If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney), and Willie (Lee Strasberg) are three geriatrics who share an apartment together in Brooklyn and spend their days sitting on a park bench, talking aimlessly amongst themselves or just sitting in silence as they decay in public. Living off their social security checks, and not really caring what the future days bring them, Joe proposes an idea to the guys that sounds infinitely more tempting than sitting on the park bench every day. The idea is that the three men buy disguises and proceed to plan and orchestrate a bank robbery. If they get caught, with all three of them having a spotless history, their sentence won't be long and, even if it is, they get free meals and a place to live as far as they're concerned. Not to mention, upon release, they'll have several uncashed social security checks waiting for them. If they get caught, well then they're "x" amount of money richer.Joe, Al, and Willie conduct the heist and, through a couple of minor complications, still manage to make out with around $35,000, an unprecedented amount they have never even come in contact with. The three men decide to take their earnings to Las Vegas, where they could either lose it all or make it back and even double it. These are cockamamie circumstances but such are the plot lines of Martin Brest's mainstream, directorial debut Going in Style, a hilarious comedy that also packs in some seriously contemplative ideas about what age does and how the need for adrenaline in some never simmers.The people who assume that everything done by the characters in Going in Style is done "just because" are the people who are going to emerge unsatisfied and underwhelmed by the film. Those who see Joe, Al, and Willie for what they really are - goofy, free-spirited, fearless, and genial - and their motivations as practical examples of a desire to fulfill nudging temptations are those who will emerge from the film ecstatic and satisfied. I fall in the latter. After watching three great character actors perform the dialog, events, and antics of a criminally underrated writer/director, I felt that Going in Style had been depressingly overlooked by the general public and deserved not just a rewatch but an reconsideration for its themes and ideas on age.To begin with, Burns, Carney, and Strasberg are all tremendous here, with no character outshining another as they all get their moments to shine. Early scenes are key to how we get to appreciate and like these characters, as we watch them sit and stare at birds, read the daily headlines, feed pigeons, or tell rambunctious rugrats to get lost. This is age in a nutshell; something that could confine you to a park bench, a newspapers, and passing glances if you allow it to. Joe, Al, and Willie could've easily been confined to this life till they died, but because of Joe's ostensibly outlandish but, in reality, somewhat practical proposal, the three can carry out something that makes them feel like they have meaning and significance.Consider the scenes when the men plan the robbery and how they plan to handle the understandably panicked bank tellers and customers. Just the act of planning this makes them glow and gets them excited; this is the first thing they've had to look forward to in years, and with that, the men decide to conduct the heist. As haphazardly-conducted as the heist turns out to be, the three couldn't care less. They feel important, they've just done something bad, and they will live the rest of their lives (however long that may be) with the idea that they did something important. Do the crime, do the time (maybe), get the bragging rights.The film was directed by Martin Brest, who later went on to do Beverly Hills Cop, Meet Joe Black, and Midnight Run, all of which have gone on to bear more prominent reputations than the unassuming Going in Style. Brest has always been one for action comedies, but Going in Style showcases an early point in his career where he seemed fascinated by the idea that adrenaline can still be had by the most unsuspecting people doing the most unsuspecting things. Ignoring its unremarkable legacy and future, this is a hilarious film with underrated meditations on life and age that shouldn't go unnoticed.Starring: George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. Directed by: Martin Brest.

That is the quality imbued in this film by Brest, through the writing and direction. It would have been so easy to make a caper film, or a male-bonding buddy picture, but Brest does it the hard way so that we care about the characters and not the story. He fills each role with actors who look real, not pretty, like Charles Hallahan as Pete. He looks like someone who's worked all his life, not a person sent down by central casting.And he is unafraid to let silence play a roll. How many directors would find 'suitable' music to waft in and out of the soundtrack as the three amigos occupy their bench? Here they sit in blessed silence until we wonder who will speak next, since Willie does not seem to want to open his mouth. When they get to Vegas, it would be so easy to do quick cuts of their winning streak with appropriate music blasting, but Brest stretches the scene so that we are not sure if they will keep their gains.Any sentiment comes hard earned, like watching Joe stumbling around the apartment after the death of Willie, finding his own album of photographs and reflecting, only to have nature spoil the mood.

A terrific gem of a film.Three elderly men are so bored with their lives that they rob a bank and actually get away with it for a while.The trio are all masterfully played by Art Carney, Lee Strasberg and George Burns.With the robbery behind them, it's time for vacation in flashy Las Vegas. Coming back to face the ultimate music, 2 of our "heroes" pass on and leave the rest of the story and the loot to the survivor.A sad but extremely effective commentary on retirement and old age. If you're contemplating retirement, miss this film until you know how you're going to spend your days.

Three seniors, bored with just sitting on a bench decide to rob a bank. What happens is probably a sweetened version of what might happen if it were to really happen, or would have back when this movie was made. This is probably George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg's shining moment on film. The acting of the three leads is perfect and conveys the boredom of life before the robbery, the excitement of the robbery and the confusion of the fall out. Why aren't more movies like this being made? This is not a comedy. Yes its funny but there is a dark side to the film concerning not only the fall out of the robbery but also what it means to be old in America.This is a low key, off beat gem of a film that hooks me every time I run across it on TV. Its wonderful and though everything doesn't go right, its uplifting in its way simply because we get to see real old people trying to get by and not Hollywood's version of them.See this movie.