A story about 3 elderly gentleman wanting to rob a bank in retaliation for not receiving their pension funds is something out of a yahoo news article 3 pages down. But as ridiculous as the premise is, there's some unexpected enjoyment to be had here.
Going in Style is directed by Zach Braff of all people. The guy who brought us Garden State? Yep. I imagine this was a situation where he saw an opportunity to work with three of the greatest actors of this generation and took it, instead of this being some sort of passion project on his part. But that really is the selling point of the movie, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin. Each are legends on their own, but seeing all three of them together is a pleasure for any film fan. These three have taken some heat in the past about appearing in mediocre films and giving mediocre performances, with some even accusing them of "mailing it in". Luckily, there's none of that here. You can tell the three of them had a blast filming together and it clearly shows in the final product. The film won't knock your socks off, but I'll watch anything with these actors.
It's not all giggles, though. There's a deeper message in Going in Style about living your life until the very end, and not sitting back and letting others ruin your life. I'm not sure the film truly succeeded in that sense or I was getting a little sad at potentially watching my favorite actors realize their own mortality. Strangely enough, this is where the film is at its best. Whether its watching these guys tear up at the site of the granddaughters, or just busting each other over the smallest of things, I felt like I was watching them go through real-life issues. It sounds silly, especially considering they're all doing just fine financially in real life, but I felt really bad for these guys.
However, as expected, this movie is just plain ridiculous. The believability is off the charts and the writing is not good, to say the least. I like Theodore Melfi a lot, actually. St. Vincent is one of my favorite films of all time and Hidden Figures is gold, but I can't get behind his work here. I'm not sure whether it was a choice of some of the supporting actors, Braff's call, or in Melfi's script, but there's some really dumb stuff in this film.
As a whole, I had fun with Going in Style. It's far from perfect, and it can even be cringe worthy at times, but the emotions I got from seeing three actors you love truly sink their teeth into real- life problems of mortality was enough for me.
+Actors having a blast
+Well put together goofy heist film
-But sometimes it's a little too goofy
6.8/10
Going in Style is directed by Zach Braff of all people. The guy who brought us Garden State? Yep. I imagine this was a situation where he saw an opportunity to work with three of the greatest actors of this generation and took it, instead of this being some sort of passion project on his part. But that really is the selling point of the movie, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin. Each are legends on their own, but seeing all three of them together is a pleasure for any film fan. These three have taken some heat in the past about appearing in mediocre films and giving mediocre performances, with some even accusing them of "mailing it in". Luckily, there's none of that here. You can tell the three of them had a blast filming together and it clearly shows in the final product. The film won't knock your socks off, but I'll watch anything with these actors.
It's not all giggles, though. There's a deeper message in Going in Style about living your life until the very end, and not sitting back and letting others ruin your life. I'm not sure the film truly succeeded in that sense or I was getting a little sad at potentially watching my favorite actors realize their own mortality. Strangely enough, this is where the film is at its best. Whether its watching these guys tear up at the site of the granddaughters, or just busting each other over the smallest of things, I felt like I was watching them go through real-life issues. It sounds silly, especially considering they're all doing just fine financially in real life, but I felt really bad for these guys.
However, as expected, this movie is just plain ridiculous. The believability is off the charts and the writing is not good, to say the least. I like Theodore Melfi a lot, actually. St. Vincent is one of my favorite films of all time and Hidden Figures is gold, but I can't get behind his work here. I'm not sure whether it was a choice of some of the supporting actors, Braff's call, or in Melfi's script, but there's some really dumb stuff in this film.
As a whole, I had fun with Going in Style. It's far from perfect, and it can even be cringe worthy at times, but the emotions I got from seeing three actors you love truly sink their teeth into real- life problems of mortality was enough for me.
+Actors having a blast
+Well put together goofy heist film
-But sometimes it's a little too goofy
6.8/10