A Guide to Sin City Cinema

The Las Vegas Film Festival and movies to keep your summer cool

June 20, 2008

By Leah Bailly
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

Las Vegas is burning up. Between the pool parties, scantily clad strippers and the dragsters peeling up and down the Boulevard, Sin City summer is famous for its spectacle. June, however, means more to some heat seekers than soaring temperatures. Host to the annual CineVegas Film Festival (June 12-21), movie buffs, big shot directors and steamy celebrities have been flocking to Sin City to participate in this week's cinematic festivities. 

So what's the big draw? Huge stars, such as Viggo Mortensen, Rosario Dawson and James Caan, will be receiving awards from CineVegas 2008, the local festival celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year. Featuring 45 feature films and a medley of shorts, CineVegas claims to be among the fastest growing festivals in the country. There are the requisite world premieres, never-heard-of indie gems and of course, as with all things Vegas, a tendency to get boozy. The highlights for most festival goers are the swank parties at the host venue, The Palms.

If anything, this week of CineVegas mayhem begs the question: How important is film to Las Vegas? Festival organizers claim record-breaking attendance, better press coverage and the best lineup of any festival yet. The program consists of edgy, modern cinematic endeavors, with go-go dancers and foul-mouthed Easter Bunnies as not-so-typical protagonists. "Filmmakers and projects that may not normally get recognized by a festival have a platform in Las Vegas," claimed CineVegas' artistic director Trevor Groth. "It's a unique location for a film festival that creates a vibrant atmosphere."

Indeed, Las Vegas has been the backdrop for countless evocative, slightly slutty films. Las Vegas is known for its casino backdrops; any classic Sin City film is set to the tune of slot machines and revving Cadillacs. Famous Vegas characters include Blackjack masters, mobsters, showgirls and swingers. Even Americans who have never ventured onto the Nevada desert can identify such famous Sin City landmarks as the Luxor Pyramid or the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign from Hollywood exposure.

Best Vegas Movies of All Time

With so many classic American film moments to recall, we at Bodog Nation compiled a list of the best Vegas movies (and movie moments) to peruse this summer, even if you can't make it to the CineVegas 2008 gala events. From old-school crooners to contemporary hits, Las Vegas has been a massive (albeit underbellied) influence on American film. So what Vegas movies made history?

Start with the best. The original 1960s version of Ocean's Eleven, featuring the Rat Pack in such classic locales as the Sands and the Desert Inn, is true a cinematic artifact. No where else can movie viewers get an accurate snapshot of mob era Vegas starring the handsome devils themselves. Viva Las Vegas, the 1963 musical featuring the King himself, gave Sin City its theme song. The 1991 blockbuster Bugsy told the story of our forefathers (psychotic criminals that they are). And Fear and Loathing remembered Las Vegas' patron saint, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, famed for his drug induced romp through Sin City in the 1970s.

James Caan may well have hit his peak when he starred in The Gambler. (Image Courtesy IMDB.com)

It seems that the best Vegas films are those impervious to shelf death. The 1974 film The Gambler starring James Caan (he does deserve the "Vegas Icon" award) has remained steadfast despite its age. The story of a professor turned degenerate gambler, The Gambler has all a Vegas movie requires: plenty of time at the poker table, knee-busting mobsters and a mother who's mad as hell. Other Vegas classics include the campy James Bond hit Diamonds Are Forever (1971), starring Sean Connery and starlet Lana Wood. Drifting away from staunch Europe and focusing on Las Vegas, this spy movie turned mega hit featured such plot hooks as the diamond-crusted satellite, psycho cloning millionaire and saucy martial artists in lingerie. 

Leaving Las Vegas kind of spoiled the romance of drinking yourself to death. (Image Courtesy IMDB.com)

The best contemporary Vegas films? Las Vegas cinema could be best remembered for its string of 1990s Nicholas Cage movies, exploring the wide spectrum of Vegas cliches. Who can deny the tragic Leaving Las Vegas (1995) documenting the fall of two already fallen characters at the depths of Las Vegas destitution. Other Cage classics include Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), a playful parade through all Vegas tropes, including the now infamous "Flying Elvis" troupe of skydiving impersonators and also starring James Caan.

Swingers got a generation of people saying, "Vegas baby!" any time they hear the word "Vegas." It's now officially annoying. (Image Courtesy Miramax)

And now, we know the funniest Vegas movies always come with their transgressions. The 1996 smash hit Swingers coined the now infamous phrase, "Vegas baby, Vegas." A story of boys chasing girls while detouring to a high-stakes Roulette table reminds men to watch themselves in Sin City. Want to get even nastier? Perhaps as dark as comedy can venture, the 1998 hit Very Bad Things is indeed full of violence and sadistic humor. The bachelor party turned sour (with sudden bodies to bury in the desert), no Vegas visit is complete without a reference to a dead stripper in the bathroom. After all, "What happens in Vegas..."

And the quirkiest Las Vegas film ever? The Atomic Kid shot on location in Las Vegas in 1954, the story of a uranium prospector who eats the wrong peanut butter sandwich and ends up radioactive. This slapstick comedy, starring Mickey Rooney and his then-wife Elaine Davis, tracks a ring of spies through the old Fremont casinos, setting off slot machines in its wake. The glow-in-the-dark hero could be the poster boy for 1950s Las Vegas. Atomic, romantic and a winner at the casino!

So, as CineVegas 2008 wraps up its final weekend of hot film action, take a moment to reflect on Vegas' memorable movies. Even if you can't make it to the glamorous poolside parties or to a splashy world premiere, this summer, audiences everywhere can roll the dice with some of America's counter-culture heroes. Take a virtual stroll down the Strip. Revisit the City of Sin's proudest moments on film. In a town like this (especially with this heat), it's almost as good as the real thing.

TOP PHOTO: The original Rat Pack. (Image Courtesy Dorchester)