Hangover, the new Vegas Comedy
June 6, 2009
Sam
The movie Hangover opened yesterday in Las Vegas. I have been hearing great things about it so I went to an actual movie theater to see it. I haven’t been in a movie theater since the last Batman came out. Okay, so that was only a year ago? But still, I think my Netflix was having a jealous fit over the whole thing.
My office is on the southeast side of the strip. I had to find a theater, seeing how I’ve never been in one in Las Vegas. I picked the Sam’s Town one, as it was closest to my office and my house and also playing Hangover a lot of times during the day. I could go any time and it was only a mater of minutes before I could get in at the beginning.
I thought I’d take Tropicana to Boulder Hwy and then I’d be right there! Well, I drove on Tropicana for quite a while and never saw a Boulder Highway sign. I finally gave up and took a left turn on Nellis. It wasn’t far before I saw Sam’s Town. WTF? How did that happen? So, I accidentally drove right to it. I guess that works! It seems Sam’s Town is on the corner of Boulder Highway and Nellis. I thought those two roads were parallel. Guess not. lol
The Box Office
I had about twenty minutes to spare and was getting sort of hungry so I went in search of a quick slice of pizza. I found it in the food court. They don’t make that food court easy to find really. There is an outside atrium sort of thing and that’s where they hide all the fast food.
I don’t think I have ever been in Sam’s Town before. It is really pretty cool. I’ll have to go back there another time soon and really check the place out. Right then I was on a mission to find food, buy food and eat food, then skedaddle back to the theater in time to see the movie. Twenty minutes is not a very long time to do all of that.
Pizza Combo Special
Lucky for me there was no line. The pizza had a fabulous crust. It was soft and squishy and was slightly crunchy on the bottom. Nice. But the thing hardly had a smidgen of sauce. This was unfortunate as it left the pizza with hardly any flavor. I shoved that down with my little salad and worked on my drink. It was a pretty good deal. The slice of pizza, salad side and drink were less than seven dollars.
My movie was going to start at 4:15pm and that was what time it was as I was bussing my table. I ran back to the theater with my drink. I peeked inside where my movie was going to be and saw that the previews were going. But I really needed popcorn! You can’t watch a movie in a real theater without popcorn! Lucky again, no line at the concession area. I was in and out of line and back in my theater with my small popcorn in no time. Nobody ever bothered me about taking in my own lemonade.
The theater was mostly empty but there were some people in there sort of spread out. I found myself a secluded spot. No hats or tall people in front of me, no strangers right next to me to have to wrestle the arm rest away from. A nice spot. After one preview the movie began.
Keith Lyle
I was on a mission to spot Keith Lyle in the movie. I had interviewed him a couple of weeks ago about his latest movie he worked on. He had a small part as a blackjack dealer in this movie. He told me the other day that a lot of his scene was cut. I figured I was going to have to work hard at catching it.
Right off in the beginning people in the theater were cracking up. The movie starts with laughs and they just keep going.
The plot is that a guy in California is going to get married in two days. So he and his buddies are going to have a bachelor party in Las Vegas, only a few hours drive away. His soon to be father-in-law allows him to drive his prized Mercedes on the condition he let no one touch it or his son drive it. And don’t let his son gamble. The father-in-law drops hints that he might have some Vegas history himself, which is never explained in the movie, but that was good because it leaves you wondering what the hell is up with this guy and Vegas? Our imagination is always going to do a better job than the screenwriter on that one.
So off they go to Sin City. They had an issue or two getting there but arrived with the car in mint condition. You know the car is going to really get it bad at some point, so you keep waiting for it.
In the morning they wake up in a villa in Caesar’s Palace. They cannot remember a thing about what happened the night before. There is a real live tiger pacing in the bathroom, one guy is missing a tooth, the villa has been trashed and there is a live hen running around. They sit down to try to figure out what happened! They discover they are missing one guy, the groom. Then they hear a baby crying, it is coming from the closet. WTF did they do last night?! The heart of the movie begins as they narrow down times and meet people that give them a bit of information to go with. Some of those people are not so nice so there is some running, screaming and punches in the face.
I have been out partying with some drunk tourists on the strip before. While the movie has some pretty far fetched things in it, it all seems really in the realm of possibility. And that just makes it funnier as they run from this place to the next to discover more bits of what they did the night before.
Most of the movie is filmed at Caesar’s Palace on the strip. There are some driving scenes so you can see other parts of Vegas too. You get to see lots of signs and there are spots shown you might recognize.
I did get to see Keith Lyle’s scene, which was rather short but it was a fairly dramatic moment when they were gambling like their lives depended on it. Which, their lives sort of did depend on it, haha. Keith was the blackjack dealer who was dealing at the table where they were playing in order to get the required eighty grand they had to have immediately.
You’ll have to see the movie to find out about the wedding, whether or not they found the groom they lost in Sin City, and why the tooth was missing and where that tiger came from. I don’t want to spoil the story for you.
It was a really fun movie and I’m glad I went. Finally we have a quality comedy made about Las Vegas. The scenery was great, the view out of the windows appeared to be actual views and it was fun to participate in the romp through Vegas without getting the injuries.
I was warned the movie was a bit vulgar. Well, I must be jaded these days because I didn’t think so. But, I’m not very prim and proper so what I consider normal some might consider vulgar, I don’t know. I suppose if you don’t swear and never mention sex then you will be offended, I suppose. If that is you then you wouldn’t be interested in a movie about Las Vegas anyway.
People laughed out loud all through this movie, as I did. When it was over I looked around for my purse to get up and go and noticed there was a guy sitting in my row a few seats down. He was staring at me. Why? I do not know. People stare at me all the time now and I don’t know why. It sort of creeps me out. I said, “Good movie!” to him and got the hell out of there. Yeah, back to the real Vegas.
Written by friday on June 25, 2009 at 9:45 pm
oh that is the best movie this half of the year by far! and i got a little vegas fix in the mean time!!