James Delingpole James Delingpole

An enjoyable new Ageing Dad drama: Disney+’s The Old Man reviewed

The premise is slight absurd and it ought to be comical, but Jeff Bridges carries it off

Jeff Bridges as Dan Chase in The Old Man. Image: Kurt Iswarienko 
issue 15 October 2022

We men all think we’ve still got it, even when we’re well past 50 and young women look straight through us and every time we get up or sit down or lift something off a shelf we sigh or grunt with the effort. But sure, if push came to shove and we had to defend our loved ones, we’d definitely be able to fight off our attackers with our bare hands, no problem. It’s for people like us that The Old Man was created.

It belongs to that venerable tradition of Ageing Dad movies which stretches from Taken (featuring Liam Neeson and his particular set of skills) through to James Bond (Daniel Craig is now 54) and the Mission Impossible series (Tom Cruise is now 60). This one features Jeff Bridges who is even older – 72 – as Dan Chase, a long-retired CIA operative whose deep cover has been blown and whose past has come back to haunt him.

The premise is absurd and it ought to be comical, but Bridges really does carry it off

The premise is slightly absurd.

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