With its bright lights, casinos and star attractions, Las Vegas long
attracted filmmakers who want to add a glamorous backdrop to movies in a
variety of genres. With most of the world currently on lockdown you probably
won't be visiting Vegas any time soon, but you can always get a taste by
visiting
judi bola or
watching these five movies set around the lights of the strip...
Viva Las Vegas
Elvis Presley is synonymous with Vegas thanks to his residency at
the Las Vegas Hilton, where he performed a stunning total of 636 shows
between 1969 and 1976. But Elvis had earlier helped to establish the image
of the city with his 1964 musical Viva Las Vegas. One of the most popular of the many movies the king of rock 'n roll
starred in, the film sees him play a race car driver who finds himself
taking a job at a hotel in order to raise the money to pay for repairs to
his car. Along the way he falls for Ann Margaret and belts out the
memorable title song.
Ocean's 11
Along with Elvis, another group of entertainers we associate with Vegas is
"The Rat Pack", which consisted of a core group of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and
Joey Bishop. All five feature in the cast of the 1960 caper
Ocean's 11. Led by Sinatra's Danny Ocean, a team of criminals with a variety of
skills combine to pull off a daring robbery of not one, but five of the
city's biggest casinos - the Sahara, the Riviera, the Desert Inn, the Sands and the Flamingo. The
movie famously inspired a 2001 remake which thus far has produced three
sequels.
Leaving Las Vegas
Nicolas Cage has become something of a joke in recent times but back
in the '90s he was considered one of the genuinely finest actors of his
generation. His greatest performance arguably came in director
Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas, in which Cage plays a suicidal screenwriter who travels to Vegas with a
plan to drink himself to death. Things become complicated when he falls for
a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue. Cage's performance was widely
acclaimed, scooping both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actor in
1996.
Showgirls
Not so acclaimed was director Paul Verhoeven's
Showgirls, another Vegas set movie that arrived the same year as
Leaving Las Vegas, but to a much different reception. Critics panned the story of Nomi
Malone (Elizabeth Berkeley), a young woman who arrives in Vegas
hoping to become the star of the hottest revue in town, and thanks to its
nudity, the film was banned in several countries. In the decades since,
Showgirls has developed a cult following, becoming one of the
most famous - or perhaps infamous - of all Vegas set movies.
Casino
Even a filmmaker of the stature of Martin Scorsese couldn't resist
the bright lights of the strip. Reuniting with his
Goodfellas stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci,
and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, Scorsese's Casino is
inspired by the real life exploits of Frank Rosenthal, a mobster who
secretly ran four Vegas casinos for the Chicago mob. Along with De Niro and
Pesci, the film features a standout performance from Sharon Stone as
the former's troublesome wife. The movie boasts the final ever title
sequence created by Saul Bass, famous for his memorable titles for
Hitchcock movies among others.