(USA, 104 min.)
Dir. John Turteltaub, Writ. Dan Fogelman
Starring: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman,
Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen.
If the seventy-seven year-old Robert Redford dies tomorrow,
he will exit Hollywood on a very high note. Redford’s performance in the
current release All is Lost is a
career best for the Hollywood icon and it shows what highs an actor can reach
when he takes risks long after he has nothing left to prove. Some of Redford’s
contemporaries—Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin
Kline—might not leave on the same note if they keel over and die, thus leaving Last Vegas as their final mark on the
movies. Last Vegas is by no means a
terrible film, nor is it the low point in any of the careers of these actors,
but it’s hard to appreciate the novelty of seeing these veterans share the
screen in such a derivative picture when Redford eclipses them with a one-man
feat. Why assemble so many great actors for a project that feels so utterly disposable?