The first film practically tailored the characters to the actors. Before you can say "deus ex machina," the three team up with a fellow (John Ortiz) they term a lowlife, presumably because he's Hispanic. The cranky Albert's only problem seems to be dodging the affections of a perky fellow senior citizen (Ann-Margret) and teaching talentless students how to play sax. ![]() It also doesn't help that Joe is about to lose his home thanks to a dodgy loan policy from his bank and that Willie desperately needs a new kidney to live. Hell or High Water covered the same subject matter with greater subtlety and candor.Īll three lifelong friends (who curiously have wildly different accents) have had their pensions swiped as part of a fallout from a corporate merger. In this version, Melfi seems to be holding the characters and the audience at gunpoint in a heavy handed attempt to make the film feel contemporary. ![]() In the first film, the trio undertook robbing a bank simply out of boredom or a whim. The only advantage the current movie has over its predecessor is that it features three Oscar-winning leading men instead of two (despite his legacy as a theatrical educator, Strasberg sadly went to his grave as a mere nominee). It's like being trapped in a train taking a circular path along western Kansas. Despite Braff's flashy graphics and deviations from chronological order, Going in Style never achieves any sort of peaks or valleys. It's almost as if we're following the lives of Joe (Michael Caine), Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Albert (Alan Arkin) from cradle to grave in real time. On second thought, drugs wouldn't help because they'd only make the tedium seem longer. Since they both come from the world of independent features, maybe they thought working for a major studio required them to treat viewers as if they've had recent lobotomies or were watching the film under heavy anesthesia. With the setup involved here, it's doubtful that George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg could have stolen viewers' hearts as easily as they did in their own movie.ĭirector Zach Braff ( Garden State, Wish I Was Here) and screenwriter Theodore Melfi ( Hidden Figures, Saint Vincent) have made at least one decent film apiece but don't seem to have any idea why their previous films worked. Rating: PG-13, for drug content, language and some suggestive material ![]() 70 Cast: Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, Joey King, Matt Dillon, Ann-Margret, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Serafinowicz, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, John Ortiz
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