( EW.com ) -- In `` Stand Up Guys , '' Al Pacino and Christopher Walken play second-rate Baltimore gangsters in their late 60s who make no bones about what grumpy old sociopaths they 've become . Yet neither one is nearly as slow or creaky as the movie itself . Pacino , eyes burning with life beneath his electric thatch of hair , is Val , who has just gotten out of prison . Walken , whose own gravity-defying mane is practically a character of its own , is Val 's old chum Doc , a guy with secret orders to rub out his pal before the next morning . The two sit around diners , cappuccino joints , and a cruddy apartment , talking about the bad old days . They go to a brothel and crack wise about threesomes and Viagra . Pacino , showing off any way he can , gets onto a dance floor , and Walken commands attention his own way , by staring off into space . 'World War Z ' Super Bowl trailer : Watch . Directing his first dramatic feature , Fisher Stevens does his best to give these gravel-voiced legends room to strut their stuff . But that 's the problem : The movie is too much of a wide-eyed , ramshackle homage to '70s-acting-class indulgence . It needed much more shape and snap . 'Idol ' : The Anthem of Zoanette Johnson . Still , when Alan Arkin joins the party as a dying colleague , his antics â€ ” at least once he gets behind the wheel of a stolen car â€ ” give the film a fuel injection . Stand Up Guys reminds you that these three are still way too good to collapse into shticky self-parody , even when they 're in a movie that 's practically begging them to . Grade : B- . See the original article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Al Pacino and Christopher Walken star as grumpy old sociopaths in `` Stand Up Guys '' Pacino and Walken play second-rate Baltimore gangsters in their late 60s . `` Stand Up Guys '' is director Fisher Stevens first dramatic feature .