Saint John of Las Vegas (2009) - Slight deadpan comedy debut unduly dumped

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

Splashy graphics with three of the film's stars on this poster give a vague sense of the luck-centered story of Hue Rhodes' Saint John of Las Vegas

John is addicted to gambling, and his vice gets an opportunity to soar when he heads on a trip to Las Vegas and its surrounding area to uncover insurance scams. He also has a new, sweet girlfriend, but the itch to gamble just won't leave his hands...

Saint John of Las Vegas is written and directed by feature-debuting Hue Rhodes (Practice (2006, short)). It is a funny little deadpan-comedic flick with a high Vegas quality to it. Rhodes has screwed it together well, - and gotten Steve Buscemi (The Messenger (2009)) to co-produce and play the title character, protagonist John, whom Buscemi inhabits with gusto.
Romany Malco (Top Five (2014)) looks good in any project, here in an undefinable partner part. There are fine, original characters at play here, even if the film is basically slight.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 111k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.05 times its cost)
[Saint John of Las Vegas premiered 10 June (Cinevegas Film Festival, Las Vegas) and runs 85 minutes. Rhodes had come into contact with co-producer Spike Lee (Pass Over (2018)) as an NYU film student and later Buscemi and co-producer Stanley Tucci (Medora (2013, documentary)). Shooting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The film opened #52 to a 21k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #50 and in 14 theaters, grossing 102k $ (91.9 % of the total gross). The only other market for it was Russia with 9k $. The catastrophic performance of the film seems to have stubbed out Rhodes' budding career, although CinemaBlend's interview with him around the time of its release reads enthusiastically that "it certainly won't be his last." He has had no credit since. Buscemi returned with a voice performance in G-Force (2009) and physically in Youth in Revolt (2009); Malco in Bored to Death (2009, TV-series), Off Duty (2009, TV movie) and theatrically in Gulliver's Travels (2010). Saint John of Las Vegas is rotten at 23 % with a 4.28/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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