BEFORE: From Miami/Dallas I'm heading up to Las Vegas for this caper/heist film. Linking from "Smokey and the Bandit II", Sally Field was in "Forrest Gump" with Kurt Russell (last seen in "Stargate"), who (allegedly) provided the voice of Elvis for that film. If that's not good enough, Burt Reynolds was in the remake of "The Longest Yard", which also had Courteney Cox (last seen in "Cocoon: The Return") in an uncredited role, but to me that counts.
THE PLOT: A gang of ex-cons rob a casino during Elvis convention week.
AFTER: I've covered heist films before, and I also did a whole week of films about Vegas back in Year 1, I think. Jeez, I even watched a string of heist films set in Vegas, so forgive me if this feels a bit like a retread for me. But some backtracking is to be expected, I suppose, since I didn't add this film to the list until just a couple months ago.
The film opens with an animated sequence, two CGI metallic scorpions fighting in the desert. It seems like an odd choice, until the latter part of the film becomes a showdown between the two main characters, so the symbolism of the two scorpions becomes clear. But scorpions are not evil, they are just built a certain way by nature that includes a stinger, whereas robbers and killers do what they do by choice, so the metaphor doesn't really work for me.
It's perhaps a Hollywood convention to show a group of thieves turn on each other during the heist. It's somewhat logical, since any eliminated members would mean that the others would get bigger shares, plus the fewer people that can get caught or rat out the others seems like a positive. But, whether this takes place in the real world, I can't confirm or deny. Here it also seems like a way to eliminate extraneous characters that the screenwriter got tired of, or a way to get the audience to focus on the film's two main characters, Michael and Murphy, not-so-coincidentally played by the film's biggest stars.
I can't help but be cynical, especially when the film seems to meander through what passes for a chase, and relies on incredible coincidences to get the characters back together (and in conflict with each other). What I did find interesting was the mental game played between the two main characters, who had to get inside each other's heads to gain any advantage. Just the hint that Michael's girlfriend might be in league with Murphy was enough to cause Michael to doubt everything about her. He didn't even debate whether Murphy himself might be lying. I mean, sure there's supposedly honor among thieves, but not this bunch of thieves.
Once the chase for the money (and the run for the border) was on, the film stayed good and twisty. At no point was I sure of who was going to come out on top, and maintaining that uncertainty is no small feat. But what was a little weird was the film getting me to root for one criminal over another - as if there are degrees of evilness, or something. Right is right, and wrong is wrong, right? Sure, one's a complete psycho and the other seems more reasonable, but aren't they both complicit in the heist? Plus, remember, they're both scorpions!
Why is Michael "less evil" than Murphy? Because he doesn't kill? I'd have to review the footage from the heist to confirm that... Because a woman cares for him? That seems arbitrary. Because he cares about the woman's kid? I don't know if teaching him to boost cars counts as fatherly advice. Any way I slice it, it feels like the film is forcing a villain into the hero role. Which is awkward at best, and morally questionable at worst. You can't make a sow's ear into a silk purse...
Also starring Kevin Costner (last seen in "A Perfect World"), Christian Slater (last heard in "Igor"), David Arquette (last seen in "The Darwin Awards"), Kevin Pollak (last seen in "Avalon"), Thomas Haden Church, Howie Long, with cameos from Jon Lovitz, Ice-T, Paul Anka.
RATING: 5 out of 10 slot machines
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