Las Vegas Weekend (1986)

The Worst Film Ever

How sad is this?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I watched this movie on video the year it came out, but I still remember it. In most ways, it followed a fairly typical story arc. The lead character, Percy Doolittle, is an ubernerd who spends most of his time playing with his Wang (yes, that was a brand of computer back in the day) in order to figure out ways to beat the house at Blackjack. Somehow, he's managed to get a girl interested in him despite the fact that he's apparently oblivious to her interest. She's girl-next-door pretty and it should be obvious they are meant to be together. He goes off to Las Vegas to try out his system for winning at Blackjack (basically, he can predict a hot streak and then tell when to quit). At first, he does quite well, in the process attracting two small time crooks who home that by being friendly with him, he'll bail them out of a financial jam as well as an exotic beauty named Regina. His fortunes rising, he gets a makeover (though at least this only raises him to a bit above average in looks, unlike when this happens with women in movies and they turn out to be stunning with their glasses off and hair down.) Shortly thereafter, Amanda shows up to find Regina wrapped around Percy and she leaves heartbroken. As you might expect, all these distractions throw Percy off his game and he soon starts losing. Eventually, he winds up broke and is quickly abandoned by all the pretty girls and retreats to his room in shame. There he finds Amanda who is hiding under the sheets and declares her love for him (body and mind!) and he gets his second wind. Amanda has some money of her own and Percy (along with the two hoods, who have no other option than to keep hoping on him) makes another go at winning. The story does wind up with a happy ending, though it takes a small twist to get it. I did enjoy the movie, mostly because I thought Percy was a realistic character (though Amanda's interest in him was not). The other thing that sticks in my mind is the songs - I still remember some of them 25 years later, so there must have been something there, though they would have been generic 80's movie songs. I wouldn't suggest anybody go and hunt this down, but if it's on, you could do worse than to watch Percy talk about his Wang to unsuspecting gamblers in Las Vegas.

As of this date, no one else has commented on this obscure movie, making me wonder not only if anyone else has seen it, but will read my user comments on it. While I would love to know if you've seen this movie, I wouldn't want anyone to track down and watch it. The production values are okay (they actually shot the movie in Las Vegas, for one thing), but I'm hard pressed to think of anything else positive about this. The central character is played by an actor who looks too old to be a college student, and the character comes across with almost no personality that would make him a fully fleshed-out character. Also, while the movie runs just 83 minutes, it is ludicrously padded out with scene after scene that fail to advance the minimal story. If you're just looking for cheap laughs and sexual material, the movie also fails to deliver, because not only does most of the movie come across with a serious tone, there is almost no nudity or (onscreen) sex to be seen. But as I said, if you've seen this movie, let me know somehow - misery loves company.