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De Niro, Kline, Freeman, and Douglas star in 'Last Vegas'

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Last Vegas,' starring Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Douglas, focuses too much on old-age jokes.

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Chuck Zlotnick/CBS Films/AP
'Last Vegas' stars Kevin Kline (l.), Morgan Freeman (second from l.), Robert De Niro (second from r.), and Michael Douglas (r.).
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

The buddies in Jon Turteltaub’s buddy comedy “Last Vegas” are played by a formidable quartet: Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro, and Morgan Freeman. They are playing childhood friends from Flatbush, Brooklyn, who are now, as the film never fails to point out, approaching their dotage.

Douglas’s character, however, a Malibu slickster who is marrying a woman half his age, does not plan to go gentle into that good night. A bachelor party is arranged in Vegas and what transpires is like a cross between “The Bucket List” and “Grumpy Old Men.” (Mary Steenburgen, in fine fettle, shows up in a moony cameo as a casino chanteuse.)

It’s still a bit early in the long careers of these actors, especially Kline, to be playing creaky codgers. It’s bad enough when Hollywood casts women over the age of 30 as grandmothers-in-waiting. Now we have to endure an onslaught of famous veteran actors complaining about their hips. Grade: C+ (Rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual content and language.)

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