Last Vegas

A Not As Good 'Hangover' Remake



Director: John Turteltaub

Release Date: 2014

Rating: 15

Running Time: 105mins

Genre: Comedy

Actors: Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline

'The Hangover' in 40 years is probably the most obvious way of summing up this film, but for me, I felt like it didn't really have the same sort of originality and excitement as 'The Hangover'. In my opinion as much as I hate saying it, I felt like 'Last Vegas' was trying too hard to be something that it's not. In all honesty I felt like this film didn't really have a clear idea of what it wanted to do, which is so annoying because I wanted so much for it to be good.

In the film we see four retired friends head out to Vegas for one of their bachelor parties and we get to see how, despite their age, they still know how to have a good time. Overall, it was an enjoyable film and fair to say, I laughed plenty, but if it was intended to be a comedy I don't know why they then tried to put some dramatic twists into it. I think if the actors and producers wanted to just have fun making the film, then they should have just done that because I would've still been highly enjoyable, but instead I was feeling a bit annoyed at the drama that they put in because it took me too far away from the funny comedy feel good side.

No surprises this film did manage to storm the box office in it's opening weekend, but with such a renowned cast it's no surprise why audiences wanted to see it so much. I think the cast did help this film to do as well as it did and no doubt if it was four less famous actors it certainly would not have done as well at all. I think the main reason for this is the fact that the whole 'Let's go to Vegas' thing has been done too many times now, especially with the final Hangover film doing as bad as it did. I think the best way of summing 'Last Vegas up is that it's a lot of fun and there are plenty of funny scenes, but overall it was far too predictable and felt like they were making this film for the sake of making a film and they were trying to be people they aren't any more. I suppose in a way, that's part of the comedy and the irony of this film, but it just felt a bit too unecersary. Needless to say Robert DeNiro and Morgan Freeman are still two of the best actors of all time and are still churning out some incredible films, so why choose to make this kind of film? I reckon they thought why not, and this film was more made for them than anyone else and it was just away of having fun making these kinds of films before they really do get too old.

But maybe it's just me being cynical, my advice would be, check out the film and take it with a pinch of salt and just enjoy it because the comedy and story overall should make people feel good.

4/10