GOING IN STYLE movie review

During The Great Depression, famous outlaws or bank robbers are given celebrity or cult hero status because they have Robin Hood routines in their operation. The story of Going In Style is about three elderly men played by award-winning actors Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin as they resolve their solution by robbing a bank.

 

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

What made this comedy unique is that the protagonists are all elderly and they are out to do what is unexpected of them. They can do slapstick comedy but not like the Three Stooges would do.  But there are also tender moments.

These three gentlemen have chemistry that I haven’t seen since Grumpy Old Men which also starred Ann Margret whom still got what it takes for a woman her age. I remember watching an old movie Bye Bye Birdie with the young Ann Margret. It was released before I was born and I was watching it in a TV station that shows these kinds of movies.

This is truly a movie worth watching and you don’t have to wait for it to be premiered on local television dubbed in Tagalog because the story is so simple that even a kid in elementary school can understand.

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JOEY KING in "GROWING IN STYLE"

Press release

“THE CONJURING” CHILD STAR JOEY KING GROWS UP “IN STYLE”

Joey King is one of the leading teen actresses in the world today having been, at 17, in the business for over a decade. She has starred in such blockbusters as The Conjuring, Oz the Great and Powerful, The Dark Knight Rises and White House Down. Now, she plays the granddaughter of Michael Caine's character in New Line Cinema's a fun and fast-paced comedy Going in Style.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

In the film, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin team up as lifelong buddies Willie, Joe and Albert, who decide to buck retirement and step off the straight-and-narrow for the first time in their lives when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty. Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, the three risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.

Adding to Joe’s (Caine) resolve to rob a bank is the fact that his family relies on him to help keep a roof over their heads. Says Caine, “He has a granddaughter named Brooklyn (King) whom he adores, and her mom is a single mother who works very hard but it’s not enough. Joe is just trying to make the payments and keep it all going. But now the bank is going to foreclose on the house and they have to be out in 20 days.”

In the role of 14-year-old Brooklyn, director Zach Braff cast Joey King, then 16. “The part was written younger, and for a boy, but I thought it would be interesting to see the relationship of a grandfather trying to keep up with an energetic, teenage girl, so Ted Melfi rewrote it for Joey,” Braff says. “I first met Joey on Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful, and I thought, ‘This little girl is something special.’ Then I cast her in Wish I Was Here. She’s a phenomenal actress.”

“Joe and Brooklyn have a great, loving connection,” says King. “They’re more like best friends than grandfather and granddaughter, and are always having discussions. It’s such a sweet rapport. He’s proud of how smart she is and he’s always looking toward her future, and she really brings out his fun and youthful side. Plus, they’re protective of each other.”

King is currently in South Africa in production on Netflix’s feature The Kissing Booth, and is attached as the title character in Catherine Hardwicke’s Stargirl, based on the bestselling young adult novel by Jerry Spinelli. She will also be seen starring as a wayward, pot-smoking runaway in Smartass, and alongside James Franco, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, and Megan Fox in Franco’s indie dramedy Zeroville.

Opening across the Philippines on April 6, 2017, Going in Style is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

MATT DILLON IN “GOING IN STYLE”

Press release

MATT DILLON, ON THE TRAIL OF BANK-ROBBING SENIORS IN “GOING IN STYLE”

Oscar-nominated actor Matt Dillon (Crash, There's Something About Mary) stars as an FBI Agent on the case of the elderly bank robbers in New Line Cinema's a fun and fast-paced comedy Going in Style.

Photo credits: Warner Bros.

In the film, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin team up as lifelong buddies Willie, Joe and Albert, who decide to buck retirement and step off the straight-and-narrow for the first time in their lives when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty. Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, the three risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.

The inevitable wrench in the works comes in the form of smug FBI agent Hamer (Dillon), whom director Zach Braff thought “would legitimately feel like an FBI agent but also be a good foil for these guys, and be funny, and Matt was perfect,” he states.

Assigned to the first bank robbery, in which Joe (Caine) was a bystander, Hamer is still trying to get to the bottom of that when, surprisingly, the bank gets hit a second time.

“Hamer wants to win; he’s that guy who has to be right, says Dillon. “In his initial meeting with Joe, who’s just a witness to the first bank robbery and hasn’t even done anything criminal yet, Hamer feels that Joe’s a little condescending, telling him how he should do his job, and suggesting that maybe he should watch more Law & Order. Hamer finds it a bit amusing but, of course, just on that line of being insulting.”

Hamer’s not dumb, either. He’s a good investigator for the most part, and he has a feeling these three coots are up to something, though he can’t quite figure it out. But he’s certainly not going to give up trying.

Opening across the Philippines on April 6, 2017, Going in Style is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

GOING IN STYLE Official Trailer

Press release

SENIORS PLAN A BANK HEIST IN FIRST “GOING IN STYLE” TRAILER

New Line Cinema has just debuted the first trailer for its new heist comedy Going in Style starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

Oscar winners Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin team up as lifelong buddies Willie, Joe and Al, who decide to buck retirement and step off the straight-and-narrow for the first time in their lives when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty, in director Zach Braff’s comedy Going in Style.

Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, the three risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.

The film also stars two-time Oscar nominee Ann-Margret as Annie, a grocery cashier who’s been checking Al out in more ways than one. Joey King stars as Joe’s whip-smart granddaughter, Brooklyn; with Oscar nominee Matt Dillon as FBI Agent Hamer; and Christopher Lloyd as the guys’ lodge buddy, Milton. John Ortiz also stars as Jesus, a man of unspecified credentials who agrees to show the guys the ropes, and Peter Serafinowicz as Joe’s former son-in-law, Murphy, whose pot clinic connections may finally prove useful.

Zach Braff directs from a screenplay by Theodore Melfi.

Going in Style is scheduled for release across the Philippines beginning April 6, 2017. It will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. Opens in Philippine cinemas on April 06, 2017.