There are certain actors that when you hear their name or see their name attached to a movie you automatically think to yourself, “I’m seeing that movie.” Al Pacino and Christopher Walken are two of those actors on my list so of course I was already excited to see “Stand Up Guys”.
When the movie starts you see Valentine, or as his friends call him, Val, getting ready to leave prison. While he’s on his way out, his best friend Doc is getting ready to go pick him up. You find out about half way through the movie that Val took the fall on a crime and didn’t rat anyone out and was sent to prison.
Unfortunately, during this crime there was a shootout where he accidentally shot his bosses son and killed him. Of course, one does not simply forget the killing of one’s son so the boss is still holding a grudge and wants Val dead. It doesn’t take Val long to realize that they have sent his best friend Doc to finish him off. The rest of the movie is Val trying to live in the moment and knock off some things on his bucket list before he meets his demise.
Pacino, Walken and Arkin are just ok in the movie. It just didn’t feel like the movie was moving fast enough. It was a lot of dialogue between Pacino and Walken then halfway through they added Arkin. With the three of them, I expected a really great film but was disappointed with the speed of the movie in general. I guess I was expecting more of a fast paced, shoot’em up or do more things on your bucket list than breaking into a suit shop and getting a suit before you died or robbing a drug store to steal random drugs.
Overall, I would say wait on this one. It’s not a must see at the theater, definitely a rental at the most. There are other great movies to still see at the theater and also you could be checking out movies that are on the Oscar list. Some of them I’ve seen like Silver Linings Playbook which you can read by click link here. A great movie if you haven’t already seen it.
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