A group of frat boys (Frankie Muniz, Michael Steger, Andrew
Lawrence, Adam Walker) head to Vegas for spring break and accidentally unleash
an ancient curse that consumes Sin City. Teaming up with some sorority girls
(Maggie Castle, Summer Bishil, Jillian Nelson, Brooke Ann Smith) and a drunk
lounge singer (Barry Bostwick), they attempt to stop the spread of the curse
before it wipes Las Vegas off the map.
Blast Vegas was
pretty ambitious due to it having been filled with virtually non-stop CGI once
the curse was unleashed and the amount of ground it covered in its short
runtime. I don’t mean 2001: A Space
Odyssey ambitious, I mean that for a low budget television movie it went
for broke and attempted to be as big as it possibly could within its limited
means. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
If it weren’t for Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle, Stay
Alive) being cast as the male lead I don’t think this flick would have worked
as well as it did. He went above and beyond what is expected of an actor in one
of these throwaway movies and sold all the craziness so enthusiastically that I
bought into it as well. The kid’s talented, no doubt. The rest of the cast did
a serviceable job, but everyone was there to play second fiddle to Muniz and
the scene stealing Barry Bostwick as the Wayne Newton inspired Sal Rowinski. He
looked like he enjoyed playing the alkie crooner so much that I smiled every
time he showed up on screen. He’s not much of a singer (you know that deep down
he wasn’t all that great in The Rocky
Horror Picture Show either), but he’s obviously having fun so I didn’t mind
much.
A big plus were the two cameos at the top of the film –
legendary directors John Landis and Joe Dante played a couple of inept crooks
attempting to steal the cursed antique sword from a delivery driver. They aren’t
the best actors in the world, but they did look like they enjoyed bickering
amongst themselves and attempting to act badass. I was laughing hysterically.
The script by Joe D'Ambrosia & Tom Teves is filled to
the brim with cheap thrills and horrid dialogue, but it also has a great sense
of campy fun that I ate up. There were also a few clever bits thrown into the
mix as well, like during a tense elevator ride Muniz and Castle are listening
to a computer voice telling them about the hotel they are in and one corny line
of its pitch makes Muniz passionately declare “I hate alliteration.” It’s the
little things like that that won me over. A little brains in a sea of stupid
goes a long way.
Director Jack Perez (Wild
Things 2, Mega Shark vs. Giant
Octopus under a pseudonym) kept the pace fast, managed to make the
characters likable despite the deficiencies of the script and showed some skill
in making the low budget work in his favor. He won’t win any awards for this,
but he did a lot with the little he was given and didn’t completely embarrass
himself in the process.
However, there are some things that completely ruined the
illusion and gave away the low budget. Namely the props and sets. For example: The finale took place atop a replica of the Eiffel
Tower, and the CGI model looked just like the real thing. The set looked like
it was constructed with generic wood fencing and a few sheets of discounted
fabric. Another scene is supposed to take place on the patio of a gigantic
Vegas hotel/casino where there are pools and bars and the whole works. What we
got looked like someone’s backyard in the Hollywood Hills and all the reverse
shots that should show the hotel in them had a one-story house instead. Even
the interiors looked nothing like a Vegas casino.
And then one scene pops up out of nowhere that feels like it belongs in a totally different movie. It takes place in a parking garage
toward the end of the movie. Muniz and Castle were trying to get to their car
and a creepy dude with a gun came out of nowhere and began to act like an ass
and kidnapped Castle in an attempt to, and I assumed this, rape her. It ruined
the flow, felt like it was a reshoot to pad the runtime and was just awkward
and unnecessary.
Outside of those minor quibbles I have to say that I was
mightily surprised at how much I enjoyed Blast
Vegas. When I started the film I had the typical preconceived notion that I
was going to want to turn it off twenty minutes in. Instead I felt like I
needed a bucket of popcorn and the urge to invite a few of my B-movie loving
friends over to share the experience with me. If that was the intent of the
filmmakers – Mission: Accomplished.
I only disagree with your review insofar as Bostwick's singing goes - he's actually a good Broadway singer, who originated the role of Danny Zucco in the stage version of GREASE.
ReplyDeleteMaybe his singing voice isn't what it was as a young man any more, but he's got decades of technique under his belt - which fits his character of an aging alcoholic lounge crooner.
If you'd like another example of his singing in movies, check out Stanley Donen's MOVIE MOVIE - the second half is a parody backstage musical, and he plays the accountant-turned-songwriter hero, and gets to sing several times there, too.