I naturally presumed that John Turtletaub‘s Last Vegas (CBS Films, 11.1) would be just another wank — a slightly tamer Hangover for 60somethings with the usual old-fart, where-did-I-put-my-Viagra? jokes. Well, it’s better than that. I found it mostly likable, amiable, fast on its feet. Michael Douglas and Robert DeNiro do well enough by their roles, but Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman really kick up their heels. (Costar Mary Steenburgen also comes off nicely.) Dan Fogelman‘s script is up to much more than just a series of crude, low-rent gags. HE regulars might recall guessing which of the four revelers will buy it in the end. I’m not spoiling anything but it’s always pleasant when a film doesn’t do the expected thing. There’s a no-review embargo until late October but I told one of publicists they’re making a mistake with that. The word on this is going to be at least half-decent.

I’m not doing too well here. I have to leave West Hollywood for my LAX-to-London flight in roughly 75 minutes (i.e., by 3:30 pm) and as usual I’m trying to jam in a couple of extra stories before I do that. And of course I haven’t packed yet, much less showered. 5:30 pm update: I made the flight although there’s some official doubt about whether my suitcase will be loaded in time. Heathrow arrival around noon Saturday (4 am L.A. Time). Ten hours of coach-class hell.

The response last month to Dallas Buyer’s Club (Focus Features, 11.1) among Toronto Film Festival journos was that it’s a very good film containing two award-calibre performances — Matthew McConaughey‘s as Ron Woodruff, the real-life Texan who became a renegade supplier of unapproved AIDS-fighting medications after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and Jared Leto‘s as Rayon, Woodruff’s drag-queen ally who helps him with distribution among the gay community. But I changed my mind after seeing it again last at the Academy. Because it sank in deeper and I teared up a bit. Jean-Marc Vallee‘s disciplined direction and Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack‘s tightly woven but natural-flowing screenplay deliver a compelling humanist current. I came away thinking that this has to be in the Best Picture arena. I was too whipped to absorb it fully in Toronto. Seeing it fresh and rested last night turned things around.

(l. to. r.) Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Mathew McConaughey on stage before last night’s Dallas Buyer’s Club screening at the Academy.

I explained myself a bit more this morning in the discussion thread for yesterday’s riff about what I called the “Guru Consensus Virus.” Here’s what I said: “I’m just talking about conversation drivers and that subtle but very familiar process in which online pundits leave a certain film off their Best Picture contender list (Grantland‘s Mark Harris did this two or three days ago to All Is Lost) and/or put it at the bottom of their list of likelies, and before you know it that very good and deserving film is on the downslide and more or less dead.

“Some of us are covert List Queens and others (like me) are upfront about it. Gurus of Gold and Gold Derby are the two big destination sites for award-season List Queens.