Going in Style review: Not good. Not awful. Not anything.

I will admit my biases openly. When it comes to movies, I judge three things harshly: superheroes, coming of age stories, and comedies starring the elderly. I have seen everything each of those three genres have to offer and I’m beyond bored by them.

Caine’s character, Joe, witnesses a bank robbery. He happens to be in the bank that day to contest the foreclosure proceedings that have begun on his home. That is when he gets the idea that if young idiots can pull of a heist, he and his septuagenarian posse can.

As far as old people getting the best of society comedies go, Going in Style isn’t that bad. But you have to remember how low that bar is set. Just because every joke isn’t Alan Arkin calling Facebook “the Instaface” doesn’t mean we’re dealing with comedy gold here.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Going in Style is that it was directed by Zach Braff. Yes, the same Zach Braff that was delightful for the first six seasons of Scrubs. Yes, the same Zach Braff that was hailed as a genius for the 2004 indie Garden State. How he went from budding auteur to making PSAs about the importance of IRAs and 401ks is almost unfathomable…and then you watch Garden State as a 30-something as opposed to a 20-something and realize that it’s just slightly better than okay.

While I was happy with the lack of “young people don’t get it but we do” and “isn’t the internet weird” jokes, that doesn’t mean I enjoyed myself. Honestly, I can’t say I laughed at Going in Style one time.

See, even if the comedy wasn’t the hack garbage I expected, the movie itself is. Who is more sympathetic than old people? No one! Who is more hatable than big banks and big companies that see those old people as nothing more than numbers on a bottom line? Nobody!

There isn’t much to Going in Style because it doesn’t risk very much. All of the characters are likable enough, even if they are just the three lead actors playing heightened versions of themselves. There’s even a side story about a deadbeat dad learning to show his daughter he really does love her. All necessary heartstrings are appropriately tugged.