Gavin Purtell
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.
Scott-101
Last Vegas' main tagline is that it stars five Oscar winners of roughly the same generation: Robert De Niro (Godfather II, Raging Bull), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Michael Douglas (Wall Street), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), and Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard).Still as Wild Hogs and Old Dogs demonstrated, packaging together a random bunch of aging legends as the sole reason for greenlighting a comedy ranks up there with a Transformers sequel, splitting up the last part of a trilogy, and ironically titling a horror film Not Another Teen Movie in blatant commercialism.However, the actors of Last Vegas have a certain chemistry with one another that takes away any of your cynicism in ulterior motives. Mary Steenburgen, who has been marketed in the last decade or so as a senior citizen who's still got it, really gets to show off her mature sex appeal opposite aging casanovas like Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas. Similarly, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline have a relaxed demeanor here that movies with thicker premises might not allow. That it's set in a city where excess and blatant commercialism are the norm allows the film to pass through the tropes of a romantic comedy with a wink and a smile but the story twists and turns a little to buck the unexpected. Thumbs up.
Hamid Homayounifar
"Last Vegas" is something that we need more of in today's world for two main reasons; one to break the common belief that cinema belongs to young and good-looking faces, the other to spice up the world of the retired and the elderly.What Billy, Archie, Sam, and Paddy create is a type of revolt against all the limits that modernization has brought about into the lives of aged men and women; some wrongly accepted rules such as they are doomed to remain lonely forever after the death of a spouse or losing youth, or should be treated like children as they have no control over what they do. In other words, it gives a realistic picture of people's problems once they get old in the first place, and then challenges what they get in return, and finally redefines all the borders and limits. In addition, "Last Vegas" tries to add value, or in a way, highlight the value of true and real friendship over time and emphasize that there are moments in life when blood loses to water, family is a confinement while friends gift you a kind of freedom that one always desires by turning a blind eye to what they wish to have only for a friend, or giving the support at the right time.There might be those who find the movie a type of commercial one rather than artistic, however, they might be neglecting the fact that such a movie with such a range of audience needs to have reputable cast as well as commercial sponsoring to survive among all other moneymaking products in Hollywood in which a young star single-handedly escalates the sales figures. Overall, "Last Vegas" is a movie which is suitable for both the elderly and the young, the latter to learn to put themselves back together and as Archie says know that "There's still a lot of life" in them, and for the former to realize that getting old does not necessarily mean becoming weak and parents need respect on top of anything else.
phoenix 2
Four old friends meet in Las Vegas to throw a bachelor party for one of them. So, the theme and the main idea behind the movie is quite interesting, even though the jokes are few and depth non existence. The story has many layers with the wedding in the middle to feature as the trigger for parties but for revelations as well. There are some twists here and there that keep the movie fresh and the interest high, but Last Vegas is not The hangover, even though sometimes it seems like it tries to be. It is more about friendship and old age that can be misunderstood (the hotel clerk makes that quite obvious). Nice performances for the four (five) main characters and nice shots from the city. So, 3 out of 10 for Last Vegas.
AD
