Andy Tennant's silly -- but surprisingly enjoyable -- "senior" frolic, WILD OATS on DVD

How bad can a movie be that stars Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange and Billy Connolly? Not very, as it turns out. WILD OATS, written by Gary Kanew and Claudia Myers and directed by Andy Tennant, may be a foolish, feel-good fantasy about a couple of newly-single seniors who suddenly come into a fortune (incorrectly, as they realize from the outset), but it is acted with enough polish and filled with gorgeous locations and funny/silly/intriguing events that it bounces along handily from first scene to last.

Since it runs but 86 minutes, that first-to-last proves at the very least painless and at best quite chuckle-worthy. It is, as a friend of mine notes about certain movies, like taking a fun, fast and affordable vacation.

As directed by Mr. Tennant, shown at right, who has already given us a number of OK movies -- from Ever After and Anna and and the King to Sweet Home Alabama -- this one may be low on any kind of credibility but it's high enough on the goofy entertainment chart to pass muster.

If a movie like Silver Skies, which I covered earlier this week, can get a theatrical release, it seems surprising -- given its even starrier cast -- that this one could not. In any case, it's available beginning today, Tuesday, October 4, on DVD, Digital HD and VOD. If you're in a mood for light-n-airy entertainment, it'll do the trick.

MacLaine (two photos up) and Lange (above) play BFFs recently left by their men (the former's now a widow, while the latter's hubby has roamed to younger pastures). The women take their new fortune and head for the Canary Islands, where they meet Connolly (below, center), playing a charming senior who appears to be suffering from some form of dementia.

The ladies indulge themselves via this computer-glitch money, even as MacLaine's daughter (played by Demi Moore) and an insurance investigator (Howard Hesseman) fly to the Canaries to head them off. Spanish comedian Santiago Segura makes an appearance as a crooked wine connoisseur, while a cute young hunk who favors older women (Jay Hayden) heads for Ms Lange.

It's all by rote and by golly, but MacLaine's and Lange's polish and professionalism carry the day, while Mr Tennant's work, along with that of the screenwriters, is perfectly serviceable. This movie knows what it is, does not try for anything further, and so delivers its goods effectively. Before you can say, "Hey, it wasn't so bad!" it's all over, you've had your cheap vacation, and you're off to bed. Or maybe for that final nightcap.

From The Weinstein Company (and unceremoniously dumped into a single New York theater last month, with no press screening and consequently no reviews) and released to DVD via Anchor Bay Entertainment, Wild Oats is available now on home video via DVD, digital HD and VOD.

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Andy Tennant, new-found fortunes, senior-citizen movies, straight-to-home video, the Canary Islands, WILD OATS,

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Movie sop for seniors: Rosemary Rodriguez's SILVER SKIES hits Florida theaters this week

It's true that we seniors enjoy seeing ourselves up there on the (as we used to call it) silver screen, but I suspect a lot of us may bridle at depictions such as those in the film that opens this week in Florida theaters. SILVER SKIES is the name of a Southern California apartment complex that doubles as the movie's title, and it is filled with seniors of relatively humble means who suddenly find themselves threatened with eviction when the property is sold to someone planning to turn it into expensive condos.

The biggest draw for the aged here will likely be the once-upon-a-time starry cast of now elders that include the likes of George Hamilton, Valerie Perrine, Barbara Bain, Alex Rocco, Mariette Hartley and Howard Hesseman (among others). And, yes, it is interesting to see how these actors have aged from the time of their career height until now. But as written and directed by Rosemary Rodriiguez, shown at right, the movie lurches clunkily from caricature to caricature, comedy to bathos, and coincidence to coincidence, with occasionally more-or-less believable moments in between. That last is due mostly to the work of the actors on view.

Ms Rodriguez's script is simply bad -- obvious and predictable -- as it tackles subjects that range from gentrification and the real estate market to senior sex and senior sexual abuse, and then abjectly fails to give these the kind of nuance that would make them seem anything more than crass and manipulative. Think of it as an old-fashioned TV sit-com, using today's hyped-up sexual situations and their accompanying language as fodder.

We get it all here, including Alzheimer's (via the character played by Mr. Hamilton, above). While I realize that this disease can render its victim sometimes incapable and at other time more competent, the range this character depicts seems much more due to the needs of the plot than to anything remotely real or genuine.

The cast comes through as well as possible under these circumstances, with Ms Perrine (above) looking as lovely and tart-like as ever, Ms Bain appropriately old-but-caring and Ms Hartley still exuding intelligence and class. After only maybe a half hour of viewing, my spouse likened Silver Skies to suicide-by-movie, but we soldiered on. Arriving toward the finale, the film did seem to improve somewhat, but I suspect that may have been due to the fact that we were, at that point, so worn down by it that we welcomed whatever might come -- so long as it ends.

If you are desperate for something "senior," the film -- opens this coming Friday, October 7, in the Miami area a the AMC Aventura and Sunset Place, in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood, in Sarasota at the Regal Hollywood, and in the Ft. Myers/Naples area at the Regal Belltower and Hollywood Stadium.

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gentrification, real estate, Rosemary Rodriguez, senior-citizen movies, sex and seniors, sexual abuse, SILVER SKIES,

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Jerry Lewis returns to the screen in Daniel Noah's sunset-years drama, MAX ROSE

To get right to it, MAX ROSE, the (sort of) new film from writer/director Daniel Noah, is not very good. But as it stars one of the most famous comedians of all time, Jerry Lewis, who is very good but who has not appeared onscreen in a theatrically-released movie in some 21 years (although his voice has), this may be enough to coax you into a theater for this movie's very limited release. Made in 2013 and making a kind of splash at that year's Cannes festival, the film is only now hitting theaters in the U.S.

Mr. Noah's movie (the filmmaker is shown at right) is not a bad one. It resists the usual urge to cutesy up old age (except in one too-lengthy scene of seniors "having fun" in their retirement home, below). Instead it reflects on its title character, played by Mr. Lewis, as a man who recently lost his wife -- twice: once to death and again to the revelation that she may have actually loved another man more than her husband of forty-odd years.

As writer and director, Mr. Noah offers a movie and a character that are bleak and real. But then, by the end of this short film, he has tidied up relationships between father and son, father and daughter, even, god help us, between that husband and his wife's elusive lover. This will please elderly audiences who want feel-good above all else but leaves the rest of us pining -- particularly given what has come before -- for a finale that offers something a little stronger than "love is all you need."

What makes the movie so watchable, however, is the subtlety and finesse with which Lewis works his wonders. His face, even at the approaching age of 90, is a pleasure to behold. How he takes us from moment to moment, feeling to thought and back again, is rich, varied and pleasurable.

The rest of the cast is well-chosen and also deliver the goods, particularly the still beautiful and always intelligent Claire Bloom, as the late wife we see only in flashback and in Max's mind, and especially the wonderful Dean Stockwell as the wife's lover, very nearly making as deep and surprising an impression here as he did in Blue Velvet.

Kerry Bishé (above, left) and Kevin Pollack (in profile, above right) -- as, respectively, Max's granddaughter and son -- are also fine, though their characters must bend to the exigencies of a too manufacturer-for-resolution screenplay. It is odd to be recommending a viewing of a film as finally flawed as this one. Yet for these excellent performances alone -- and the opportunity to see Mr. Lewis in action so quietly and spectacularly once again -- it's worth our time.

Distributed via Paladin and running a mere 83 minutes, Max Rose opens this Friday, September 2, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema and in Los Angeles next Friday, September 9, at Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5. Elsewhere? Yes: Here in South Florida, the movie opens on Friday, September 23, in Miami at Regal's South Beach 18 and at AMC's Sunset Place 24, and Aventura 24; in  Fort Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway, The Last Picture Show, and the Silverspot Coconut Creek; in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters and Regal's Shadowood 16. 

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Daniel Noah, death and dying, Jerry Lewis, love stories, MAX ROSE, Memory in Film, senior-citizen movies,

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