CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

NICOLAS CAGE plays a full-blown alcoholic who’s given up on life and has gone to Vegas to die.

ELISABETH SHUE plays a prostitute, who although she falls for Ben, still performs tricks.

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

OUR TAKE: 6 out of 10

Although the performances are tremendous (for which Cage won an Oscar), the movie is an extreme downer and not very enjoyable to watch. Shot in a very low budget style, though, it is interesting to watch and you have to admire these actors for taking such non-glamorous roles. There isn't much of a plot other than watching them come together and then him drink himself to death, but this really is more of a character study then a plot driven film. We give it a 6 out of 10.

OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

Kids won't be attracted at all to this film, but if they do see it, they'll be exposed to the following. Heavy, all day, all night drinking (and for the film's part -- it doesn't glamorize the drinking), quite a bit of sex and sexual talk and a shockingly brutal gang rape scene. Obviously it's not a film for kids. But if your kids are old enough to handle the material, they will see the bad effects of drinking. As always, read through the category listings first.

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

A woman snorts cocaine in a hotel room.

Ben is a full-blown alcoholic and is seen doing the following:

He buys an entirely full shopping cart’s worth of liquor.

Ben tries to pick up women in bars while drunk.

He drinks vodka straight from the bottle while driving his car.

He goes to a bar in the morning wanting to start drinking again.

Ben goes to work drunk (and gets fired for showing up that way too many times).

Ben has sexual fantasies about pouring bourbon onto women’s private parts and then drinking it off them.

Ben drinks liquor straight from the bottle in the shower.

Sera begins drinking with Ben and often drinks quite heavily.

Other people are seen here and there drinking beer and liquor.

BLOOD/ GORE

After having been punched by a jealous boyfriend, Ben has a very bloody nose. Later he’s seen and his shirt is covered with blood from it.

Sera is bruised and a little bloody after a gang rape.

Sera sits nude in a shower and bleeds from an anal gang rape she just endured.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

A prostitute sucks on Ben’s finger (as if she’s performing oral sex), and since he’s so drunk and earlier said that his wife left him, she sucks his wedding band right off his finger.

Yuri slaps Sera around for not bringing in enough "trick" money in one night.

Sera goes into the bathroom, pulls down her pants and urinates (we hear it) with the door open. (We didn’t really know where else to put this scene, but here it is).

Sera continues turning her tricks although she’s "in love" with Ben.

Sera finds another prostitute kissing Ben’s bare chest (ie. He’s somewhat cheating on her, although he’s quite intoxicated and probably wasn’t really aware what he was doing).

Sera spits in a casino manager’s face when he throws her out of a casino.

FRIGHTENING/TENSE SCENES

Several scenes where Ben is out of his mind drunk (joined by the somewhat weird music) may be upsetting to kids.

Yuri begins slapping Sera around the room (for details see "Violence.").

Sera is gang raped (anally) and beaten by three young guys (for details see "Violence").

GUNS/WEAPONS

Knife: Used by Sera to threaten Yuri after he’s slapped her, and then seen in a flashback where he used one to slice one of her buttocks.

Gun: Readied by some Romanian bad guys who are coming after Yuri. He tells Sera to leave and says that she’ll never see him again.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Drinking.

Drinking and driving.

Drinking and swimming.

Ben burns all of his clothes and other belongings as he leaves his life in L.A. and heads for Vegas.

Sera gives Ben "the finger" after he almost runs into her on a crosswalk.

Ben throws an empty beer can down on the street (ie. Littering).

Sera spits in a casino manager’s face as he escorts her out.

JUMP SCENES

None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

Just a few scenes have minor tense music.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

None.

PROFANITY

37 "f" words (12 used sexually), 6 "s" words, 4 "ass" words, 2 hells, 1 slang term for female genitals, and 2 uses of "Oh my God," and 1 use of "Christ" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY

Ben tells a woman he meets in a bar that he wants her to come home with him and says that he’s really good in bed.

Ben goes to a strip joint where, in his drunken stupor, he sees a woman suggestively dancing and then sees her topless.

A prostitute sucks on Ben’s finger (as if she’s performing oral sex), and since he’s so drunk and earlier said that his wife left him, she sucks his wedding band right off his finger.

Ben talks into a tape recorder while watching an attractive bank teller and says "...maybe if you drank bourbon with me it would help... If you smelled of bourbon as you f*cked me....If you poured it on your naked body and said drink this...If you spread your legs and had bourbon dripping from your breasts and p*ssy and said drink here, then I could fall in love with you. I'd lick you clean so that you could go and f*ck someone else."

Sera and another prostitute perform a lesbian sex scene for several men. They pull clothes off one another (but no complete nudity) and there’s lots of heavy breathing and hand groping.

Sera and Yuri have sex. There’s no nudity, but there is lots of thrusting, movement, and groaning.

Sera recalls one trick of hers that started "pounding her really hard" (sexually, not punches) and then pushed her down and stuck his penis in her mouth and told her, "Stay there baby, I’m gonna come on your face."

After Ben has taken Sera back to his room for the first time and offered her lots of money she tells him, "For five hundred bucks you can f*ck my ass or come on my face." She then goes and unzips his pants and begins performing oral sex on him (his body blocks us from seeing the actual act and as the view cuts to another camera angle, her head blocks the action). She then asks him "...are you too drunk to come?"

Once Ben has moved into Sera’s place, she tells him "...included with the rent here is a complimentary blow job." He responds, "Yes, I suppose we ougtta f*ck."

They decide to go gambling and he gives her his money for safekeeping. He tells her "Giving you money makes me want to come." She replies, "Then come."

After getting out a swimming pool, Sera walks over to Ben and lets bourbon drip down her body. She then straddles him on a chair and pours more bourbon down her front. She then lowers her bathing suit straps and exposes her breasts that he then sucks on.

Sera is seen nude in the shower (crouched down and bleeding from a rape -- see "Violence").

Sera gives Ben a "hand job" and once he says "...see how hard you made me?" she crawls on top of him and has sex. (No nudity, but some sexual movement).

SMOKING

Sera is occasionally seen smoking cigarettes.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

Ben mentions that his wife left him (because of the drinking).

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

Alcohol abuse.

Prostitution.

VIOLENCE

Yuri slaps Sera several times for not bringing in enough "trick" money and finally hits her hard enough to knock her across the room. She then grabs a knife and threatens him for a moment, but then hands him the knife, bends over a table and pulls up her dress. Then there is a flashback where he’s "disciplining" her and not wanting to damage her face, he takes a knife and slices her buttocks (but no blood is seen).

While playing blackjack Ben is refused a drink. He gets furious, curses, knocks away his glass and then overturns the table. The police come and take him away.

Ben talks to a woman at a bar who begins to flirt with him to make her boyfriend jealous. He comes over, pushes his girlfriend out of the way, and then after exchanging words with Ben, punches him in the face. Ben stands and has quite the bloody nose.

Ben trips over a pool side table and crashes down onto it, breaking its glass top.

Sera meets with several young men who want to have sex with her and to videotape the proceedings. When she learns that they want to have anal sex with her, she tries to leave. But they stop her and one of them punches her in the face. They then hold her down and anally rape her. Later she’s seen quite bruised and bloody.

While in the shower, and bleeding from the rape, there are flashbacks to the rape where one of the young men is seen violently punching her in the head.