Stand Up GuysMovie Reviews

Stand Up Guys Showtimes + Tickets

So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 41 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 16+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

100

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
The thing most people will take away from Stand Up Guys is that it contains Al Pacino's best performance in years. So if you don't think Al Pacino still has it in him, this is a welcome chance to be proved wrong. But here's something interesting. Stand Up Guys also contains Christopher Walken's best performance in years. In addition, the film is extraordinarily well cast, and the acting, even in the smaller roles, is more than noteworthy. Read full review
70

The Hollywood Reporter |
Stand Up Guys never wobbles into maudlin or cheap-n-easy sentimentality. It is an entertaining yet sobering portrayal of not-so-wise guys who do not go gently into a no-good night. Read full review
67

Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman
Stand Up Guys reminds you that these three are still way too good to collapse into shticky self-parody, even when they're in a movie that's practically begging them to. Read full review
63

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Some actors don't need top-shelf material. Just the pleasure of their company is enough. And so Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin turn the insubstantial Stand Up Guys into solid entertainment. Read full review
50

Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea
Elegiac and corny and not really convincing on any level (especially when it comes to its treatment of women - be they hookers, or waitresses, or girls on the town), Stand Up Guys nonetheless holds some fascination just for the off-the-charts affectedness of Pacino's performance. Read full review
40

New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman
The script is undernourished, the supporting characters - including a horribly miscast Lucy Punch - ill-conceived, and Val increasingly hard to take. But when the movie ended, I wanted to watch Walken all over again. Read full review
38

Boston Globe | Ty Burr
We get it: Stand Up Guys is supposed to be cutesy criminal magic realism. But Stevens, an actor turned director, never finds the right vibe, and the movie's genuinely creepy misogyny sours the attempts to go sentimental in the final act. Read full review
38

USA Today | Scott Bowles
It's been a long time since a movie wasted as much talent as Stand Up Guys, a film that aims to be a geezer "Goodfellas" but whose execution is a misfire. Read full review
30

NPR | Scott Tobias
Stevens wants to honor the living legends who have miraculously agreed to appear in his movie, but after spending a full hour treating their characters like cartoons, the about-face into heartfelt slop lacks the necessary gravitas. Read full review
30

Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern
It's long on Viagra jokes and whorehouse scenes, and comes up short on plausibility. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Stand Up Guys on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Amusing but vulgar, violent "old school" crime comedy.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Stand Up Guys is a crime comedy starring Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin as three septuagenarian criminals who are reunited over one long night. Questions of loyalty and consequences come up from time to time, though the movie doesn't explore these themes very deeply. Violence is an issue, with a fair amount of fighting, punching, shooting, and blood. There's also sexual content: Characters take Viagra and have sex with prostitutes (off screen), one character sleeps with two women at once (also off screen), and a woman is found naked in a trunk, though no sensitive body parts are shown. Language is strong, with multiple uses of "s--t," "f--k," and more. Characters drink plenty of alcohol and smoke cigarettes over the course of their long night, and they have a supply of prescription pills. (One character breaks open the capsules and experiments with snorting them.) Teens may not be interested in this story of older guys, but those who are need to be mature enough to handle the content.

Families can talk about Stand Up Guys' violence. How frequently is it shown? How does it build up over the course of the story? How much of it is necessary to the story?
How does the movie depict drinking and smoking? Are there any consequences? How else do the characters indulge themselves? What do they do that's good for them?
In one scene, the characters discuss "consequences" for bullies' actions. What do these consequences consist of? Is this a good way to deal with bullies?
The movie has several jokes and lines about "old school" tactics over "new" things. Are there certain old ways that are better than new ways? What about the other way around?

The good stuff

Positive messages: Much of the movie relies on iffy behavior with few consequences, but one character must decide between committing murder to protect his own safety and protecting his best friend instead; he chooses loyalty and friendship. The movie also deals with the idea of "consequences" for some bullies who've mistreated a woman, though it translates into simple revenge.
Positive role models: Most of the characters are criminals or lowlifes of some kind; the "good guys" are simply less awful than others. But one secondary character, a waitress in an all-night diner, demonstrates kindness and patience, and the movie shows the rewards that this can have and how far acts of kindness can go.

What to watch for

Violence: The violence doesn't really pick up until about halfway through the movie, after that there's plenty of it, including punching and fighting, shooting, and blood. A man is smashed in the crotch, and the movie climaxes with a bullet-ridden shootout. A main character dies. There are also heavy threats and suggestions of violence in the dialogue. A doctor plunges a hypodermic needle into a character's penis (off screen) after that character takes too much Viagra.
Sexy stuff: The main characters visit a brothel. One takes extra amounts of Viagra (only referred to as "boner pills") and sleeps with a prostitute off screen. A second character sleeps with two women at once, a prostitute and the woman at the front desk, both off screen (and without Viagra). A naked woman is found in a car trunk, but she's filmed curled up so that nothing is shown. Also very strong innuendo throughout, such as when a main character tries to pick up three women in a bar.
Language: Very strong language includes many uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "whore," "ass," "a--hole," "d--k," "boner," "damn," "goddamn," "oh my God," and "pecker."
Consumerism: Viagra plays a big role in the movie, though it's not mentioned by name specifically.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters stay up all night and drink a lot of alcohol. They also break into a pharmacy and steal several bottles of prescription pills (mostly for things like cataracts and hypertension). One character breaks open some of these pills and snorts them. A main character is seen smoking cigarettes on more than one occasion.

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