglas. Funny, that.

Family-friendly film-maker Jon Turteltaub (Cool Runnings [1993], National Treasure [2004], The Kid [2000]) directs indulgently, but he makes it fast paced, busy and dynamic too.

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