TITLE: Wild Oats
Anchor Bay Entertainment
DIRECTOR: Andy Tennant
WRITER: Gary Kanew, Claudia Myers
CAST: Jessica Lange, Shirley MacLaine, Billy Connolly, Demi Moore, Howard Hessman, Matt Walsh, Rebecca Da Costa
RUNNING TIME: 86 min
RATED: PG-13 (Language, Sexual Content)
SPECIAL FEATURES: NONE
Available October 4th on DVD, Digital Download and Demand

Eva’s (Shirley MacLaine, Postcards From the Edge) husband has just died and her daughter Crystal (Demi Moore, Margin Call) has invited a realtor to the funeral. Eva’s best friend Maddie’s (Jessica Lange, American Horror Story) husband just dumped her for his secretary after the funeral.  As Eva adjusts to singlehood, she looks forward to her husband’s life insurance check for a measly $50,000.  When Eva opens the envelope, it’s written out for $5,000,000.  At Maddie’s persistence, Eva endorses the check and they both hop a plane to the Canary Islands. Meanwhile back in the States, an insurance adjuster  Vespucci (Howard Hesseman, About Schmidt) with one foot in the retirement door has one last assignment – to track down Eva and get the money back.  Meanwhile Eva and Maddie are living it up, meeting an older man of the world named Chandler (Billy Connolly, Boondock Saints) and younger GILF-hunter Chip (Jay Hayden, The Catch).  The women prove to be too trusting and end up losing a good chunk of the money, and before Eva gets arrested, she and Maddie go on an adventure to try to get the money back.

THE GOOD:  Senior citizens are still DTF apparently. Something to look forward to I guess. The message that you’re never too old to find love is kind of sweet, but also sappy. Jay Hayden as Chip was adorable.

THE BAD: Who wants to see old people bang? The line is forming to the left. The love scenes are cringy. I’m not being ageist; it’s choreographed weird and the dialogue involving the sex is just super awkward.  The whole running gag about Eva being this memorable, life-changing teacher got old.  What are the odds she meets a student everywhere she goes?  Demi Moore was miscast as the daughter. She was portraying a character far younger than what she was supposed to be, which is her own age. The ending was cliche and predictable.  There just wasn’t a lot of thought put into the story or the characters. This film was a total rush job.  No special features on the DVD? Hello $5 and under bin.

Andy Tennant had some good blockbusters under his belt (Sweet Home Alabama, Hitch) and this is was far below his norm.  It’s good to see Shirley MacLaine still get work, but I would like to see her pick some worthy of her time roles. She and Jessica Lange had some good chemistry, but this was not the ideal project to showcase that.

ACTING: C
STORY: F
TECHNICAL: F
TOTAL RATING: D
REVIEWED BY: JM Willis