Stand Up Guys
Lionsgate | Release Date: December 14, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
9
Negative:
16
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
USA TodayScott BowlesJan 31, 2013
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
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 31, 2013
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
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJan 31, 2013
Dare we say it? Even the acting is atrocious, with pop-eyed Pacino chewing the scenery like a geezer gumming his oatmeal. Read full review
33
The PlaylistGabe ToroJan 29, 2013
It's like stocking a team with proven performers and hoping that everything else will work itself out at the end, including a rickety script, indifferent direction, and a plot that pretends its final act is anything other than a cliché-hugging inevitability. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 31, 2013
It's long on Viagra jokes and whorehouse scenes, and comes up short on plausibility. Read full review
30
NPRScott TobiasJan 31, 2013
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
TimeMary PolsJan 31, 2013
A buddy movie that limps along, pausing for breath and pulse checks like a geriatric dutifully fulfilling doctor's orders to get some exercise. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDec 11, 2012
But by the end, the feeling the movie inspires isn't suspense but relief: Thank God that the producers behind "Grumpy Old Men" and "The Sunshine Boys" didn't yet have Viagra to joke about. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 31, 2013
It's often said that actors with distinctive vocal styles could compellingly read the phone book -- in this case, it would absolutely be a more entertaining hour-and-a-half. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 31, 2013
An excruciating and melodramatic comedy. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 31, 2013
Arkin in particular can barely hide his lack of enthusiasm for the material. Some of the looks he shoots his co-stars appear to contain a secret code of some kind, deciphered as: 'Well, at least I'm in 'Argo.'" Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJan 30, 2013
The leads here aren't the only element of the film that's past its prime. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithDec 13, 2012
Painful, misshapen and a little gross. It's an enlarged prostate of a movie. Read full review
20
Total FilmCurtis WoloschukJun 15, 2013
Most ‘one crazy night’ movies (from After Hours to Superbad) thrive on a sense of escalation, but Stand Up Guys only seems to lower the stakes as it stumbles tediously on. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleLeah ChurnerJan 30, 2013
Does anyone, young or old, wish to see a 72-year-old Pacino sporting spiky hair and goatee, hollering in his "Tony Montana" voice about having a boner? Is he in a contest with Mick Jagger to see who can keep up the wild-man shtick into the triple digits? Read full review
20
Time OutKeith UhlichDec 11, 2012
This moronically unfunny gangster comedy fluctuates wildly between the lowest-of-low humor and pity-the-aged-man pathos, and offers further evidence that the best days are behind its iconic cast members. Read full review
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