I Shot a Man in Vegas

Oh man, I was hoping this John Stockwell/Janeane Garafolo movie would've been good. Cheap, but good. But it wasn't. Not at all.

What we have here is far too simple a story line dragged out for an hour and a half. Five friends are in a bar in Vegas. Then one gets in fight with another and he winds up shooting him. Then, they stuff the body in the trunk and spend the rest of the movie in a panic trying to figure out what to do while at the same time rehashing each person's version of the events. So three quarters of the movie is just repeating this scene and a bar and the fight in the alley.

The characters are all pretty annoying. There's apathetic Greg (or Grant?--it seems that this name changes throughout the movie). And the very annoying character, Martin, who in my book, should've been the one to be killed. The looney, Anne. And the victim, pretty boy Johnny.

But what does it all mean, Basil? The only intense part happens at the very end when all the characters start getting really nervous about what they're going to do. But by the time the friend confesses as to why he shot the other friend, it hardly adds to any suspense or brilliant ending.

There's not a whole lot of story to work with in this film that spends its time flashing us back to a pivotal moment in the lives of five friends. What is revealed about the event, and the relationships among the friends that led up to it, is not all that interesting, but a good cast does its best to lift the mediocre material up a notch. At the forced ending, we have little payoff, and this should be considered strictly for killing a couple of hours at best.

The movie kicks off brilliantly, but doesn't build upto anything, making the ending, a bit of a disappointment. The only possible things that could keep the viewer interested are the rather 'natural' feel of the movie, and its brilliant music.

The direction is good; infact, it seems quite amateurish. Deliberately done or not, this amateurish look of the movie, can be said as a bit of a saving grace and gives an 'edge' to the otherwise horrible movie. But, the story line is so weak, that even the best of direction cannot save the movie from sinking. Though the movie tries to conjure up'suspense' so that the viewer could look forward to at least something towards the end of the movie, sadly however, even before the 'suspense' begins, it is quite easy to figure it out, what it is going to be. If this is the case, then there is not much to look forward to, in the movie.

The bottom line: the movie has bad acting, good direction by a helpless director, and on top of it all, a really bad story line. However, the music and the timing of music is fantastic, one of the best, ever. One more thing: the 'car' is beautiful.

Rating: 5/10