I anticipated this film a little too much, it's a much smaller film, sort of feels like a short story realization. So file me between the philistines and the elite here (and I'm not quite sure which group loved the movie, and which hated it.)
Personally, I am not that interested in seeing another Las Vegas film...so I chose to view this as a film about a malevolent god. Now, I'm an agnostic, though raised by monotheists, and quite honestly a pantheon allows for a lot more interesting interaction between gods and men. With monotheism, God has to be the literal be-all and end-all (and know-all and create-all, etc...). With more gods, you can have specialization, and Alec Baldwin's Shelly character here is the god of Shangri-la.
Some spoilers follow, the short summary...don't seek this film out but watch it when you get a chance I'd say. Oh if you are offended by sex and violence, welcome to Earth... and skip this film.
Back to Shelly, sure there is the clash of the old school Las Vegas titans and the modern rollercoasters for the stroller set. That's not uninteresting, but Shelly with his video omniscience, and ultrasound and X-ray vision to boot, is the god of all he surveys. His deification is underscored by the scene of his stomping on the mock-up of the new Golden Shangri-la.
Still being a god is a lonely affair, why do you think all those Greek gods and goddesses were always swan diving into the human realm? Shelly has empowered William Macy's Bernie Lootz with a particular power. I wish I had not known what it was beforehand, and if you don't more "power" to you, but you should really stop reading now.
It is made plain during the opening shots of the movie anyways, what is interesting to me is Macy's subtle pride in this rather perverse power. At the same time, he wants out...and you guessed it, "they keep pulling me back in." Mafia and casino films will have their regulation amounts of violence, and this delivers it as well. We don't see the scene in which Shelly wounds Bernie, but Bernie recounts it with odd fondness and even worship.
The violence turned my wife off, so she missed the sex. I would disagree with those that write off the sex as gratuitous, maybe they were afraid they actually saw Macy's cock...um I'm sorry willy or whatever euphemism somehow makes it okay for you talk about. Yawn.
The key to the sex for me was twofold. The initial clumsy coitus between Bernie and Maria Bello's Natalie is a lot more real than much of the sex we see, and it serves with their later more passionate sex to underscore the sexy sea-change that Bernie undergoes. The other aspect is that it sets up the very funny joke scene of revenge sex that Bernie inflicts upon his neighbor. (I wondered why we had to meet that couple earlier in the film...)
The novel idea behind Bernie's "job" and his relation with Baldwin's god of Shangri-la are what drive this film. There are some tender moments with Bello, but those are undermined by some plot contrivances that we've seen before a little too often. I think it is the contrast behind the unique notion of the "cooler" and the array of cliches that get trotted out that doom this film to a mere mortal, and hence ephemeral existence.
Explaining the phrase "easy mark," as though it were something Bernie and Shelly coined was one. The whole scamming son (mirrored by Nathalie's lost boy) also felt very counterfeit.
And yes the deus-ex-drunk-driver scene is amongst them. It was too similar to those superhero scenes where the villain takes time to explain why killing our hero is so sweet. And...whoops! For a short story, that scene would have been enough to demonstrate that good-luck/bad-luck is a matter of perspective, or in this case about 12 inches it would appear.
Lower your expectations to up the ante on this one... This film may be mildly linked to how you feel about Las Vegas.
6/10
Personally, I am not that interested in seeing another Las Vegas film...so I chose to view this as a film about a malevolent god. Now, I'm an agnostic, though raised by monotheists, and quite honestly a pantheon allows for a lot more interesting interaction between gods and men. With monotheism, God has to be the literal be-all and end-all (and know-all and create-all, etc...). With more gods, you can have specialization, and Alec Baldwin's Shelly character here is the god of Shangri-la.
Some spoilers follow, the short summary...don't seek this film out but watch it when you get a chance I'd say. Oh if you are offended by sex and violence, welcome to Earth... and skip this film.
Back to Shelly, sure there is the clash of the old school Las Vegas titans and the modern rollercoasters for the stroller set. That's not uninteresting, but Shelly with his video omniscience, and ultrasound and X-ray vision to boot, is the god of all he surveys. His deification is underscored by the scene of his stomping on the mock-up of the new Golden Shangri-la.
Still being a god is a lonely affair, why do you think all those Greek gods and goddesses were always swan diving into the human realm? Shelly has empowered William Macy's Bernie Lootz with a particular power. I wish I had not known what it was beforehand, and if you don't more "power" to you, but you should really stop reading now.
It is made plain during the opening shots of the movie anyways, what is interesting to me is Macy's subtle pride in this rather perverse power. At the same time, he wants out...and you guessed it, "they keep pulling me back in." Mafia and casino films will have their regulation amounts of violence, and this delivers it as well. We don't see the scene in which Shelly wounds Bernie, but Bernie recounts it with odd fondness and even worship.
The violence turned my wife off, so she missed the sex. I would disagree with those that write off the sex as gratuitous, maybe they were afraid they actually saw Macy's cock...um I'm sorry willy or whatever euphemism somehow makes it okay for you talk about. Yawn.
The key to the sex for me was twofold. The initial clumsy coitus between Bernie and Maria Bello's Natalie is a lot more real than much of the sex we see, and it serves with their later more passionate sex to underscore the sexy sea-change that Bernie undergoes. The other aspect is that it sets up the very funny joke scene of revenge sex that Bernie inflicts upon his neighbor. (I wondered why we had to meet that couple earlier in the film...)
The novel idea behind Bernie's "job" and his relation with Baldwin's god of Shangri-la are what drive this film. There are some tender moments with Bello, but those are undermined by some plot contrivances that we've seen before a little too often. I think it is the contrast behind the unique notion of the "cooler" and the array of cliches that get trotted out that doom this film to a mere mortal, and hence ephemeral existence.
Explaining the phrase "easy mark," as though it were something Bernie and Shelly coined was one. The whole scamming son (mirrored by Nathalie's lost boy) also felt very counterfeit.
And yes the deus-ex-drunk-driver scene is amongst them. It was too similar to those superhero scenes where the villain takes time to explain why killing our hero is so sweet. And...whoops! For a short story, that scene would have been enough to demonstrate that good-luck/bad-luck is a matter of perspective, or in this case about 12 inches it would appear.
Lower your expectations to up the ante on this one... This film may be mildly linked to how you feel about Las Vegas.
6/10