Chris Kavan's Movie Review of Stand Up Guys (2013)

Rating of
2.5/4

Stand Up Guys (2013)

The Mobster Bucket List
Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/18/13

With the amount of pedigree involved, Stand Up Guys certainly has the potential to be a knock out - but somewhere along the way this actor's piece gets a bit bogged down in combining comedy more suited to some teen-centric demographic along with over-dramatic moments that just never gels with the actors involved.

Let's start with what works: any time Alan Arkin is on screen, I loved the movie. His character is a nice mix of exuberant excitement and world-weary acceptance of his mortality. Whether playing chicken with the cops or living his final wish of having, as the French call it, a Menage a Trois, he is pure gold. It's too bad his part isn't larger (and that he exits entirely too quickly) because I enjoyed pretty much every scene he is in.

That's not to say that Al Pacino and Christopher Walken didn't have their moments. We are talking about two very big icons of cinema here. Yet their rapport wasn't entirely successful either. If felt a big like the movie should have been titled Grumpy Old Mobsters - adventures with Viagra (or some other magical pill), breaking into various buildings, impromptu dancing - and, I kid you not, Pacino eats like three steak dinners in the course of seven hours (from 1 a.m to 8 a.m.) - things go from very heavy to way too lighthearted - sometimes in the course of a few minutes.

Plus, for a movie about mobsters (or at least criminals), there is surprisingly little actual action. The ending has shades of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - but aside from that, a very brief car chase and helping a woman in the trunk get a little revenge - most of the film is about two guys reminiscing about the past and wondering about the future. The twist is that Walken's Doc character is in charge of putting a hit out on Pacino's Val character throughout the film - and he's been hanging on to this burden for 28 years while Val has stewed in prison. Why was he in prison? He was the guy who took the fall for a pretty big crime - never ratted out anyone else - but during this crime, a boss lost his son to a stray bullet and blames Val - thus holding Doc on the line to get his revenge.

Women actually play a part in this film - Julianna Margulies plays the daughter of Arkin's character. Lucy Punch is the owner of a brothel - that is visited quite often and Addison Timlin plays a waitress at a 24/7 diner (hence the many steak dinners) who is actually Doc's granddaughter - but he isn't ready to tell her and finally Vanessa Ferlito shows up a our friend in the trunk who is looking for revenge.

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about the film is that I honestly couldn't tell when it was supposed to take place. No one seems to have a cell phone and everyone's TV is an an old tube style - yet the car of choice has a push-button starter and Viagra (or its equivalent) is readily available. I thought maybe the 90s - but it could entirely be set in the present (where people use landlines and payphones for some reason). It bothered me more than anything else, that's for sure.

The best recommendation I can give is if you want these actors take on a different kind of role. A mix of some comedy, some drama and just a pinch of action - Stand Up Guys may not top many lists, but it's worth watching just to see these movie titans in a different kind of role.

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