GOING IN STYLE

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(Mildly funny/poignant senior movie)

Take three great actors (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin) and put them in a movie about three senior citizens trying to survive, and you should have a hilarious movie.

Unfortunately, the writers have not been imaginative enough to go for the big laughs, settling for chuckles, stereotypes of seniors, a bland plot, and two funny scenes that are shown over and over again in the trailers.

All three play well off each other, and all have interesting personalities.

Caine is Joe, the mastermind behind the plan to rob the bank that tripled his mortgage and threatens to take his house. Freeman is Willie, roommate of Albert (Arkin). Both, along with Joe, have lost their pensions when their former employee closes and moves jobs overseas.

What to do? Rob the bank that caused their misery.

They test out their skills in a botched attempt to rob the local supermarket. The funniest line comes from Albert as he is chased by a security guard, stops and shouts, "I'm not stopping because I'm guilty. I'm just tired.” We watch them plan and execute the robbery, and then watch a detective (Matt Dillon) track them down, only to be foiled in a clever ending.

Being senior citizens ourselves, we always look forward to the few movies made about our generation, providing work for talented senior actors. While these three veterans are fun to watch, we also had to endure too many stereotypical portrayals of seniors. The one exception was Ann-Margret, still beautiful and fun to watch. And Christopher Lloyd is still as off-the-wall as he was when he was younger.

Going in Style is still a pleasant diversion, and we enjoyed it. We had just hoped for a few more laughs and a more imaginative plot.

Rated PG-13, with some profanity, drug use and sexual references.