MANILA, Philippines - The Hangover might just be one of the most influential movies of the modern age. It has spawned two sequels, made box-office stars out of almost everyone in it and — crucially — got other films lining up to compare themselves to it.
Brace yourselves: There’s another movie about friends going on a wild trip to Vegas coming to a theater near you.
Cleverly titled Las Vegas, the outrageous comedy stars four Oscar winners — Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kline.
Despite it having the same premise as 2009’s The Hangover, the movie won’t be following the hangover/blackout/drunken amnesia theme.
The Hollywood veterans play four childhood buddies who travel to Sin City to celebrate Douglas’s tanned-to-hell character getting hitched to a pretty young thing. Kline’s surprisingly agile old man gets a condom and a Viagra pill from his wife (Joanna Gleason), who gives him her permission to get his freak on, while Freeman’s cardiac-prone fogey just wants to have a good time and escape his too-concerned son (Michael Ealy). Meanwhile, longtime romantic rivals Douglas and De Niro go head-to-head for the affections of a lounge singer (Mary Steenburgen).
As you’d expect, it’s goofy and routine as all get out. Director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure franchise) seems to have made this movie for no other reason than to see the Oscar-winning actors make wisecracks about wearing out, but the foursome maintains a dignified, wink-wink playfulness that offsets all the cringe-worthy acts they do.
Actors are a notoriously vain lot, and who can blame them, given that their work involves having their faces projected on the widest of screens, with all the wrinkles and bags magnified for the world to see.
Turteltaub said t--he actors didn’t shrink from the challenge of playing an unlikely band throwing a bachelor party. “Not only did they embrace playing their ages, but they even made fun of how old they are in the movie,†said Turteltaub. “They were unashamed of the reality of aging.â€