Leaving Las Vegas -Movie Review

A bit old, sure. But I finally got around to seeing it for the first time.

Leaving Las Vegas stars Nicholas Cage and Adventures in Babysitting, Elizabeth Shue. Not to be confused with Honeymoon in Vegas starring Nicholas Cage and Sex in the City, Sarah Jessica Parker. ‘Leaving’ is about severe alcoholism and prostitutes, while ‘Honeymoon’ is a bit lighter, dealing with infidelity and flying Elvis’…(Elvai?)

Anyways, I am not sure why it’s taken me so long to see this movie because its been on my radar forever. I like Nick Cage a lot. I think he is a real entertaining actor. And not for his Con Air shit and whatnot, but for his other roles like Adaptation, which was excellent. To Valley Girl which was flat out entertaining. And Family Guy (movie) which for whatever reason he cracked me up in. And even his role in Peggy Sue Got Married. I guess I just dig the guy.

Come to think of it, I actually met him several years back. More like seven years ago now. Wow. But I was in the City with my friend JG and we….well this does place it. We were out in San Fran to meet up with our ladies (his girlfriend and my 19 year old philly I was inappropriately dating) to see this new band called Coldplay. Yep. Pretty funny. They were playing in a really small club, so it would have been pretty intimate.

Anyways, JG and I got out there a bit late, and because of poor planning or whatshit, the girls only had three tickets or something moronic. I had never heard of Coldplay so I said ‘fuck it’, you girls take it. JG and I will have a guys’ night out on the town.’ Had I known that Coldplay would have turned into the juggernaut that they are today, perhaps we wouldn’t have bailed so readily.

 So JG and I headed off on our own down to the Little Italy area with all the strip clubs. But we were 26 at the time. Seemed a little tacky at that age to dwell in one of the tawdry clubs, especially since we had a couple of saucy beauties to return to. So instead we headed to a jazz club. Why? Because we were total posers…alright! Whens the last time I used that word???

But we knew we were phonies, but it’s fun to play pretend.

We went in and ordered up a couple of scotches. Got to roll with it right? And listened to some boring ass jazz in this nice, dimly lit club.

The music drolled on. The trumpet player screeched out a little run. The trombonist released a slow melancholy drawl on his instrument. JG and I wince for the eighth time trying to ingest our rancid drinks.

And I look over and see this guy who looks a whole lot like Nicholas Cage. JG doesn’t spot him cause he’s fucking blind as a bat. I lean into JG.

“Look at that douchebag. Duh duh duh I like to dress up like Nicholas Cage.”

And I bust a little into my Cage impersonation amusing ourselves at the jackass imposter.

“Oh….riiight. That would be lovely”.

JG is bent over laughing.

I continue to laugh as I catch a few more glances and then slow down my chuckle.

“Hold on (sans accent). Dude, I think that is Nicholas Cage”.

JG squints like a newborn mouse for a ridiculously long time.

“No way”. (Not in a Keanu Reeves accent)

“Holy shit. That is him.”

So that made our night kind of cool. It was sure to get a little jealousy from the girls. So JG and I cheers-ed our drinks and continued on with the dull music re-energized from the Cage sighting.

But for some reason JG kept staring at the guy like a deranged fan. Wasn’t even subtle about it. His head was cocked to the left and remained there with an ironed on smirk. I could see Cage uncomfortably trying not to notice JG’s stare.

“Dude, knock it off. You’re freaking him out.”

JG reluctantly releases his gaze.

“….Anyways, dude let’s get out of here, I’m bored.”

The Cage sighting was only good for ten minutes of warding off my boredom.

JG agrees but needs to head off to the bathroom first. Hopefully not to rub one out. But whatever. I don’t judge.

After a few minutes I see Nick and his date get up and start walking toward the door, where I happen to be standing. Cool, but I felt a little weird due to JG’s one person staring contest a few minutes back.

Cage walks up and coincidentally so does JG at the same time.

Oh, great.

We all kind of squeezed out of the door, shoulder to shoulder, and began walking in the same direction. And since it was late, it was just the four of us side by side. It was almost more awkward at this point not to acknowledge him.

So I started a little small talk with him and his date and the guy turned out to be a total stud. Couldn’t be nicer or more approachable. As was his date for that matter. Another actor/actress who JG and I didn’t recognize, much to her feigned (to whatever degree) embarassment. Regardless, the run-in with these two solidified our good night.

Damn I get sidetracked. Anyways, Leaving Las Vegas. I finally sat down and watched it. If you have DirectTV it’s one of the free movies you can access.

Anyways I found the movie to be pretty good. Cage, I felt did a very good job playing the part of a self destructive alcoholic. I believe he may have won the Oscar for the role. Oscar worthy? Maybe. He was damn good.

But I was surprised by two things though. 1) In how good Elizabeth Shue looked.

Damn. She had some very sexy scenes.  (She actually kind of reminds me of Jessica Simpson in this photo.)

And 2) In how ill equipped as an actress she was in handling the depth of her character. I really was surprised. I thought she did a very mediocre to maybe sub-that in handling the intense, emotional scenes. It really took me out of the movie. I feel that if a better actress was in that roll it could have been very powerful. Still an interesting movie exploring the gritty side of destruction, addiction, love, and desperation. It’s definitely worth seeing, though you probably already have.

Grade B.

BN