Wild Oats

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.

I was so happy to see a movie with such a fantastic cast of old people - I especially love Shirley MacLain and Billy Connolly, and the rest of the cast was also good. However, the script went from mediocre to really bad, the plot was worse, and the whole thing nose-dived in the second half. Which is a shame, it had such potential. No wonder it never opened in the theaters. I wish they would redo it, write a decent plot with an improved script, and re-release it next year. They would only have to do the second half. The movie starts out with MacLain and Lange at the funeral of MacLain's husband. It goes on to show the widow receive a falsely made out check from his life insurance. One of the best scenes in the whole movie is her calling the insurance company to try to straighten out the mistake. Then the story already starts to go downhill. Why doesn't she just deposit the check without worrying about being arrested? Or just send it back and ask for a correct one with a payment of $50,000 instead of 5 million? Everything is overdone with no reason behind it. And it just gets steadily worse with very little good stuff in between. It is not even worth watching for the actors, as the script is abominable.

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!

While it wasn't a bad movie, it really was a bit of a waste for such a great ensemble, Definitely left me wanting more.

This charming well written comedy caper could easily have been painful and unfunny but it is actually quite good and laugh out loud funny in parts. The 2 actresses Jessica Lange and Shirley Maclaine are so good they are watchable and never cringe inducing. It's good to see Jessica doing comedy again - she has been in horror for the last few years with AHS so it's nice to see what a good comedienne she is. Shirley is quite nimble for her age - she is over 80 and can still do comedy convincingly.

A widow gets a mistaken windfall payout and sets off on a exotic trip with her best friend. Some stand out moments include crassness of people at the funeral. The part dealing with calling the insurance company rings familiar for many.

The location in Gran Canaria is quite exotic and the resort is attractive.

Worth a watch.