***Out In The 2010s Be-Bop Night-Michael Douglas’ Last Vegas             

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Last Vegas, starring Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Mary Steenburgen, and Kevin Kline, 2013  

Some cinematic efforts are aimed at a general audience, some toward teens and some, well some to the AARP generation, the now AARP generation since the stars in this film under review, Last Vegas, won their acting spurs when we were young and thought they were cool with their new way of interpreting acting. Well they still are cool, Michael, Robert, Morgan, Mary, and Kevin, even if they have lost a step or seven along the way. This is such an age-centered niche film that I defy anybody to tell me that anybody under say forty would appreciate the story-line.

Here is why. Michael Douglas a 70 something life-long bachelor and ladies’ man decides in the face of mortality to get married to a woman significantly younger than himself. Naturally for the geriatric set this wedding was to take place in Las Vegas, the land of ageless dreams. In order to do things up right for Michael it is decided that he and his old time corner boys from Brooklyn (that’s in NYC for the clueless) should meet up for one last go-round in Vegas.       

 After rounding up the old crew in Vegas all the natural pratfalls of the old and set in their ways dodge the foursome (except for a duel run at Mary by Michael and Robert). The major question though is the propriety of Michael marrying that young thing which is of course resolved against the notion of intergenerational alliances. The stop of the wedding is aided by that age-appropriate Mary and her beguiling of Michael as well as sage advice from Robert. Along the way all the issues of aging-sickness, assisted living, over-protective children, sexual impotence, sexual desire, and mortality are dealt with either comically or more seriously- issues that those who relate to the wisdom of  50 Cent would be either clueless or indifferent about but that the generation of ’68 is dealing right now with as this is written. Definitely a feel-good movie for oldsters.