Review of Going in Style (2017) by Cristobal B — 07 Apr 2017

Before going into this film, you should know exactly what to expect, otherwise you're not going to enjoy this film at all. As long as you know to expect a harmless little comedy, involving three veteran actors having a good time, with a plot as by-the-numbers as you can get, you'll be able to have some fun here. At this point, I think these performers are looking for ways to make their job as fun as possible, which is why I'm sure they agreed to star in Going in Style. By no means will I be recommending that you go out of your way to check out this film, but if you happen to be sitting in the theatre with nothing else to watch, I can guarantee you won't find yourself hating it. Going in Style is nothing original at all, but I don't think that was the point anyway.

There isn't much more to the plot then a few elderly men who want to rob a bank in order to earn the money they are no longer receiving money from their pensions. The plot itself is about as safe and by-the-numbers as you can get with this type of film, but these three actors bring more than enough charm to make up for the many dull moments this story suffers from. On multiple occasions, I found myself wondering how much longer until the next joke or inciting incident. At a mere 97 minutes, it does actually feel its length, which isn't a good thing, but as I mentioned above, it would've been much worse with actors you don't recognize, which is a con in itself.

When this film is in high gear, these actors make you chuckle quite a bit. Although there are a few somber moments, they are just to dive deeper into these characters, which adds that much more light to them in times of excitement. There are a few solid laughs to be had here and when the robberies take place, it's more than worth the price of admission, but that is about where the positives lie in terms of what the trailers are trying to sell its audience on. Going in Style is a much more serious film than one might be lead to believe, which also takes away from the main point this film was made for.

First and foremost, Going in Style is meant to be a comedy. Yes, there were a few times when these three actors made me laugh very hard, but the jokes are too far and in between. This film feels more like a "Dramedy," due to the fact that its story takes a lot of time to deal with life, relationships, and health. There are some solid life lessons here, but nothing you haven't heard before in every other movie like this one. For being a comedy, I didn't find myself laughing nearly enough as I should've, but it was clear that wasn't all they were going for, so I forgave that aspect.

In the end, Going in Style is almost too harmless for its own good. Playing it extremely safe in terms of comedy, profanity, core story, and really just the film as a whole, there wasn't a single moment that caught me off guard, which was disappointing. There is certainly a lot more heart than I was expecting, but that aspect often added a far too somber tone for this type of film. I appreciated everything they were going for here and the end result is about as average as you can get. There is absolutely nothing great about Going in Style, but there isn't anything all that bad about it either. I found myself slightly enjoying much every scene. If you are looking for pointless escapism that you will probably forget about in a few days, the this film will do the job.