Movie Review: Last Vegas

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas & Kevin Kline

Director: Jon Turteltaub
In a few words...: A Hangover for pensioners. Four friends journey to Las Vegas for a bucks' weekend and end up learning a few things about themselves, their lives and their friends. 
Rating: 7/10

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!

Not what you would call a thinking man's movie, but Las Vegas is a hell of a lot of fun, and will make you leave the cinema with a smile on your face. The premise - as is the case in these films - is very simple. The four friends, Billy Gherson (Douglas), Paddy Connors (De Niro), Archie Clayton (Freeman) and Sam Harris (Kline) grew up in Brooklyn, and reunite in the Nevada desert when Gherson, who, we discover, has never really grown up, announces he's getting married to his girlfriend, who is only 31 years old.

Paddy, Archie and Harris live in and around New York City, whilst Billy lives in a mansion in Malibu. Dragging along the grumpy Paddy, who hasn't been happy since the death of his wife a year earlier, Archie and Sam reunite with Billy at the airport in Las Vegas, and it's clear that there's bad blood between Paddy and Billy, though we don't find out why straight away. Meanwhile, Sam's wife thinks he is miserable and so allows him, over the weekend in Las Vegas, to sleep with other women.

They head straight to a hotel that the men are familiar with from their youth, only to discover that it is closed for renovations. They do meet Diana Boyle (Mary Steenburgen) a lounge singer who takes an immediate liking to the guys. Billy organises, via his assistant, a suite at the Aria Resort & Casino. It makes the Caesar's Palace suite in The Hangover look pretty crappy in comparison.

Last Vegas is at it's funniest when all the old guys are together, either by the pool - with a cameo from Redfoo for good measure - judging bikini contests, gambling in casinos (and scooping the pool) or partying the night away at a night club. These scenes are what gets the film compared to The Hangover, and you can see why, except in Las Vegas there are more Viagra and grandpa jokes here. Most of them are very funny, especially the ones about the age Billy's bride-to-be. The scenes where the group's private concierge convinces a trouble maker at the night club that they're all mafia bosses is hilarious. The entire film is well written. There's crudeness galore, but it's quite well done.

Surprisingly, though, there is a sentimental undercurrent, a bond of friendship that is tested by Billy and Paddy as Billy's approaching nuptials make him consider his life, the people in it and, most importantly of all, whether he really wants to get married to a woman half his age. He's confused and conflicted, especially where Diana is concerned. There's a great scene between them on the ride on top of Stratosphere called X-Scream. If it looks frightening, it is - I've been front row. It's insane.

Events come to a head before and during a giant party, one so big that even rapper 50 Cent (whose cameo is shorter than Redfoo's and funnier) complains it's too loud. Archie has a moment of reckoning with his over-bearing son, and Sam, grappling with his wife's offer, finally realises what he wants.

The next day - the morning of Billy's wedding - their lives change. Suffice to say, the friends' lives change over the weekend, and there is a decidedly happy ending for all the characters who've become rather endearing over the course of nearly two hours. 

It also sets up nicely for a sequel. 

Box office takings have been pretty good, so maybe we haven't seen the last of Paddy, Billy, Archie and Sam. That said, producers should keep in mind the less-successful Hangover sequels before committing to another Last Vegas film.