Turns out that when you cross ‘The Hangover’ with ‘Grumpy Old Men’, you don’t summon the apocalypse, but instead conjure up a kindhearted lark. ‘Last Vegas’ isn’t just a throwback to the days when its four leads – Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Michael Douglas – dominated Hollywood. It also harks back to a time when comedies cared about characters. Though admittedly its premise is lazy: on the eve of his marriage to a 32-year-old, an industrially tanned sexagenarian Billy (Douglas) is joined in Sin City by his childhood pals (De Niro, Freeman and Kline).
Cue a barrage of routine ageist gags, which at least come with an inclusive, self-deprecating spirit, which grows more endearing – especially when 60-year-old Mary Steenburgen classes things up as a sultry lounge singer who outshines every string bikini within eyeshot. Mortality looms even for Hollywood heroes, making it hard to resist what’s left of the party. Everyone’s slumming it here, but enjoyably so.