Saint John of Las Vegas (2010)

Lack of good storyline.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I knew nothing about this movie, but ended up catching it on a movie channel recently. I thoroughly enjoyed it and watched parts over again. It lacked a lot of action and it didn't really have many punchlines, but I found this lack of predictability to be one of the most endearing parts about the movie. While the movie is not at all predictable and often pretty absurd, it does not feel as if the absurdity relies on weird twists or surprises. While the situations feel bizarre, the situations and characters are much closer to reality than most everything else Hollywood puts out. I thought the acting was great, the characters bizarre, and the situations hilarious. Needless to say I found it very compelling and funny, and i did not need any Dante references to appreciate it.

Steve Buscemi is at his best when working with a fast-paced script full of unanswerable one-liners (see 'Delirious'). Unfortunately the script for this film was was not of this ilk, and a Steve Buscemi at half speed is not a funny Steve Buscemi. What were the script writers and/or directors thinking of? Rarely do films with such potential for comedy fall as short as this one has. I watched it until the rolling credits for the main reason of seeing what the unsubtle twist was going to be. There was clearly going to be one and when it arrived it was as surprising as sunrise. In terms of entertainment value it's just about watchable but if you're a Steve Buscemi fan you might be disappointed with this when you quickly conclude that you have seen the man in far better form.

I was really excited about this movie. When I saw the trailer for this movie, I felt like it couldn't be out on DVD soon enough. As soon as this was out on Redbox I rented it. Lucky for me I had a promo code and got this movie for free. You can just see how low the budget on this movie would have been.It had it funny moments which were REALLY funny, but they were few and far apart. When you snag actors like Steve Buscemi, Romany Malco, Sarah Silverman and Peter Dinklage, you ensure they have a script to match their caliber. This script was mediocre and the story had no drive or punch. I expected a bit more off the ending, but to me it was an anticlimax.My suggestion is to rent this movie if you really like the leads. Steve Buscemi and Romany Malco have done a great job acting. If you are expecting a classy suave movie set in Las Vegas, look elsewhere.

I've seen a lot of interpretations on Dante's Inferno: the guy enters hell. From here to saying any movie about someone's falling is an interpretation is a stretch. And I know the writer and the director thought they were being smart doing a modern adaptation from a story no one really cares about and basically replacing everything, but I was the one watching, and I didn't find it smart, interesting or even good.Steve Buscemi is one of my favorite actors, and he did play the part well, but the plot was simply a boring, useless, close to horizontal, descent into a hell that few people could have related to. The funny parts were not funny, the smart parts were obtuse, the action parts not existent. Oh, wait a minute... it was MY descent into hell, when I realize I've just wasted an hour and a half of my life for no good reason. I see now... really smart.Bottom line: Sorry, Mr. Buscemi, sorry sexy Sarah Silverman, the film just sucked for me.