Average Rating: 4.2/10
Reviews Counted: 51
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 40
Writer-director Hue Rhodes' debut is a poorly-paced, forgettable comedy that wastes the quirky talents of stars Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman.
Average Rating: 3.8/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 17
Writer-director Hue Rhodes' debut is a poorly-paced, forgettable comedy that wastes the quirky talents of stars Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 1,191
A compulsive gambler attempts to cure his addiction by moving from Las Vegas to Albuquerque and working at an auto insurance company, only to find old temptations cropping up once again when he's sent out to investigate a dubious car accident just outside of Sin City. After a string of bad luck at the tables, John (Steve Buscemi) decides to give up gambling and take a shot at a "normal" life. Arriving in Albuquerque and landing a job at an auto insurance company, John goes to work for Mr.
Jan 29, 2010 Wide
Jul 13, 2010
$72.2k
IndieVest Pictures
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (41) | DVD (1)
Comic casting and comic timing pay off in most scenes, with Dinklage landing the big laughs, Malco doing his wise-guy-talking-down-to-the-doofus patter and Buscemi just bugging out and reacting to the craziness.
It's a kind of cinematic purgatory, halfway between eternal reward and eternal damnation. The question is: What did I do to deserve such mediocrity?
Saint John of Las Vegas was a bad script that somehow got made into a bad movie with good people in it.
For all its clever quirkiness, the end product seems flat and over-thought, which isn't to say it's a bad first step for this ambitious novice director, just a long way from something that will set the world on fire.
This debut feature by Hue Rhodes offers a wealth of skilled players and admirably offbeat gags yet seldom manages to generate any laughs.
It's minor, but I enjoyed it, largely because of the people on-screen, but also for the sneaky sincerity of writer-director Hue Rhodes' chronicle of one compulsive gambler's slouch toward redemption.
The performances are strong--even the minor characters--and the atmosphere and tone are spot-on for a dark comedy.
Buscemi playing Buscemi is still entertaining, even after all these years.
You can take a gambler out of Las Vegas, but you can't take Las Vegas out of a gambler.
good for a quick laugh, but ultimately an empty gesture.
... slightly less than the sum of its parts ...
Don't get me wrong. I loved Buscemi's low-key performance. But I'm less crazy about the movie, which is sometimes oddly timed and funny and sometimes just plain flat.
Trying desperately to be hip and cool, 'Saint John of Las Vegas' is fey and flimsy instead.
The script is both overly simple and unnecessarily complex. As we wander west without tension or purpose across an airless desert, the trip isn't all that enjoyable. For God's sake, are we there yet?
With a scattershot plot, one's attention may focus more acutely on the characterizations, adeptly handled by very skilled, principal actors.
Buscemi delivers game and spry and pleasurable work, but writer-director Hue Rhodes drops him into a mess of a film and lets him dangle helpless and alone.
It's a black comedy with a few exceptional scenes, but never gels together convincingly, making the artistic swing for the fences more of a quiet disappointment than a captivating leap of faith.
Theoretically, Saint John of Vegas may look good from a distance, but when seen up close it's only a house of cards.
"Getting Lucky is a Roll of the Dice"I was intrigues by this movie because it had Steve Buscemi in the leading role and Romany Malco, who I really liked in Weeds. The movie could never really pull itself together though. I really have no idea what this movie was trying to accomplish or what it was trying to be.Saint
July 31, 2011
Super Reviewer
An insurance claims adjuster with a gambling problem is sent to Las Vegas to investigate a wheelchair-bound stripper's car accident. The gambling addiction makes for a nice hook and the cast is appealing (Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman), but it never really comes together as a comedy. For unclear reasons, there
November 4, 2010
Super Reviewer
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