Review of Going in Style (1979) by Kaptenvideo — 08 Apr 2017

Get ready for the grandfather of all heist films! Three old-timers are planning to rob the bank, partly for revenge, partly for having something interesting to do before succumbing to senility.

There’s still fun to be had when you are beloved male movie star reaching his 60’s or even more. There’s a ton of age-appropriate roles on offer, such as tender grandpa, dirty grandpa, weird grandpa, or just some senior citizen who starts something unexpected and finds some new life thanks to this.

„Going in Style“ relies on tender grandpa and still capable senior citizen cliches to offer yet another joyful comedy-drama-lite – it deserves to be called a genre already – where you can watch some of the more beloved actors of our time crumbling away with style.

This time, there’s even more of them than I expected. We have two true stars (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman), one well-known and loved actor who’s not exactly a star (Alan Arkin) and even some has-beens, such as Christopher Lloyd – still offering some creepy variation on his schtick from „Back to the Future“ – and Ann-Margret.

So, there’s gonna be as much geronto-fun as you can digest AND fun comic relief turn by „SNL“ regular Kenan Thompson. This is the only thing in the movie that feels fresh and alive.

Caine, Freeman and Arkin are screen legends capable of making every movie a little bit more interesting and enjoyable just by appearing in it. The sad part is, there is so little interesting or truly heart-felt going on that one is tempted to call in „Going in Style“ a wasted opportunity.

The characters, the relationships, the dialogue, the approach – all is so shallow and bland. But, of course, it was probably never aimed much higher than a pleasant if boring 96 minutes in the company of some of America’s coolest senior citizens.

Also, this must be one of the most unconvincing bank heist movies of all time. I get it, we are aiming for real here, but the way it plays out is just stupid. Was the writer even trying?

It’s certainly a wasted opportunity for director Zach Brach. He was a popular sitcom star in „Scrubs“ (2001-10) who also surprised us by writing, directing and starring in „Garden State“ (2004) – delightful little movie worthy to be called a modern classic.

But 2010’s have brought little to confirm he’s still a player. And „Going in Style“ seems more like drowning in saccharine-flavored mediocrity than anything to get excited about. Why do it at all, one might ask. Did he value hanging out with Freeman, Caine and Arkin more than trying to help his career?

You can find a bunch of watchworthy movies and TV series about getting old, both artsy and mainstream – it’s quite popular topic. With „Going in Style“ being mainstream almost to a fault, I’d like to offer a recommendation of same sort – „Men of a Certain Age“ or „Grace and Frankie“, for example.

Senior screen legends should also think about „The Expendables“ style all-star-project, where they could also include Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Kevin Kline, Romany Malco, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen or anybody else regularly willing to do this kind of nice but calorie-free entertainment.

The all-star-approach would save us some time of watching most of them doing it separately. OR, they could choose to not endlessly repeat themselves and do non-mainstream movie about getting old for a change.

Watch the trailer and save another 94 minutes.