Wild Oats

Eva Fenton (Shirley MacLaine) buries her husband as her best friend Maddie Reynolds (Jessica Lange) hysterically cries at the funeral. She's alone except for her daughter Crystal (Demi Moore) who is looking to sell her home. She is shocked when her husband's $50k life insurance arrives with an erroneous $5 million payout. Maddie's husband ran off with his young secretary and she's sick. Eva decides to take Maddie on a vacation to the Canary Islands where Eva falls for Chandler (Billy Connolly). Meanwhile, insurance investigator Alvin Vespucci (Howard Hesseman) and Crystal chase them to retrieve the money.

Andy Tennant may not be a top level director but the flaws here are mostly due to the writing. MacLaine and Lange try their best but they can't overcome the weak writing. It has some bad sitcom writing. When it tries to be broad, it doesn't know how to do it right. The only saving grace is the legendary actors on the screen. I stayed with this for them but I was not rewarded.

Both Shirley and Jessica are experienced talents capable of bringing to live a real topper script, compared to this humdrum 1980s TV movie script they've been saddled with.

If they had their hands on a truly competent script, these two would sizzle in both the comedic and dramatic aspects. The direction don't fare any much better, and all you get is a lazy evening mildly enjoyable fare.

Demi Moore is given next to nothing real to do here, except mouth tacky predictable soap opera lines ... another waste!

What wasted opportunity with such acting talents on hand!

Andy Tennant (Director here) just snoozing out another of his sub-par bland celluloid.

The producer, script writer, director ... all ought to be zip-locked and cast away into 80s TV movie land!

I'm giving this a 7 because of the acting and the feel-good story. We need that nowadays, and I won't diminish it.

"Wild Oats" stars Shirley Maclaine as a widow, Eve, who receives a $5 million check from her husband's insurance when it was supposed to be $50,000 - and she knows it. After attempting to reach the insurance company and getting the runaround from their automated voice system, Maclaine and her best friend Maddie (Jessica Lange) decide to spend it.

They take off for a resort in Spain; meanwhile, the insurance company is onto them and has sent an elderly insurance man (Howard Hesseman) after Eve.

Maddie and Eve, meanwhile, are having the time of their lives, Eve with a charming old man, Chandler (Billy Connelly) and Maddie with a hot young stud (Jay Hayden).

This is somewhat predictable but the cast, which includes Demi Moore as Eve's daughter, makes it watchable.

It's a slight story and it didn't belong in a theater (though Sony disagrees - apparently it debuted on Lifetime before hitting the theaters) but I won't trash anything that makes me smile like this one did.

I just adored Wild Oats. MacLaine and Jessica are so electric when on screen together, their chemistry works so well and it is so heartwarming to see these two veteran legendary screen icons interact and be so close. Demi Moore is good here too, her supporting performance is focused and it just hits the spots that are necessary. There are so many funny lines of dialogue in this film and I loved hearing them come from the actors on screen, because they were just the right people for them, I'm glad Demi replaced SJP too, I mean I like SJP, but Demi is better in this particular role. The plot may seem trite and formulaic, and in some ways, it is, but I suggest that you actually sit down and watch this movie, it may surprise you. It was much more emotional and touching then I expected it to be, especially towards the ending. Also, it teaches great messages, it teaches messages of long term true friendship, love, coping with loss, and that you are never too old to let loose and have a little fun, age is but a number folks. 8/10 for Wild Oats, go enjoy it, it won't let ya down! Also, like the second to last scene of the movie is just sooo sweet and touching and it almost made me cry!

This film offers two good performances amidst a terrible screenplay and annoying characters. Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange play longtime friends who hightail it to the Canary Islands (where the entire film was shot) after MacLaine receives an erroneous insurance check for $5M. They get makeovers and meet up with a vague and really annoying man (Billy Connolly) who squires the ladies to a casino where MacLaine wins a bundle. In the meantime an insurance investigator (Howard Hesseman) drags MacLaine's daughter (a dour Demi Moore) along as he chases them down. MacLaine and Lange keep things afloat up to this point, but the already-bad screenplay takes another bad turn and becomes ludicrous. The two Oscar-winning stars are great fun, but the other characters as written are too annoying for the actors to salvage them. This film was in development for years and has a long list of actors attached to various roles. Could have been a lot of fun.