There’s no reason for this movie to exist except as an excuse to watch Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin perform together—but you do get to watch Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin perform together. Loosely remaking the 1979 film of the same name, it follows the three octogenarians as—forced to extreme measures by their mutual former employer abandoning its pension responsibilities—they plot a bank heist. Director Zach Braff’s version tries to add that timely punch of working-class anger at Big Corporations and Big Banks, which feels like an odd fit for the mostly frivolous caper. And the biggest laughs have almost nothing to do with the three stars, but rest on the supporting shoulders of Josh Pais, Christopher Lloyd and Kenan Thompson. Caine, Freeman and Arkin get relatively little interesting to do, but they manage to find an easy chemistry—old friends watching The Bachelorette together—in that way that savvy veterans can make something out of nothing. It rolls pleasantly along towards exactly where you want it to go, a comfortable curtain-call moment for actors who probably deserve better.
By
Scott Renshaw