Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Last Laugh’ On Netflix, Where Chevy Chase And Richard Dreyfuss Take A Retired Comedian’s Act On The Road

Sometimes Netflix drops a movie that doesn’t get a lot of fanfare but is a pleasant surprise. The Last Laugh is in that category; Chevy Chase and Richard Dreyfuss star as a pair of old guys who would rather go on the road than stay in their retirement community. Read on to find out more…

THE LAST LAUGH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Al Hart (Chevy Chase), who managed comedians for over 50 years, is more or less retired. He wants to keep working, but his last client, Max Becker (Lewis Black), fired him. He’s been struggling on his own, and his granddaughter Jeannie (Kate Micucci) is concerned. So she encourages him to visit a retirement community and see if he wants to live there. He’s resistant, but starts to change his mind when he runs into his first-ever client, Buddy Green (Richard Dreyfuss), pretending to be a crotchety old fart with blacked out teeth.

In 1967, Al had Buddy all set up to make a big splash on The Ed Sullivan Show, but Buddy quit before that appearance, eventually opening a successful podiatry practice instead. But Al always thought that Buddy had talent; the longer Al stays at the retirement community, listening to gossip on who died and taking trips to the mall, the more he wants to work again. He tries to convince Buddy to take his act out on the road, but he’s resistant. When Buddy’s girlfriend dies, however, he agrees, and the two set out on the road, playing tiny clubs and sometimes hostile audiences, with the goal of getting to New York and appearing on The Tonight Show.

During the roadtrip, the two find out a little more about each other, have disagreements, sleep in crappy hotel rooms and ignore calls from Jeannie and Buddy’s son Charlie (Chris Parnell). In Kansas, Al meets a retired art teacher named Doris Montgomery (Andie MacDowell) who opens his mind to pot and ‘shrooms, and accompanies the pair on the road. But Buddy has something he wants to tell Al that he can’t because Doris is there.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It’s a buddy road movie, with the expected beats, conflicts, and happy ending. There are dozens of films that are exactly like The Last Laugh.

Performance Worth Watching: Dreyfuss’s standup style is interesting. As Buddy, he shoves his hands in his pockets and is very gentle and avuncular with how he approaches the audience. And what’s also interesting is that it’s real, modern standup, not schticky Borscht Belt jokes. For that we can thank comedy consultants Fred Stoller, Chris Flemming, Jimmy O. Yang and Allan Harvey.

Memorable Dialogue: Buddy to Charlie when Charlie and Jeannie find Al and Buddy in Chicago: “I’ve had a great life. I didn’t exactly live it the way I thought I would, but at least let me die the way I want.” (Yes, the news Buddy wanted to tell Al was pretty important.)

Single Best Shot: During a mushroom-induced hallucination, Al and Doris ride in a pedicab peddled by a guy dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Uh, you’ll have to watch what came before it for to get the reference.

Sex and Skin: We see far too much of Chase’s old-guy bod during a closing credits sequence.

Our Take: There’s nothing inherently wrong with The Last Laugh (not to be confused with the 2016 documentary of the same name, also available on Netflix). Greg Pritikin (Dummy, Easy to Assemble) wrote and directed this film, and it’s entertaining in the light and airy way that any kind of buddy movie like this can be. It meanders a bit, especially with an extended sequence where Al hallucinates after Doris feeds him mushrooms, but it’s just one of those films that you can watch if you’re curious and come away with a little smile and nothing more.

And that’s OK! Not every movie needs to make you think deep thoughts. It helps that Chase and Dreyfuss handle Pritikin’s script with their usual degree of skill. Chevy leans into his grumpy guy persona as Al, and there are moments where we see Al staring into space and wonder what Chevy is reacting to. In other words, we know Chevy can do better when he’s not being funny, but he’s OK here.

Dreyfuss is really the one to see here. We wouldn’t put this performance up there with some of the best of his career, but it did remind us of why this guy used to be one of the most bankable actors of the ’70s and ’80s. Buddy is crotchety, but Dreyfuss really makes you want to see Buddy reach New York and achieve some sort of attention on what we find out is his last chance to live the dream he gave up 50 years ago.

MacDowell, perhaps a bit too young to be Chevy’s love interest here, still shines as the artistic and adventurous Doris, and the first half-hour, where Al and Buddy are still hanging around the retirement community, was a nice counterpoint to the two of them going on tour, even if Pritikin more or less forgets about the residents there once Buddy and Al go on the road.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s a classic “watch while folding laundry” movie, with a few laughs and an earnest performance from Dreyfuss.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream The Last Laugh on Netflix