Post by StevePulaski on Nov 25, 2018 14:15:34 GMT -5
Just Getting Started (2017)
Directed by: Ron Shelton
Directed by: Ron Shelton
Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman.
Rating: ★★
After a mysterious period of dormancy for the last 15 years, during which only an ESPN "30 for 30" documentary and a TBS pilot were made by the former-infielder-turned-director, Ron Shelton makes his return to the world of film with Just Getting Started, a project that would lead you to believe the now-72-year-old filmmaker decided to turn the cameras on his own life of retirement. The man who gave us memorable sports films in the form of the beloved Bull Durham, the romance drama Tin Cup, and the underrated biopic Cobb now appears on autopilot, still ambitious to be immersed in the field that welcomed him handsomely after his minor league career, but with little gas in the tank to come even close to replicate what he once could do so consistently. I often ponder about the lives of filmmakers who disappeared never to be heard from again. Martin Brest comes to mind, not to mention as someone from whom I'd love to see one more film, but if his potential swan-song is as lifeless as Shelton's, perhaps it would be best if one would continue simply looking on with great nostalgia.
Just Getting Started, Shelton's first theatrical feature since Hollywood Homicide in 2003, is a dour slog of comedic deadends and inconsequential happenings, so bad someone should've checked both Shelton's screenplay and the man himself for a pulse during the production of this woefully forgettable film. At only 88 minutes long, it meanders from one haphazardly staged sequence to the next, so frustratingly laidback in its pacing that its very title seems to be a self-referential mockery of its inability to go anywhere as a story. Shelton's script toys with the possibility of being a farce centered around self-indulgent codgers as well as a love-triangle and an action-comedy not too dissimilar from his most recent film, but it never settles on one idea to pursue. Instead of getting started, the project flounders, stalls, and then putters out even before we heard a rev out of its engine.
The plot, if you can call it that: Duke Diver (Morgan Freeman) is a retired New Jersey lawyer who has always loved a healthy competition that he can easily win. This is part of the reason he went into a federal witness protection program and worked his way up to become manager of Villa Capri, a Palm Springs retirement community, so he can show off his golf-swing and perpetual need to flirt with every lass this side of the cabana. Capri offers Duke a smorgasbord of divorcées and single ladies looking for a rendezvous, as well as a place to exercise his love for high-stakes gambling. Duke is greatly intimidated by the arrival of a slickster Texan named Leo (Tommy Lee Jones), who pulls up in a ten-gallon-hat, jacks his parking space, and one-ups him in front of his cigar-chomping buddies in a game of Texas Hold 'Em. Also stopping by to see what has been draining the resort's petty cash fund is Suzie (Rene Russo), a corporate auditor for the conglomerate that owns Capri, but Duke and Leo are much less interested in talking business as they are in taking the hand of the hard-to-get dame.
At the ripe old age of 80, Morgan Freeman has been drawn to these geezer comedies for several years now, and they've ranged from the peculiar Big Bounce in 2004 to last year's Zach Braff-directed remake of Going in Style (the original directed by Brest, come to think of it). For the most part, a Last Vegas every now and then does the culture good, especially those belonging to the AARP demographic, who seldom see movies, particularly comedies, explicitly made and marketed to them almost exclusively. But while watching Just Getting Started, I couldn't figure out for whom this film was made exactly. For most folks over 50, it takes a lot more than the presence of veterans like Freeman, Jones, and Russo in Any Given Movie to get them out to the theater, and I presume the braver souls of that demo that did would've been irked by the film's sagging pace and long, laugh-free stretches. A bulk of the film involves Duke and Leo trying to best one another over the course of 18 holes, scuffling over poker losses that will certainly be made up by Duke after a trip to Capri's vault, and shamelessly chauvinistic attempts by both men to court Suzie while claiming they're not competing for her but for the right to woo her. Even your traditionalist grandparents might see something off about that.
Throughout the lazily plodding situational antics of Just Getting Started, the thought occurred to me that Ron Shelton is essentially giving everyone involved the Adam Sandler treatment. Sandler famously stated in an interview moons ago that he loves making films like Jack and Jill and Blended because it's essentially an opportunity for him and his band of actor friends and their families to take a vacation some place tropical, shoot a film on studio dime, and know they'll still be in demand even if people don't show up in theaters thanks to industry clout. For Sandler, making movies is basically a vacation and an excuse to yuk it up with lifelong friends. Shelton, his team, and some clueless executives at Entertainment One probably agreed to film a project in New Mexico, rent out a luxurious resort where most of this film's $22 million undoubtedly budget (!) went, and let them make up the script as they went along. I could believe this was one of the first times individuals heard the phrase, "don't worry, it was great!" more times after shooting a scene than "cut."
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Russo, Joe Pantoliano, Glenne Headly, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Directed by: Ron Shelton.