Publication Date: 09-09-2026

Going in Style (1979) review

Dir. Martin Brest

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

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 plotlines 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 piss off. This is age in a nutshell; something that could confine you to a park bench, a newspaper, and an Old Fashioned by 10:30am if you allow it. 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.

REVIEWS OF OTHER MARTIN BREST FILMS:
My review of Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)
My review of Midnight Run
My review of Beverly Hills Cop
My review of Scent of a Woman
My review of Gigli

My review of Going in Style (2017)

Starring: George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. Directed by: Martin Brest.