GOING IN STYLE

HELP the aged... or they might just help themselves, armed with handguns and withering put-downs.

So sayeth Going In Style, director Zach Braff’s warmhearted remake of the 1979 comedy starring George Burns, Art Burney and Lee Strasberg.

The Academy Award-winning trio of Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin gel beautifully in the new version, trading quips with twinkles in their eyes courtesy of scriptwriter Theodore Melfi, who was Oscar nominated for the splendid Hidden Figures.

His ear for snappy dialogue provides the leads with some delicious verbal grenades to toss at each other, and one of the chief pleasures of Braff’s film is watching these accomplished performers – average miles on the clock: 82 – riff and ricochet off each other with effortless grace.

Admittedly, some aspects of the plot wheeze and puff like the octogenarian characters as they train for the physical rigours of robbing a bank, and the glaze of syrupy sentimentality is laid on thick. But for all its blemishes and cheerful predictability, Going In Style is a guilty pleasure that pickpockets generous laughs.

Joe (Caine), Willie (Freeman) and Albert (Arkin) are lifelong friends, who all worked for the same steel company and are now mellowing in retirement.

Willie and Albert are housemates and live across the street from Joe, his daughter Rachel (Maria Dizzia) and spunky granddaughter

From left, Alan Arkin as Al, Morgan Freeman as Willie and Michael Caine as Joe Brooklyn (Joey King). During a meeting between Joe and his unsympathetic bank manager (Josh Pais), three masked men with guns walk into the branch and confidently steal 1.6...