Review: 'Senior Moment' is a painfully inept rom-com for the AARP crowd

They say you should never meet your heroes — but what they don’t warn you about is not to watch your heroes grow into their 80s and make pathetically unwatchable movies, as William Shatner does in the geriatric comedy “Senior Moment.”

Shatner, who was 86 when he filmed this (he turned 90 this week), plays Victor Martin, a retired NASA test pilot living in Palm Springs, where he dotes on his vintage Porsche convertible. Hanging out with his best friend, Sal Spinelli (Christopher Lloyd), Victor gets goaded into drag racing a guy, Pablo Torres (Carlos Miranda), in his low-rider. Victor gets caught, and thanks to a spiteful DA (Beth Littleford), Victor gets his driver’s license suspended and his Porsche impounded.

Surrendering to the ignominy of public transit, Victor has a fortuitous encounter with Caroline Summers (Jean Smart), a cafe owner and star baker. Victor gives up his usual pursuit of bikini-clad women a quarter his age (represented here by “30 Rock’s” Katrina Bowden) to court Caroline, though he becomes jealous when she also spends time with Diego Lozana (Esai Morales), a brooding painter.

It should be a treat to see these veteran actors putting each other through their paces — and Smart, as always, is delightful no matter what. But the script, by Kurt Brungardt and Christopher Momenee, is loaded with jokes that are older than anyone on screen. And director Giorgio Serafini handles them with all the subtlety of a train wreck.

Shatner frequently sacrifices his dignity in an attempt to get laughs, and it’s all the more sad that he does so in vain. “Senior Moment” is one movie that, if Shatner has any luck on his side, people will forget.

——

‘Senior Moment’

★

Opens Friday, March 26, in theaters where open. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for sexual content and some language. Running time: 92 minutes.