This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Jim Batts and Tom Stockman talk movies. Our guest in the studio this week is Lynn Venhaus, film critic for The Belleville News Democrat and the Kirkwood/Webster Times. We’ll discuss the weekend box office on the phone with Michelle McCue then review GOING IN STYLE, THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS, TOMMY’S HONOUR, GIFTED, LOST CITY OF Z, and FREE FIRE. We’ll then talk about some upcoming local film events and pay tribute to the late Don Rickles.
GOING IN STYLE stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin, relaxed old pros with easy chemistry, all of whom seem to be having a great deal of fun. Thin in plot, GOING IN STYLE is a pleasant, likable enough situation comedy that veers into some sentimental territory that doesn’t quite connect.
Willie (Freeman), Joe (Caine), and Albert (Arkin) are retired pals who once worked together at a Brooklyn steel plant. The company is merging with an evil overseas corporation and all of their pensions are being liquidated, leaving them with next to nothing. After Joe witnesses a bank robbery, he has the idea that the trio should attempt one themselves.
GOING IN STYLE is mildly amusing with its star power saving what is a clunky and somewhat problematic script by Theodore Melfi that could have used another pass or two. It’s all too comfortable and tame, delivering exactly what you’d expect and pretty much when you’d expect it. It’s a remake of a darker 1979 comedy (that starred George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg) in which two of the leads were dead by the film’s end. This new trio is far too cuddly and sentimental for that in a film that flirts with zany without ever taking risks.
There’s plenty to like in GOING IN STYLE. Caine, Arkin, and Freeman are all tremendous, with no character outdoing another as they all have moments to shine. Alan Arkin is the grouchy and sarcastic one, Freeman is the wise Grandpa-type who delivers a few amusing digs at other’s expense, while Caine is the ideas man, determined to stand up for his friends. Early scenes are key to how we get to appreciate these three as they interact with their families and a sassy waitress (Siobhan Hogan) at the diner they frequent. Ann-Margaret as Albert‘s paramour is always a welcome sight, looking the same here as when she performed similar duties in the GRUMPY OLD MEN movies over twenty years ago while Josh Pais gets big laughs playing it broadly as an abused bank employee. A scene stealer is Kenan Thompson as security head at a grocery store where the oldsters rehearse their larceny. That supermarket scene is far funnier than the tension-free bank job climax where the trio show up wearing lame Rat Pack masks that look nothing like Frank, Dino, or Sammy. There’s little-to-no payoff in this half-baked sequence that feels obligated to veer into more phony sentiment with a heart attack scare for Willie and an ill-advised and cutesy interaction with a little girl in the bank. A crowd-pleaser on some levels, GOING IN STYLE will likely find an audience that won’t be let down. It lacks the excitement I’d hoped up but perhaps it’s perfect for those looking to catch a matinee before the blue plate special.
Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin team up as lifelong buddies Willie, Joe and Al, who decide to buck retirement and step off the straight-and-narrow for the first time in their lives when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty. Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, the three risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.
Also stars Ann-Margret, Joey King, with Matt Dillon and Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, Peter Serafinowicz.
Directed by Zach Braff, GOING IN STYLE opens nationwide April 7, 2017.
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Production is now underway on location in New York City on the New Line Cinema comedy GOING IN STYLE, directed by Zach Braff (“Garden State”) and starring Oscar winners Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”), Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules,” “Hannah and Her Sisters”) and Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”).
Freeman, Caine and Arkin team up as lifelong buddies Willie, Joe and Al, who decide to buck retirement and step off the straight-and-narrow for the first time in their lives when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty. Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, the three risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.
The film also stars two-time Oscar nominee Ann-Margret (“Tommy,” “Carnal Knowledge”) as Annie, a grocery cashier who’s been checking Al out in more ways than one; Peter Serafinowicz (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) as Joe’s former son-in-law, Murphy, whose pot clinic connections may finally prove useful; John Ortiz (“Silver Linings Playbook”) as Jesus, a man of unspecified credentials who agrees to show them the ropes; Joey King (“Wish I Was Here”) as Joe’s whip-smart granddaughter, Brooklyn; Christopher Lloyd (“Back to the Future” trilogy) as the guys’ lodge buddy, Milton; and Oscar nominee Matt Dillon (“Crash”) as FBI Agent Hamer.
Braff will direct from a screenplay by Theodore Melfi (“St. Vincent”), based on the film by Martin Brest. The original film starred George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg and Charles Hallahan.
GOING IN STYLE is being produced by Donald De Line (“The Italian Job”). The executive producers are Tony Bill, who was a producer on the 1979 film GOING IN STYLE, Jonathan McCoy, and Andrew Haas.
The creative filmmaking team includes Emmy-nominated director of photography Rodney Charters (“24”), production designer Anne Ross (“Lost in Translation”) and costume designer Gary Jones (“New Year’s Eve”).
Scheduled for release on May 6, 2016, the film is a New Line Cinema presentation of a De Line Pictures Production. It will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
