19. Going in Style

First off, apologies for the lack of blogging! If any of you read my original post you may be aware that the purpose of this blog is to record all the films I've seen in the cinema this year; unfortunately we had a break week last week. In the meantime I've become obsessed with an american law drama series 'How to Get Away with Murder', and BBC documentary 'Reported Missing' but that's not what any of you came to read about.

This week has been interesting - we went to see Going in Style, a film about 3 old men deciding to rob a bank. It all came a bit to close to the bone when an hour before the film started I had a call from the bank telling me that someone had cloned my card and emptied my account (it's not all bad as there wasn't much in there to start with), but I still managed to enjoy the film once I'd got over my initial frustration!

The film is actually a remake of a 1979 film of the same name - I wasn't aware of this until after I saw the film. Joe (Michael Caine), Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Albert (Alan Arkin), are all friends who work at the same company. The company gets bought out and pension schemes are scrapped, all at the same time as Joe is caught up in an armed robbery at his own bank. From here, the three men are annoyed at the situation they are left in and feel like it is unjust. Joe suggests robbing a bank, as he witnessed, as the criminals got away with it. Slowly all 3 come round to the idea and hatch a plan.

Along the way, we learn about the men's families, and their other motives for getting the money. We see them attempt robberies as practices along the way, with hilarious consequences. The movie is fun, and the ending is clever and interesting. It is your classic heist movie, with a small twist. If you like The Italian Job, Ocean's 11, Now You See Me, you'll probably enjoy this film. My only gripe here, is that I didn't think it was original enough (well it is a remake but work with me here). The USP of Going in Style is the comedy value; the fact it is 3 pensioners robbing a bank. For me, there weren't enough laugh out loud moments, and the story and plot didn't work hard enough to make this a stand out film. With Now You See Me, the element of magic makes the plot really interesting, Ocean's 11 you have 3 robberies and a whole mob of people and so on.

What I'm trying to say here, is that while Going in Style is no doubt a fun movie, it is nothing revolutionary or dramatically different that makes it special. Of course I enjoyed my self in the cinema, watching Caine, Freeman and Arkin literally having the best fun making this film, but it's not going to win any awards, and it's perhaps a film I'm not going to be itching to see again.

For that reason, I give Going in Style, a 6.5/10. It does what it says on the tin, and it's an easy watch for a lazy day or a hangover day, but it's nothing that I haven't seen before. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are still my heroes though.