Stand Up Guys

Superlative acting and direction. Actors use minimal dialogues yet say everything just by facial expressions. This is what real acting should be unlike bollywood films full of dialoguebaazi.

Al Pacino is always good, no matter what it feels good to watch his movies, always..

Excellent acting. Don't miss.

Ignore the negative reviews about this film, all from Millennials with the brains of a slow fifth-grader. You could describe this movie as "Space Cowboys" with guns, but it's far more than that. It's actually a love story, the bond between lifelong friends that usually goes unspoken, except in times of utter desperation. The fact that they're all criminals is just what they do for a living, beyond the bounds "normal" people. The ties that bind go far beyond mere surface morals and definitions of "good" and "bad," but to the very core of human emotions and existence. I loved this homage to nearly every crime drama worth watching, but given a twist and sense of humor and humanity that extends well beyond the cliche. The acting, the characters, and the writing... is timeless. This film, like good wine, seems to get better with each successive taste.

This movie is a bit slow, but I love it anyway. The actors in the movie are some of the best of all time. The main plot slowly builds with very interesting, and very funny "mini-plots" all along the way. I love it best when Sylvia, played by Vanessa Ferlito, gets to relieve an enormous amount of anger. This movie contains drama, action, and a lot of comedy. I don't watch movies to "pick apart" the scenes in it. I watch movies to enjoy them, especially when they have actors in them that I admire, respect, and love!

...not even three outstanding, seasoned actors like Pacino, Walken and Arkin. The only saving grace is that It is still fascinating to watch them work. "Stand Up Guys" is a slow, unsatisfying suck-fest of a Hollywood gangland cliché punctuated by boorish and sometimes gut-churning dialog. A solid disappointment, but then not every film is a hit. Sometimes a job is just a job. These guys do their job and, as usual, it seems effortless and natural.If you are making a study of these three actors, it is worth viewing, but I cannot recommend it as great or even good cinema. Nor even any much fun although seeing "Vikings" star Katheryn Winnick in a bit part was something of a hoot.

If you like any of or all of the three main characters, then that is reason enough to watch this movie. I happen to like all three of these oft brilliant actors. While not particularly brilliant, in my opinion, in this movie, they deliver a quirky tale of comic redemption of three aging gangsters. Now, I use the definition of the word comic which some dictionaries idiotically, authoritarianly and incorrectly claim is obsolete. That definition is the definition of comedy: a theatrical or literary piece portraying the life of the common man. In contrast, tragedy is a theatrical or literary piece depicting the life and fate of the great and powerful. Comedy, therefore, contains funny or light hearted as well as dramatic moments. Tragedy, on the other hand, depicts only dramatic events, events which shape and ruin the lives of the great and powerful. So, this piece was a comedy. Common men who are gangsters, aging gangsters who comedically or comically go out with a bang. Thus, all three do this very well and the movie is worth watching if for no other reason than to see three great aging actors who are still making immensely watchable movies.

I was going to give it three starts, but then remembered how these legendary actors were able to take a nothing of a script, and even less of a plot, and make a pretty dark comedy of them. There is no ending to give away; you will literally have to make up the outcome in your own mind in spite of how the ending was set up.