Review of Last Vegas (2013) by Jesse O — 29 Jan 2014

This film looked like it was more fun to shoot than it was to actually watch the final product. I can't really blame the cast for any of this, as they are certainly likable enough to make the film far more watchable than it should've been.

The problem comes in the fact that this is really a just a tamed down version of The Hangover featuring a cast full of older actors. If I wanted to see The Hangover featuring this cast, I wanted to see it in an R-rated setting, not in a PG-13 setting, which only limits what you can do with this type of "story".

Not that you can't get a number of good laughs out of this concept, especially with this cast, even in a PG-13 setting but I think they're cutting their nose off just to spite their face by doing this.

By trying to focus on appealing so much to a widespread audience, you took out the only thing that would've given the film some much needed edge. And that's seeing these four old men getting into raunchy situations and how they figure their way out of them.

Maybe the film wouldn't have been much better than it was, but at least it would've been something. Granted, with the R-rating, it might've meant that the script would've been lazier in the hope that gross-out humor featuring older actors would be funny enough on the surface, that some people wouldn't really care, just as long as they got their gross-out humor fix.

The film sees a group of four lifelong friends reuniting in Las Vegas for one of their own's bachelor party. So, pretty much exactly like The Hangover, except the big hangover part. The film is barely held together by a narrative, which is really just there to get you to the next set of hi-jinks.

And let me tell you how exciting these hi-jinks are. Actually, they're not at all exciting, nor are they that funny. They're so funny that I can barely remember any of them, and I literally finished this movie over an hour ago.

I'm not kidding when I say that, I've already forgotten most of what happened in the film. At least in The Hangover, and maybe the sequels, while some of the situations the cast found themselves may have been unfunny, at least they were outrageous enough that you believe that some people watching this could find this unfunny shit memorable.

This film doesn't even have that, so I'd find it hard to believe that much people actually liked this movie, much less found the situations the characters found themselves in memorable or actually that funny.

The film has its moments, like when the cast make fun of Billy's (Michael Douglas) bride-to-be and her age. That was funny, if not particularly hilarious. And the film kinda hits onto something with why Billy proposed to her when he didn't really love her and how he feels young when he's with her.

So they hit on universal themes, in a predictable manner, but they do so in a way where I could see some people relating to that and the fear of getting old and being alone. Unfortunately, the film's almost over by this point, so it's not enough to save the film.

There's also Billy's and Paddy's issues with each other, which is really the main arc of the film. And it's fine but nothing to write home about. Archie and Sam all have their own little stories, but they're mostly distractions and don't really have anything to do with what's going on in the main arc of the film, if you can even call it that, they're just there to give Archie and Sam something to do while everything else is going on.

But the cast is good, and they certainly make this film far more watchable than it would've been otherwise. And I almost hate to shit on this movie, because I certainly wanted to like it. I don't go in to a movie expecting to hate it, but this is a disappointing film in spite of the cast.

They really should've had a more developed script. Ultimately that's its downfall, it's too content to rest on the talents of its cast rather than it being a collaboration of a talented cast with a great script to boot.