Friday, May 31, 2013

STAND UP GUYS: THE GOOD OLD DAYS

I grew up watching Al Pacino and Christopher Walken from their early starts to their current films. I've loved almost every character they've played and every movie they've been in. So when I heard that they were going to be in a movie together playing old time mobsters I was delighted. I'm pleased to say that while this movie doesn't offer them at their extreme best, it is a wonderful film that I might find myself tempted to watch again in the future.

Pacino plays Val, a low level criminal who is just getting out of prison having served a 28 year sentence for an armed robbery where someone was killed. Walken plays Doc, his best friend, who shows to pick him up and take him back home. But things have changed in the old neighborhood not to mention with the two old cons that have aged over the years.

Enjoying his time outside Val doesn't want to go back to Doc's place, he wants to go out on the town and enjoy the life he once knew. He doesn't realize until things happen that he's not who he once was. A visit to the old whorehouse they used to go to finds the new Madame is the old one's grand daughter. An unsuccessful go round for Val leads the duo to break into a pharmacy to steal some Viagra. While there, Doc begins to lift a few other drugs that he now takes on a regular basis. The result of the Viagra lends itself to one of the funniest moments in the film.

Val later attempts to hit on a couple young girls at a club thinking he's still the young buck he once was only to get turned down. He's now an old man. As reality sits in he finds new ways to deal with it.

Unknown to Val is the fact that Doc, while his friend, has been given the unenviable task of killing him. It seems that the big boss, Claphands, wants Val dead. During the robbery that landed Val in jail, Claphands son was shot by Val in the crossfire. Even though Val took the fall for the whole group, even though he was a stand up guy, Claphands wants him dead.

Eventually Val realizes what is going to go down. Rather than fight it, he and Doc set off on a series of adventures in an attempt to live life to the fullest until the fateful hour that Doc has to sign off that he's been killed. Included in those adventures is the rescue from a nursing home of their old wheel man Hirsch (Alan Arkin) who has one of the funniest moments in the film when they return to the whorehouse.

What makes this movie so good is the interplay between Pacino and Walken as two friends who have grown old, one who realizes it and has learned to deal with it living on the outside and the other who doesn't at first having been in prison for 28 years. Living those years in a cell Val hasn't seen the world around him change but Doc has. The prescription scene is one that verifies that. But the camaraderie between these two friends and later Hirsch makes up for their differences and unites them as friends, as stand up guys, until the final moments of the film.

It's rare that either of the lead actors in this film offer a bad performance and here they once again show why they've always been at the top of the list in their profession. Both bring subtle nuances to their roles that many might not see at first but that bring their characters to life. It might be that the roles they play don't lend themselves to being larger than life parts that will become memorable but what they do with these parts makes them realistic and touching in so many ways.

The movie offers many laughs, a heartfelt look at growing old and performances by some of the best actors in the business. It entertains from start to finish and you couldn't ask much more of a movie these days. It may not be a slap in the face effects filled blockbuster of a film but it is one that can be enjoyed more than once.

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