Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Going in Style Blu-ray Movie Review

Not Yet Gone

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 8, 2017

Martin Brest's 1979 Going in Style starred George Burns, Art Carney and the legendary Lee Strasberg (that's Hyman Roth for you Godfather fans) as three retirees who decide to rob a bank rather than go gently into that good night. It's a minor classic: a dark comedy about the pain and frustration of aging that doesn't shrink from its characters' sense of bitterness and loss. Zach Braff's 2017 remake, the actor's third outing as a feature director, is harmless enough, but Braff and screenwriter Theodore Melfi (Hidden Figures) have drained the tale of anything that might make an audience uncomfortable. Their Going in Style presents a fairy tale version of old age, treating diminished abilities and fading health as comic fodder without acknowledging the harsh realities. Calling the film "toothless" would be too obvious a joke, but it certainly lacks bite.

In Martin Brest's original, three elderly roommates embark on a crime spree because they're bored and want to feel young again. Braff and Melfi update the story to make robbery an act of protest, after three life-long friends—Joe (Michael Caine), Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Al (Alan Arkin)—lose their hard-earned pensions to a corporate reorganization. Joe's revolt also encompasses the financial industry, because the teaser mortgage rate offered by his local bank has expired and his payments are soaring, putting his home at risk of foreclosure. To add insult to injury, the very same bank that is threatening to take Joe's home is also overseeing the corporate restructuring that has eliminated the three buddies' pension fund. (In real life, that plum assignment would never be handed to a local savings bank, but never mind.)

Inspiration strikes when Joe's bank is robbed by three men with masks and automatic weapons while he is there arguing with an officious officer (Josh Pais). Why couldn't we do the same thing? he asks his two friends. Willie, who is concealing a serious medical issue, signs on immediately, but Al takes longer to be persuaded. Eventually, the trio find themselves in a seedy pet shop run by "Jesus" (John Ortiz), to whom they've been referred for expert advice on the nuts and bolts of violent crime.

Braff and Melfi fill their remake with an array of subplots and secondary characters to provide schmaltz and amusement while distracting our attention from the improbability of the geezers' enterprise. Both Willie and Joe have granddaughters on whom they dote, and in Joe's case, the teen (Joey King) and her mother (Maria Dizzia) live with him so that he can walk her to and from school every day. Al has no family in the picture, but he does acquire a love interest in the person of Annie (Ann-Margret), a determined employee at the local supermarket, who has set her romantic sights on the reluctant bachelor and blithely brushes his objections aside. All three men are regular fixtures at the local lodge presided over by Milton (a gaunt Christopher Lloyd), whose dementia is played for laughs, and they're beloved fixtures at the neighborhood diner, where the waitress, Mitzi, slips them free food (she's played by comic treasure Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who will be familiar to fans of Men in Black as the traumatized wife of Vincent D'Onofrio's farmer).

There's a reassuringly familiar sitcom rhythm to these proceedings, including an extended slapstick routine when the trio attempt to hone their criminal technique by shoplifting groceries, only to find themselves being chastised like schoolboys by a dismayed head of store security (SNL's Kenan Thompson, in top form). And of course Caine, Freeman and Arkin are master screen actors, displaying an easygoing chemistry with each other and with everyone else who crosses their path. But as their onscreen involvements multiply, their criminal scheme grows increasingly less credible. Unlike the discarded seniors of Brest's original, Braff's elderly crooks have too much to lose if they're caught or killed in the course of a heist for which their aging reflexes are barely a match. (A running joke has "Jesus" drilling all three with a stopwatch.) Society may have cheated them, but it hasn't abandoned them.

Then again, credibility doesn't appear to be high on Braff's list of priorities, as he engineers a resolution that is a far cry from the cynical outcome of Brest's film. Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, let's just say that the ending of this Going in Style is heavily foreshadowed by the ineptitude of the FBI agent assigned to the initial bank robbery that inspires Joe to go and do likewise (he's played by Matt Dillon, taking one for the team in a thankless role). In Braff's whimsically artificial creation, law enforcement is easily hoodwinked whenever the plot requires it, and even mortality can be chased away with a plot contrivance.

Going in Style Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Going in Style was shot digitally on the Arri Alexa by Rodney Charters, whose prolific TV credits include Shameless and multiple seasons of 24. Charters and the rest of the production team have created a bright and chipper sitcom world filled with rich colors and pleasing textures, and Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reproduces Charters' serviceable lighting with aplomb. Sharpness and detail are excellent, blacks are solid, and the image is free of noise, interference or artifacts. Consistent with its now-established practice of reserving generous bitrates for its lesser efforts, Warner has encoded Going in Style at a high average rate of 31.81 with a capable encode.

Going in Style Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Going in Style's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, isn't a showy affair, but it's full of sonic grace notes like the gentle echo of Michael Caine's voice in the cavernous bank building where the film opens and to which it periodically returns. The sounds of a carnival that plays a key role in the proceedings are spread subtly throughout the listening room, as is the urban hubbub of the Brooklyn neighborhoods in which the film is largely set. The dialogue is clearly rendered and correctly localized. The upbeat score is credited to Rob Simonsen (The Way Way Back and The Spectacular Now).

Going in Style Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Zach Braff: Braff's commentary is easygoing but informative, with emphasis on logistics, technical challenges and the practical lessons he learned from this project. Pauses become more frequent in the last half hour, but none of them lasts too long.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.40:1; 13:11): The eleven scenes are not separately listed or selectable. Each is preceded by a brief title card:
• Joe gets picked up
• Value town
• Rooftop romance
• Driving while high
• Learning to text
• Teaser rate
• Red envelope
• Willy Skype
• Al plays sax
• Playing catch
• Mortgage payment



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, the disc plays a trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, plus the familiar Warner promo for 4K discs (although no 4K version of Going in Style is planned).

Going in Style Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The appearance of Braff's remake inspired hopes that the original Going in Style might be coming soon on Blu-ray, presumably from the Warner Archive Collection. Unfortunately, such a release does not appear to be likely. Braff's remake was a modest success, in large part because its three leads have been busy enough in recent years to remain familiar to multiple generations of moviegoers. (Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy alone has ensured Caine's and Freeman's continuing pop culture relevance.) The same cannot be said for the three stars of Brest's original, who, like their characters, have largely faded from view—a sad fact to which the weak sales of catalog titles starring them can attest. We're left with Braff's pale imitation, which is fine for light entertainment, but if you want a story that challenges and provokes, seek out the original on DVD.