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

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+ 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.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

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.]

What do you think of Saint John of Las Vegas?

Weeds - season 1 (2005) - Kohan's 'suburbia askew' show

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The main characters (except the two sons of the protagonist) under a big marijuana cloud for Jenji Kohan's Weeds

Weeds is the long-running (8 seasons) dark satire/dramedy TV-series that broke new grounds for its broadcaster Showtime and showrunner Jenji Kohan (Orange Is the New Black (2013-15), executive producer). It presents a contemporary look at the not-so neat and clean life in an American suburb:

Nancy Botwin (Emmy-winning (2006) Mary-Louise Parker (RED (2010)) is the recently widowed mother of two boys. To sustain their high living expenses, she deals weed in the neighborhood. She has a good-for-nothing brother Andy (Justin Kirk (Modern Family (2010-13)) who comes to live with them, a good friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins (Fierce People (2005)) who obsesses about her young daughter and contracts cancer, a regular slacker customer Doug (Kevin Nealon (Blended (2014)) who works at her son's school, and her rough-mouthed supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano (The Savages (2007)), whose handsome cousin Conrad (Romany Malco (The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)) doesn't have much luck getting in contact with Nancy. Her two sons are Shane (Alexander Gould (Finding Nemo (2003), voice), a boy who acts out, and Silas (Hunter Parrish (Still Alice (2014)), a teenager who acts out.

The show establishes its brand of very busy raunch-based comedy, which mixes the wholesome suburbia image with some taboo topics (homosexuality, death, sorrow, drugs, violence, bullying etc.) to elicit effect. The style sometimes comes to feel superficial, as it nearly permeates every important aspect of the character's lives. The show pushes its indie and upbeat feel beyond my patience at times. It works hard to include lots of heavy topics without ever becoming heavy, which some may find commendable, while it at times alienated me.
Kohan pushes the liberal-minded raunch at every turn, and it becomes tiring and overbearing. Especially Nancy's brother-character Andy is an often disgusting, despicable character, often with no real purpose action-wise on the show, who gets so much room that he nullifies quite a lot of enjoyment in the show. On the other hand, Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock (2006-13)) as Nancy's young helper Sanjay is very funny and counter-weighs him some.
While Silas dates a mute girl and experiments with drugs, Nancy opens a bakery to front for her real activities, (the particulars surrounding opening such a business totally escape our (and apparently, incredibly, also Nancy's) attention. Finally, she gets talked into ending this business in favor of a more ambitious drug collective with some friends. Meanwhile, she has started, mysteriously, dating the boring father of one of Shane's karate opponents, Peter, who, in the season's 'cliffhanger' ending, turns out to be a DEA agent.
Guest stars include Jane Lynch (Glee (2009-15)), Lorna Raver (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) and Allison Janney (Bad Words (2013)). The show has a cute, poignant opening song (Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds) to fit its neat suburbia opening sequence.
The first season opens up a universe that seems fairly promising and original, but it also leaves plenty of room for future improvements.

Best episodes:

Episode 1: You Can't Miss the Bear
Written by Kohan; directed by Brian Dannelly (Struck by Lightning (2012))
Sets up the environment, style and characters.

Episode 2: Free Goat
Written by Kohan; directed by Dannelly
With Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Salvation (2014)) as the late father. Every character has their problems.

Watch the season one trailer here 

Budget: Unknown
Box office: None
= Uncertainty
[But, even without sales figures, Weeds definitely has been a profitable product for its cast, crew and production and broadcasting companies, - otherwise it simply wouldn't have lasted as long as it did!]

What do you think of Weeds' first season?
And the following ones, if you've seen them?