Three elderly roommates on Social Security decide to rob a bank in "Going in Style," a 1979 film directed by Martin Brest. It stars three great masters: George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg, who is probably more famous as an acting teacher.These three spend their final years sitting in the park, watching children play, the birds, and occasionally talking. Joe (Burns) comes up with the idea, and the other two go along. Wearing Grouch Marx disguises, they walk into the bank with guns and tell everyone to hit the floor. The bank manager thinks they're joking until Joe shoots the clock.The big problem the guys have is, what are they going to do with all the money? They don't really need it for anything.The performances in this film are marvelous, particularly from Burns, who has the largest role. He can make you laugh and break your heart. In one scene, when Al's (Art Carney) nephew and his family take Al to their place for a few days, Joe sits alone and looks at his old photos. A very touching scene.All of these men demonstrate the emptiness of old age when one feels he is no longer useful, when most friends and family are gone, when you're not sick but not well either. Life becomes a series of endless days. On the other hand, they take each day as it comes and something like a bank robbery doesn't intimidate them too much. They've seen it all; there aren't too many surprises left.There actually is quite an age difference among these three men. Burns was 83 at the time of the film's release; Carney was actually 22 years younger, and Strasberg was four years younger than Burns. Strasberg is obviously the most frail. He died three years after this film was released.Sweet film, showing again that old age isn't for sissies.

Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney), and Willie (Lee Strasberg) are three geriatrics who share an apartment together in Brooklyn and spend their days sitting on a park bench, talking aimlessly amongst themselves or just sitting in silence as they decay in public. Living off their social security checks, and not really caring what the future days bring them, Joe proposes an idea to the guys that sounds infinitely more tempting than sitting on the park bench every day. The idea is that the three men buy disguises and proceed to plan and orchestrate a bank robbery. If they get caught, with all three of them having a spotless history, their sentence won't be long and, even if it is, they get free meals and a place to live as far as they're concerned. Not to mention, upon release, they'll have several uncashed social security checks waiting for them. If they get caught, well then they're "x" amount of money richer.Joe, Al, and Willie conduct the heist and, through a couple of minor complications, still manage to make out with around $35,000, an unprecedented amount they have never even come in contact with. The three men decide to take their earnings to Las Vegas, where they could either lose it all or make it back and even double it. These are cockamamie circumstances but such are the plot lines of Martin Brest's mainstream, directorial debut Going in Style, a hilarious comedy that also packs in some seriously contemplative ideas about what age does and how the need for adrenaline in some never simmers.The people who assume that everything done by the characters in Going in Style is done "just because" are the people who are going to emerge unsatisfied and underwhelmed by the film. Those who see Joe, Al, and Willie for what they really are - goofy, free-spirited, fearless, and genial - and their motivations as practical examples of a desire to fulfill nudging temptations are those who will emerge from the film ecstatic and satisfied. I fall in the latter. After watching three great character actors perform the dialog, events, and antics of a criminally underrated writer/director, I felt that Going in Style had been depressingly overlooked by the general public and deserved not just a rewatch but an reconsideration for its themes and ideas on age.To begin with, Burns, Carney, and Strasberg are all tremendous here, with no character outshining another as they all get their moments to shine. Early scenes are key to how we get to appreciate and like these characters, as we watch them sit and stare at birds, read the daily headlines, feed pigeons, or tell rambunctious rugrats to get lost. This is age in a nutshell; something that could confine you to a park bench, a newspapers, and passing glances if you allow it to. Joe, Al, and Willie could've easily been confined to this life till they died, but because of Joe's ostensibly outlandish but, in reality, somewhat practical proposal, the three can carry out something that makes them feel like they have meaning and significance.Consider the scenes when the men plan the robbery and how they plan to handle the understandably panicked bank tellers and customers. Just the act of planning this makes them glow and gets them excited; this is the first thing they've had to look forward to in years, and with that, the men decide to conduct the heist. As haphazardly-conducted as the heist turns out to be, the three couldn't care less. They feel important, they've just done something bad, and they will live the rest of their lives (however long that may be) with the idea that they did something important. Do the crime, do the time (maybe), get the bragging rights.The film was directed by Martin Brest, who later went on to do Beverly Hills Cop, Meet Joe Black, and Midnight Run, all of which have gone on to bear more prominent reputations than the unassuming Going in Style. Brest has always been one for action comedies, but Going in Style showcases an early point in his career where he seemed fascinated by the idea that adrenaline can still be had by the most unsuspecting people doing the most unsuspecting things. Ignoring its unremarkable legacy and future, this is a hilarious film with underrated meditations on life and age that shouldn't go unnoticed.Starring: George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. Directed by: Martin Brest.

Three elderly friends concoct a scheme to rob a bank...but what will they do with all that money? Although bank robbery is hardly endearing, director Martin Brest (doing very nimble work) glosses over the extremities and gives us George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg at their most amiable. Brest isn't afraid to be tender, but he's not maudlin and has a good sense of humor and pacing. Unfortunately, the screenplay loses steam in its third act, which gets gummed up with much realer issues and plot-snags (an unconvincing jaunt to Las Vegas is also weak). Up to that point, however, surprisingly good, with the three leads impeccably interacting. *** from ****

Three seniors, bored with just sitting on a bench decide to rob a bank. What happens is probably a sweetened version of what might happen if it were to really happen, or would have back when this movie was made. This is probably George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg's shining moment on film. The acting of the three leads is perfect and conveys the boredom of life before the robbery, the excitement of the robbery and the confusion of the fall out. Why aren't more movies like this being made? This is not a comedy. Yes its funny but there is a dark side to the film concerning not only the fall out of the robbery but also what it means to be old in America.This is a low key, off beat gem of a film that hooks me every time I run across it on TV. Its wonderful and though everything doesn't go right, its uplifting in its way simply because we get to see real old people trying to get by and not Hollywood's version of them.See this movie.