Senior Moment Parent Guide

Victor Martin (William Shatner) has had a long and successful career, starting as a combat aviator in Vietnam, but age catches up with everyone. In Victor’s case, when he gets caught street racing his vintage Porsche and loses his drivers license. With his car in the impound lot, Victor finds himself taking the bus – and in the process, bumping into local café owner and tortoise enthusiast Caroline (Jean Smart). Although she isn’t his usual type (20-year-old bikini models), Victor can’t seem to get enough of her. With the help of his best friend Sal (Christopher Lloyd), he plans to get his car back and win Caroline over…but neither of those are easy goals, and Victor isn’t as young as he used to be.

I had such high hopes for this movie. Bill Shatner and Christopher Lloyd are perhaps best known for their over-the-top, scene-chewing acting styles, so I naturally assumed this was going to be 90 minutes of borderline insanity. And I suppose it is, but not in the way I wanted. This is more like 90 minutes of boredom and dementia. If you know a sleep deprived senior citizen (or you are a sleep deprived senior citizen), this may be just the thing for you. It ought to put you out in about half an hour.

But let’s assume you made it past the first thirty minutes. The movie doesn’t get any better, but the negative content gets worse. On top of the swearing, we see Caroline and Victor smoke marijuana, although it is explicitly legal in California - Caroline grows her own to treat her arthritis. I think the biggest issue is the horde of bikini-clad models who seem to be on screen half the time.

That’s actually my biggest problem with Senior Moment. Instead of being funny or interesting, it feels like a fantasy movie for super senior 90-year-old Bill Shatner in which he gets to drive fast cars, hang out with adolescent bikini models, and still end up with a woman over 20 years younger than himself. It’s a colossal disappointment. This is the cinematic equivalent of taking intravenous Geritol. Last time Shatner and Lloyd were on screen together (at least, the last time I remember), the movie ended with Shatner kicking Lloyd into a magma-filled chasm as the planet they were on destroyed itself. Not that I expected that here, but boy do I miss it.