Led by a trio of Oscar-winners in Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin, the R-rated comedy Stand Up Guys sees the Oscar-wining multi-hyphenate Fisher Stevens (The Cove) return behind the camera for his first feature film since 2002’s Just A Kiss.
With such a strong cast leading the line-up, and the excellent Julianna Margulies and Vanessa Ferlito heading up the supporting cast, Lionsgate have quite a promising film on their hands, and now we’ve got the first trailer, courtesy of Yahoo Movies, to give us our first real look at the film.
“Val is released from prison after serving twenty-eight years for refusing to give up one of his close criminal associates. His best friend Doc is there to pick him up, and the two soon re-team with another old pal, Hirsch. Their bond is as strong as ever, and the three reflect on freedom lost and gained, loyalties ebbed and flowed, and days of glory gone by. And despite their age, their capacity for mayhem is still very much alive and well – bullets fly as they make a hilariously valiant effort to compensate for the decades of crime, drugs and sex they’ve missed. But one of the friends is keeping a dangerous secret- he’s been put in an impossible quandary by a former mob boss, and his time to find an acceptable alternative is running out. As the sun rises on the guys’ legendary reunion, their position becomes more and more desperate and they finally confront their past once and for all.”
Stevens is directing from a script by Noah Haidle, who makes his feature debut as a writer.
Stand Up Guys will be released in the US on 11th January, which will see it going up against Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, and the anticipated Gangster Squad, which was pushed back to do re-shoots following the tragic The Dark Knight Rises shooting in Colorado this summer. In all likelihood, it won’t end up on top at the box office, but Lionsgate know how to market their movies to success, and following the box office takings of The Expendables 2 this summer, we could well see Stand Up Guys doing solid business for them in the New Year. No word yet on a UK release, but with such a strong leading cast, we should be seeing it in our theatres in the New Year, too.
