drednm GOING IN STYLE is a sweet little film starring George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg as a trio of oldsters struggling to survive on their pension money. They hit upon the idea of robbing a bank. What could go wrong? Filled with humor and heart and terrific performances. The Las Vegas scenes are a hoot. Burns and Carney especially deserved awards but the film got no attention until a remake surfaced in 2017. Despite its cast, the film forgot the heart. Anyway, the 1979 film is a jewel. The amazing Burns was 83. When he met the 27-year-old director Martin Brest, he quipped, "I have neckties older than you." Burns and Carney had already won their Oscars by the time this was made. The scene where Burns goes thru his old box of photos (one shows him and Gracie Allen from the old days) is a killer.

classicsoncall Take Art Carney out of the sewer and he's a pretty good character actor. You didn't get a sense of his range as an actor while portraying Ed Norton in "The Honeymooners". Here he's joined by George Burns and Lee Strasberg as retirees trying to make ends meet as their lives hit the doldrums sitting on park benches and watching the rest of their years pass by. One thing I had to check was the ages of the three actors in the picture; Carney is actually the youngster of this group at sixty one when the film was made. Strasberg was seventy eight and Burns was eighty one with another two decades to go! Once all the shenanigans with the bank job are out of the way, the story turns poignant for Joe Harris (Burns) as he has to endure the passing of his two long time buddies. Burns as expected is wonderful in the role, though I wish director Martin Brest had made him a gentler curmudgeon in that scene with the bratty looking kid in the park. He cursed the kid out twice and that didn't seem in keeping with his character. But then again, he concocted the robbery scheme and threw caution to the wind at the gaming tables. For the sake of the story, I'll go along with the seventy grand haul in Las Vegas, but it does make you wonder if they could have pulled it off for real.Apart from the story, I did a major double take when the camera panned that cemetery that was filmed for the movie. Holy cow - it was huge! So much so that I had to look it up. Assuming it was in or close to the Astoria, Queens neighborhood the three elderly gents lived in, a search came up with the Calvary Cemetery in Astoria. It's one of the oldest cemeteries in the country, and one of the largest in terms of interments with, get this - over three million burials! It's always very cool when a movie leads me to an interesting bit of trivia like that. So now you know too.

ShadeGrenade At the end of 1979, the movie-world's attention was focused on the sci-fi blockbusters 'The Black Hole' and 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'. Slipping out virtually unnoticed was this delightful movie, proving yet again that big budget does not always mean better entertainment.'Going In Style' starred George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg as three pensioners whose lives consist of feeding ducks in parks, watching television, and reminiscing about the past. Joe ( Burns ) is thoroughly bored by this, and comes up with a plan to generate some excitement - namely rob a bank. He is dead serious, and talks the other two into going along with him.They pull the job ( wearing old suits and joke-shop masks ) but the excitement proves too much for Willie ( Strasberg ) - he dies of a heart attack.Joe and Al ( Carney ) fly to Las Vegas to splash their loot in an orgy of non-stop gambling. To their astonishment, they nearly clean the place out. When Al dies after the trip, Joe decides to give himself up...Burns had not acted in years when in 1975 producer Ray Stark cast him as one of Neil Simon's 'The Sunshine Boys' ( Walter Matthau being the other ). Burns' quiet, dignified performance contrasted greatly with the more flamboyant Matthau's, and he won an Oscar for 'Best Supporting Actor'. Other movie roles came his way, such as the title role in Larry Gelbart's wonderful 'Oh God!'. 'Going In Style' featured him along with two other Hollywood greats, and all worked together superbly. From the hilarious opening scene in the park, where an obnoxious little boy fixes Joe with a look of dumb insolence, and he says the boy's head 'looks like a china p### pot' you cannot help but love the guy. The excitement the men feel as they prepare for the robbery is infectious; at last they have something interesting to do with what is left of their lives. You root for them every step of the way.This was the first film from Martin Brest, who later made Eddie Murphy's 'Beverly Hills Cop' and the disastrous 'Gigli'. It is a shame he did not do more like this.'Style' is by turns funny and sad. A better movie on the subject of old age I have yet to see.

Woodyanders Feisty Joe (a marvelously sprightly performance by George Burns), jolly Al (a terrific Art Carney), and mopey Willie (the excellent Lee Strasberg) are three old retirees who share an apartment in Queens, New York. The guys decide to pull off a daring and outrageous bank robbery in order to alleviate the stultifying tedium of their dreary and uneventful twilight years. Writer/director Martin Brest, who was only 28 when he did this picture, offers a moving and amusing seriocomic delight about the plight of the elderly and the need to go out with a bang instead of a whimper. Among the notable highlights in this often funny and sometimes surprisingly poignant winner are Al's impromptu street dance, the hilarious heist sequence (our heroes all wear Groucho Marx glasses!), Joe crying while looking at an old black and white photo of his deceased wife, and Joe and Al living it up in Las Vegas. Burns, Carney and Strasberg all shine in their roles; Burns in particular is simply superb. Charles Hallahan lends nice support as Al's amiable nephew Pete. Billy Williams' bright, polished cinematography, Michael Small's catchy, jaunty score, and the warm, gentle, upbeat tone all further enhance the overall sterling quality of this sweet little treat.