Rating: 
Summary: BOOOORIIING
Review: This movie is one of the most boring ones I have ever seen. Cage is drunk through the entire movie, and the woman he's with is a prostitute. I normally love Nicholas Cage movies, but this one was an insult to his talent as an actor. Instead of renting this movie, slam your fingers in a door repeatedly. That's free, and less painful than sitting through this stinker.
Rating: 
Summary: POWERFUL
Review: The 2 viewers who talked about how 'boring' and 'lame' this movie is and the crack about 'getting to AA'--you're completely missing the point of the movie. Perhaps you should stick to the simpler stuff. The POINT of the movie is not about alcoholism, it is about total acceptance of one another--a trait that few people in life seem to master well, (even with people without the issues that the characters Ben and Sera have). Yes, it is sad and I wouldn't advise someone to watch it if they're depressed--but the performances of Cage and Shue are incredible and touching. It is a powerful movie which reflects true unconditional, albeit tragic, love.
Rating:
Summary: Really tragic
Review: I totally agree with Natasha. Just hope I can give this thing negative stars. This is trully a fake, over-acted, sickly sentimental cr** that doesn't touch the real tragedy of life at all. There is no truth in this film. Shallow!
Rating: 
Summary: Fine performances, audio could have been better
Review: When I heard that someone had finally made a movie based on the Cheryl Crow hit "I'm Leaving Las Vegas", I knew I had to see it. I was certainly not disappointed. Nicolas Cage turned in his best performance since his role as stoner slacker Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". One important thing to note before you purchase this is that unlike his other Las Vegas movie, "Honeymoon in Vegas" where he dresses up like Elvis and skydives, this is not a comedy, unless you happen to think someone drinking themselves to death is funny. If you DO think self-destructive alcoholism is funny, then get ready to laugh your head off because that is what Nicolas Cage's character is all about. As he spirals towards his demise, he meets hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Elizabeth Shoe who tries to save him from
himself. I could go on but I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it. I missed 5 minutes out of the middle because I had to take an important call, but I had no problem catching up with the plot, so I guess that means the movie could have been edited a little better. The only thing that keeps me from giving this 5 stars is that the sound mix was a tad muddy for my ears, although most non-audiophiles probably won't notice.
Rating:
Summary: Infuriating and Lame
Review: I thought it would be interesting to see LEAVING LAS VEGAS while in Las Vegas on a trip. A friend kept looking over to ask, "Can we leave yet?"
I said, "Maybe they'll play that Michael McDonald song again since they've already played it a couple of times."
That thin hope, as well as a grim determination to see if any frame to this clueless mess could result in "entertainment," kept me there. No luck.
I went looking for the theatre manager to demand my money back, but could only find teenagers cleaning up popcorn in other theatres (it was after midnight and management had split).
Leaving me in Las Vegas to try and salvage that night.I hated this movie. This little review trashing it has more plot than could be found in the movie. Come on, people, dry yourselves out and get to your AA meeting: there's nothing interesting or heroic about idiots killing themselves through liquor.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Tragedy
Review: I saw this movie several times in the theatre and bought it when it came out on video. It had a tremendously melancholic effect on me for days. I imagine that many people who enjoyed the movie could somehow relate to it, even if in an abstract way. Nick Cage's portrayal of Ben, a man who has hit rock bottom and has lost his will to live, is incredibly powerful and moving; and so is Elisabeth Shue's portrayal of Sera. After having lost all control to his alcohol addiction, Ben's life starts to spiral downhill once he loses his family, and subsequently, his job. Ben decides to take a trip to Vegas, but not before taking everything he owns and burning it (a sign that he will not be returning). He goes to Vegas with nothing but the clothes on his back, a huge stockpile of booze, just enough money for a room at the Whole Year Inn (which he reads as "The Hole You're In"), and enough booze to binge on until he dies. Along the way he meets Sera, a prostitute, and seems to feel a personal connection with her. They do not hit-it-off immediately, but the two connect later during their time together. Their bond becomes passionately deep and Sera gets attached to Ben emotionally. Ironically, Ben is smitten with Sera, and he knows he could start a new life and love with Sera, were it not for the fate he has indomitably accepted. Although most people would judge and condemn a man like Ben in real life, I was very sympathetic to the character and his pain. I also felt Sera's humanity pierce through the cold wall she puts up as a defense mechanism. Ben has touched her in a way that no one has, and though at first she accepts Ben's death wish as a condition for their new "relationship," Sera becomes conflicted about losing Ben--creating a distraction that Ben had not intended on. This is a great movie with excellent performances from both its stars. Just don't expect to walk away feeling hopeful or happy; because as it is in reality, life does not always have a happy ending, and this movie is a depiction of that reality.
Rating:
Summary: garbage
Review: This is a piece of junk that smells like TYPICAl hollywood from its very first few seconds. I can't stand watching movies so set out to impress, and so devoid of any emotionality as this. But, what completely shatters whatever hope you have left of the film, is the acting. Cage displays some of the most blatant, and pathetic overacting I have seen in my entire life.At times, watching his overacting was almost funny, but at times it was just gruesome. Shue just seems detached. See, the problem with all these so-called actors, is that I can actually see them acting. The plot is also riduculous. How completely gone do you have to be to agree to let a man you supposedly have feelings for "drink himself to death"??
Rating:
Summary: Banality Elevated to Art-House Spectacle
Review: Most intelligent moviegoers are familiar with the art-house lexicon: the language of "minimalism", "ennui", and "noire". In this film, such dramatic tools are used to service a self-indulgent piece of overripe Hollywood posturing. Are these arresting characterizations? Tour-de-force performances? Impeccably executed technique? Yes, yes and yes. It is all of these things. Yet, it remains a bad experience. It isn't a bad experience because it is depressing. A tragedy like King Lear is far more depressing, and remains a masterpiece notwithstanding. Nor is it a bad experience because of its depth of despair. Some of the greatest operatic works wallow in despair. It is a bad experience because it tries to make something deep out of something shallow. It tries to say something about life in the context of broken lives and lost hope, but it fails. And it fails for the most inexcusable of reasons: it sells out redemption for cliché. Consider: here is a man intent on drinking himself to death. He isn't just toying with the notion, crying out for help, or too messed up to think clearly. On the contrary, he achieves a level of clarity when he is on the sauce that he cannot attain when sober. He really is set on killing himself. It's just that he chooses to go about it in the most leisurely and self-indulgent way possible: a process that allows him to make a grand gesture of his death while pulling the woman he professes to love into his self-destructive vortex. Most critics have hailed this film as an exploration of selflessness. But I can't think of anything more selfish. Were he selfless, he would have just blown his brains out and made an end of it. Instead, we are treated to the spectacle of a terminal malingerer who lacks the courage to either live or find healing, yet is resourceful enough to methodically arrange his own death with pathological flourish. Consider next the woman. The film makes a big thing over the fact that she gets so much out of her relationship with the man that his meaningless death somehow redeems her. But to accept this, we must first accept that giving ones love to an unworthy soul is a noble thing. Indeed, that love need not connect to anything of value whatsoever. What makes him worthy of her love? His boyish looks? His terminal vulnerability? His flashes of inebriated wit and shallow charm? There's nothing on offer but style. This man lacks any sort of character or substance. And the consequent superficiality of their relationship cheapens love and turns her ostensible redemption into cliché. It is too easy to criticize this love story by comparing it to a classic screen romance like, say, Casablanca. So let us compare it to another little known art film by the magnificent Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. In Ikiru, he tells the story of a different dying man; an insignificant cog in a vast grey bureaucracy who, after finding out that he is dying, falls in love with a co-worker and decides to devote himself to realizing the perhaps one and only meaningful achievement in his life. Kurosawa elevates a life of little significance into one we deeply care for and builds an affectionate romance out of seeming straw because he understood something that the creators of Leaving Las Vegas do not: that for love to move us, it must be earned. The little bureaucrat earns our compassion because he shows himself worthy of his co-worker's affection, and thereby, of ours. If he accomplishes nothing else before he dies, he has managed to create a small space of happiness for others to enjoy. We appreciate and respect him. And it is this respect, even for the smallest of heroes, that is at the heart of all tragedy. Without it, tragedy cannot exist. Without it, erstwhile tragedy is exposed as fraud. Leaving Las Vegas is a manipulative fraud, because in Cage's character, there is nothing worthy of respect. Most of the professional critics went gaga over this one. This just confirms my suspicion that film critics are routinely subjected to so many bad films that they take leave of their sanity when style is well flaunted, even when it overwhelms all substance. Nicholas Cage and Elizabeth Shue certainly make two very photogenic losers. And their performances are undeniably superb. But the margins of society are not photogenic. Meaningless suicide is not superb. And death by alcohol makes no deep existential statement about the fragility of life, of love, or of anything else. In the film, Cage's character was employed as some sort of screenwriter. There is an unintended irony here. Only a product of Tinseltown would consider the character portrayed by Cage as noble or as one worthy of considered reflection. This film is but another example of Hollywood charm used in the service of cool superficiality, art-house dissipation and mannered depravity. Hollywood's continuing worship of such smelly banality exposes the depth of its moral sink.
Rating:
Summary: A unique masterpiece.
Review: This kind of movie is an acquired taste. That said, every emotion in this film rang true for
me. These people seemed real and very vulnerable, especially Elizabeth Shue. It was just spare enough to say the important things in the relationship, leaving out all the detritus and other pointless details. Mike Figgis really looked closely at these people at their worst moments and didn't flinch. I was fascinated - it spoke right to the deepest part of the human condition. This is a rare work of art that will outlast us.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Love Story
Review: This is one of the rare occasions where I think this movie was actually better than the book. Nicholas Cage and Elisabeth Shue bring a depth and vulnerability to their film characters that the more detached characters in the book seemed to lack. The result is a heartbreaking story about two people who, while hitting rock bottom, find true love. Ben, a suicidal alcoholic, and Sera, a prostitute, are the kind of people that the rest of the world likes to sweep under the rug. So since neither character has any pretense, any ego, or anything really to lose, they are able to come together and love each other in a sincere and unconditional way. The result is that the film, although incredibly sad, is also strangely inspiring.
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