Customer Reviews

Saint John of Las Vegas

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Surprising that there's only four reviews of this here; I though the Buscemi fan club alone would give maybe a few dozen. Oh well. In any case, I expected little, having heard nothing of Saint John, and was very pleasantly treated to a rather funny and entertaining film.

It's an oblique satire on Dante's Inferno, with Buscemi being called John Alighieri to make it clear (Dante's last name for 800, Alex?). Director Rhodes has a nice eye for composition and a crisp sense of humor; there are plenty of sly laughs here in both the script and shots. Buscemi is better than usual but it's Romany Malco as Virgil who steals this one. He really delivers the goods and is hard to stop watching; he knows how to turn the camera into his friend. A very enjoyable performance and worth watching this film for alone.

I also liked Silverman more than usual, and Dinklage continues to be hilarious in everything, it seems. He was great in Elf, the original Death At A Funeral (a classic), and many others, and he's equally funny here. There's something about him when he's angry that's hard not to laugh at. Rhodes also gets nice little turns from all the bit players, the sign of a good director, and I think we'll be seeing a lot more quality work from him, and from Malco too.

There are also some quick but perfect scenes showing John's gambling addiction that are all too accurate, yet funny too. It's the quietly wise moments like that which lift Saint John well above the average buddy/road/Vegas flick. If any of those three genres appeals to you, or you just like Buscemi, Malco, Silverman or Dinklage, you're bound to like this quietly funny, smart film.

Quirky road/buddy comedy by director Hue Rhodes, sort of in a string of vignettes that add up to a clever twist ending. Great supporting cast including Peter Dinklage, John Cho and Tim Blake Nelson makes for a lot of fun and continued interest.

A likable, if short, movie at 85 minutes. The DVD transfer looks good and the audio sounds great. Would've appreciated subtitles but oh well. It's a pretty easy movie to get right into and Buscemi and Malco play well off each other. The story set-up is interesting too, with these two insurance claims investigators digging around the deserts of Las Vegas in search of a fraudulant claim, namely that of Miss Tasty Dee-light's, a stripper with a case of whiplash. John (Buscemi), a semi-recovered compulsive gambler spends a lot of time trying to figure out if luck is with him, and less time trying to avoid buying lottery tickets. The movie in its final analysis might be seen as a kind of philosophical treaty a guy makes with himself on the subject of luck. It's well filmed and in spite of being loosely based on Dante's Inferno, it's mostly a fairly light ride with black-ish humor. A slightly anti-climactic ending may have resulted in some of its low ratings. But what it does have going for it is a good scenario, fine acting and a cinematic feel. It's not the best movie Buscemi's ever done, but it's nothing to be ashamed of either.

This movie is one of those primarily character-driven indie movies where, instead of interesting characters, We Duh Audience get to see several kookie/zany/offbeat/quirky-with-a-capital-Q characters tossed together, and then: Let the indie-zone "comedy" begin! (For other examples, see "Inside Monkey Zetterland" and "Buffalo 66.")

Trouble is, in this "Vegas," 'quirky/offbeat/etc.' equals 'annoying and/or unpleasant.' I don't particularly require a movie's characters to be likeable, just interesting. The characters in "Goodfellas" are morally repugnant but fascinating. Here, Buscemi is a spineless gambling addict, and that's pretty much all there is to his character. I should care about him exactly why? Sarah Silverman plays his "love interest" but I saw no chemistry between them. Sarah S isn't given much to do except act uncharacteristically "perky." The actors are the only elements making "Vegas" watchable at all. For Buscemi fans only!

I wasn't really expecting much from this movie but it turned out to be pretty good. The character fit Buscemi perfectly, Romany Malco's character was pretty damn good too. This is at least worth renting if not buying. If you do not like indie films that don't have a huge budget or doesn't have the best known actors then you wouldn't enjoy this.

A couple of funny scenes but otherwise pretty lame. It is a short indie film on a very very low budget. It seems that they just sat down in cafe and said, lets make a movie and went off and made one without much thought. I wouldn't pay money to see this or even to rent it. This movie could have been a lot funnier if they actually sat down and designed a script.