Review Roundup: DeNiro, Douglas, Freeman & Kline Star in LAST VEGAS

Starring four legends like you've never seen them before, Last Vegas tells the story of Billy, Paddy, Archie and Sam (played by Academy-Award winners Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline), best friends since childhood.

When Billy, the group's sworn bachelor, finally proposes to his thirty-something (of course) girlfriend, the four head to Las Vegas with a plan to stop acting their age and relive their glory days. However, upon arriving, the four quickly realize that the decades have transformed Sin City and tested their friendship in ways they never imagined. The Rat Pack may have once played the Sands and Cirque du Soleil may now rule the Strip, but it's these four who are taking over Vegas. (c) CBS Films

Let's see what the critics have to say...

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: "They're pros enough to goose the show along, and there is the occasional chuckle. They're all upstaged, though, by Mary Steenburgen, who as a tax-attorney-turned-lounge-singer adds some needed zest, estrogen and romantic attraction. She's the Shirley MacLaine to these Rat Pack retirees. De Niro, Douglas, Freeman, Kline and Steenburgen make a total of five Oscar winners in Las Vegas. With talent like this, you'd have reason to expect a comedy with more spring in its step."

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Mary Steenburgen plays a former professional woman pursuing her dream as a singer, and she becomes the romantic interest of two of the men. That a 60-year-old actress can be cast in a romantic role is a welcome sign in a Hollywood movie - usually they cast a 45-year-old and take it for granted that a woman should be interested in men old enough to be her father. But it's even better that Steenburgen is so convincing in the role, as in feminine and desirable and totally believable as someone men would be fighting over. Movies like this usually have subtitles."

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: "I steeled myself for the moment when these four would fall into what-happens-in-Vegas 'high jinks,' but fortunately, they don't. The movie never enters that Hangover unreality zone. Instead, it has mild fun with how out of touch they are (good laugh: Archie tries to get into a hip club by tipping the doorman a whopping $10). Along the way, they befriend Diana (Mary Steenburgen), a lonely nightclub singer who becomes the focal point of a romantic rivalry between Paddy and - yes - Billy (it says something about Douglas that he can play a groom-to-be falling for someone else...and still get you to find him a likable crocodile)."

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: "The situations (bikini contest! bar brawl!) feel like the stuff of a thousand prior Vegas movies, and the characters aren't written with enough specificity to feel like the lifelong chums they're supposed to be. But Douglas, De Niro, Freeman and Kline collectively stuff the movie into a sack and hoist it as high as they can manage."

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "The entire cast, from Jerry Ferrara as a frat boy on the loose to the dynamite Polly Craig as an aquaaerobics instructor, comes up aces. But special kudos to Freeman, who kills it on the dance floor and later while drunk off his ass on vodka and Red Bull. You'll groan as much as howl at the jokes, but the veteran stars have a ball acting their age. Even when all else fails them, they're good company"

Stephanie Merry, The Washington Post: "Kline is especially memorable, and his comedic abilities have hardly diminished in the years since A Fish Called Wanda. When he can't figure out to how to pop the trunk or unlock the doors of his rental car, he turns what could have been a trite joke into big laughs."

A.O. Scott, The New York Times: "If you crossed The Hangover with The Bucket List, you might wind up with something like Last Vegas. For all I know, that may have been the exact pitch that brought a green light to this almost defiantly pointless film, competently directed by Jon Turteltaub. A mild geezer comedy full of jokes that might have sounded tired at a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, the movie has no reason for existence and nothing much to recommend it."

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: "Director Jon Turteltaub's signal accomplishment here is to have created a congenial environment in which the actors could bond and have fun within proper boundaries. The foursome's approach to these uncomplicated characters is at once relaxed and alert, loose and quick on their toes; they're just darn good company for a couple of hours, both when they're rejecting the usual expectations to act their age but especially when they're working through emotional issues for which even decades of experience provide inadequate preparation."

For more information on Last Vegas click here.

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