maandag 29 juli 2013

Stand Up Guys (2012)

Genre : Crime/Comedy
Country : USA

Cast :
Al Pacino : Val
Christopher Walken : Doc
Alan Arkin : Hirsch

Director :
Fisher Stevens

Summary
After 28 years, Val gets out of prison, and his friend Doc picks him up. The local mob boss, Claphands, wants Val dead (Claphands' son died in a robbery and he blames Val) and Doc has until morning to kill him. It's a long night: Val wants to party - they visit a cat house, Val needs Viagra, they break into a pharmacy. After midnight, they pick up Hirsch, their old wheelman, drive the city in a stolen car. They visit the cat house, help a woman in distress, bury a body, and eat at Doc's hangout, a café where the waitress, Alex, is cheerful. The sun rises, Claphands wants Val dead, and Val, who has figured out his fate, is resigned. Is there anything left to take care of?

My opinion
I really enjoyed this movie. No sublime humor and not really a crime film, but the proper dosage makes it an ideal mix for you to enjoy. I do like the dry humor and the little sarcasm. Now you can see what a fist full of Viagra may cause. I wonder whether the title of the film is a reference to it. The scene where Val is in the hospital and everyone is having small talk, while he's lying there with a totem pole, is hilarious.

Pacino, Walkin and Arkin are three aces from an older generation who are hard to match. I see no candidates for their status in the current new collection of actors. These three together in the same film is a feast for the eyes.

Several times I had to chuckle cause of the dry humor :
Val: So how's your health?
Hirsch: Well, they took something out of me a couple of months ago.
Val: What'd they take out?
Hirsch: I don't know. I didn't ask, it's none of my business. But I'm a little more streamlined now, a little more aerodynamic.

The action was limited but that was intentional. And how it ends, is irrelevant. The whole movie was a build up to the point that Doc actually had to liquidate Val and the long friendship overcomes that.

I used the "Delete" button already often on my "Medi8ter" but this one stays nicely parked there, so that when I have reached the blessed age of those 3 men, I can watched it once more in peace and quiet.