Las Vegas - Series 1 DVD > Reviews > 'What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas!'

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Easy to watch with laughs, tears and action
Disadvantages:	A few poor story lines

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Unfortunately, being one of the very few people left that doesn't have sky tv and has to just settle for 'normal' tv (i.e 1,2,3 and 4!) means that when a great new series starts on sky one, I either have to wait for the dvd or wait for it to finally arrive on 'normal' tv. This is what happened with 'Las Vegas'. My friend (who actually does have sky!) started raving about this great new series that was on Sky One (this was a couple of years ago) called Las Vegas so when she was given the box set of Series one for Christmas I asked if I could borrow it. I'm glad I did!

So for all you out there who don't know what this 'Las Vegas' is about (as I didn't until a week ago) I'll tell you.

'Las Vegas' is about the Montecito Hotel & Casino located on the Strip in Las Vegas (bet you didn't see that coming did you!) and it's staff. It is centred mainly around the Security staff which is headed up by Big Ed Deline, an ex CIA agent but also features many other extremely trim, glamorous, gorgeous, dashing staff (yeah apparently you wont be employed in a casino in Vegas if you're ugly!). It tells us the story of the many situations the security staff have to put up with such as, people trying to rob them, murders, people trying to 'cheat' the cards etc but also gives us an insight into their personal lives and the trials and tribulations they have to through.

The Characters:
*******************

I've already mentioned Big Ed Deline who is played by James Caan ('The Godfather', 'Misery'). He's the tough guy with a heart of gold - don't mess with his family or his casino and you'll be fine!

Ed's 'right hand man' is the dashing ex Marine, Danny McCoy played by Josh Duhamel. He seems to have all the ladies swooning over him at some point or another.

Nessa Holt is the Casino Pit boss played by Marsha Thomason ('Where the Heart is', 'Pie in the Sky') beautiful and from England. She knows everything there is to know about poker and blackjack etc. She's the one who looks after the tables and makes sure nobody's cheating etc.

Casino Host, Sam (Samantha Jane) Marques played by Vanessa Marcil ('The Rock', 'NYPD Blue') another sickeningly stunning woman (if you're a woman anyway - If you're a man then she's just stunning!) who is in charge of getting all the big money spender clients (known as the Whales) to the casino and keeping them there.

Special Events Co-ordinator, Mary Connell played by Nikki Cox. She's in charge of organising the events (hence the job title) and singers at the Casino etc. She has been in Love with Danny since they were about 10 years old but is it unrequited love? You'll have to watch it!

Mike Cannon played by James Lesure ('Alias', 'NYPD Blue') is an MIT electronics graduate but earns twice as much as head valet.

Last but not least is Big Ed's daughter Delinda Deline (what were her parents thinking?!!) played by Molly Sims ('Starsky & Hutch') who runs the Nightclub 'Mystique' in the Casino.

*************************************

There are 23 episodes spread out over 6 discs, put together in a 'book' style case with each disc on a separate plastic 'page'. On the inside front cover is the episode and special features titles but they do not give a brief description of the plot of each episode which I thought was good as it does leave an element of surprise then.

Each episode starts with a 'teaser' of a few minutes long before going into the opening credits. The Pilot episode, as in any new series, is the basis for introducing us to the characters and the general idea of what is going on. The Pilot does introduce us to everybody but it does seem to flash through them very quickly and I did have to rewind it to catch who everybody was etc but by the end of the episode you will be familiar with the characters and their 'roles'. The annoying thing about the Pilot episode was they had a voice over of Danny throughout most of the episode which did get a bit annoying but thankfully they decided to axe this feature and this doesn't happen again after the Pilot episode.

The camera work in a lot of the episodes is fantastic and will often have a 'whoosh' scene where the action is sped up as the camera works it's way throughout the Casino etc. It is the fancy camera work that adds to the actual 'action' of the scene and adds to its enjoyment

I wont go into detail of the storylines of each episode (because frankly it will take too long and you'll all get bored - plus it will ruin it if you decide to watch it!) but the majority of the storylines they use are good though some are quite similar (but there's only so many ways someone can cheat a casino I guess). A couple of the storylines or parts of storylines were a bit 'naff' such as the 'The Night the Lights Went Out in Vegas' episode which seemed to have a definite Murder Mystery feel and in one of the episodes some English lads had come over to watch the Chelsea v Man U match (Why in Vegas? - I have no idea…). They supported Chelsea but Nessa is a Man U fan and so of course there were arguments. To be honest I didn't understand why this part of the storyline was put in, it seemed a bit as if they were saying 'hey, we like English people and look how much we know about their football teams!' and didn't really have any relevance to the rest of the episode. Thankfully though this is only a small section of the episode.

Other than these two points, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the series and was enthralled to see how a Casino actually runs. Having been in a casino myself it was interesting to learn that there are cameras everywhere with loads of people watching you 'ALL THE TIME'.

Some of the episodes do take you out of the casino and around Vegas itself which was brilliant because it gave the viewer a bit of variety.

There is humour in a lot of the episodes which worked really well with the 'action' side of the series and made it less serious. There is an excellent contrast though to cause the viewer to have mixed emotions about what is happening and the final episode actually had me in tears (yes I am a bit of a wimp) which I think is an example of mixture of well thought out writing and superb acting.

**************************************

With the exception of James Caan and Marsha Thomason, none of the other 'Main' actors/actresses are particularly familiar to me but this does not mean that they are any less talented and worthy of a mention. Each character has his or her own style which I think is great because there aren't really any two people alike and so they can really make their characters their own. They all gel well together and are very believable as a close knit group of friends/colleagues.

Along with the main cast, there are also recurring characters that pop up at times throughout the show - Ed's wife, Jillian Deline (Cheryl Ladd), Detective Luis Perez (Guy Ecker), the brilliantly funny Gunther (Harry Groener) to name a few.

There is also a collection of guest stars thrown into the mix at certain times throughout the series including Jon Lovitz, Alec Baldwin and Jean Claude Van Damme.

************************************

Another feature which definitely adds to the effectiveness of the storylines etc is the skilful placement of music throughout. For the opening credits in the Pilot episode they use 'A Little Less Conversation' by Elvis Presley which really fits in well with the fast paced action of the Casino that they are trying to portray. The rest of the episodes however are replaced with a different song, one of which I have never heard of before but also sets the scene - sexy and fast paced. Throughout the series they have remarkably placed very fitting music including other Elvis Presley songs which I think is brilliant as when I think of Vegas I can't help but think of Elvis and a very well thought out placed 'Forgive me Mary' (not sure who it's by) in the final episode.

***********************************

There are quite a few Bonus Features in this boxset:

Disc One: Has an Audio Commentary of the Pilot with the writer Gary Scott Thompson and some of the actors and also has a Bonus Feature called Rumble in the Montecito which is a mini movie sequel starring the main characters and John Bon Jovi and John Elway as co-owners of Football League Teams.

Disc 3: Has an Audio Commentary of the 'Heartbreakers' episode with Thompson again and James Caan.

Disc 4: Audio Commentary on 'The Night the Lights went out in Vegas' with Thompson and Vanessa Marcil

Disc 6: Audio Commentary on the 'Always Faithful' episode with Thompson and Josh Duhamel and 'Inside the Montecito' which is a really interesting look at behind the scenes. I usually find these types of Bonus Features boring but this was really interesting to learn how they shot most of the scenes and how they recreated the Vegas feel and has interviews with some of the cast. The last Bonus Feature on Disc 6 is 'Las Vegas: The Big Gamble' which just basically explains the history of Las Vegas (the place not the show!) but I must admit I only watched about 5 minutes of this as the presenter's voice got really irritating!

*************************
Boring Bits:
*************************

Created by Gary Scott Thompson
Music by Charlie Clouser
Certificate 15
Approximate Running Time: 15 Hrs 53 mins (with extra 3 hrs 20mins for Bonus Features)
As I borrowed this from my friend I don't know how much it cost but I have checked on Amazon and you can pick up this boxset from £5.99! (Not sure if that's right??)

**************************
Overall
**************************

Overall I really enjoyed watching this series and will be borrowing Series 2 from my friend now. If you manage to pick up a copy quite cheaply then it will be well worth it and good value for money. It's probably not going to be the best ever series that you have seen but it will certainly have laughs and tears along the way and is definitely enjoyable to watch. It did quite addictive and I think I watched the series in just under a week (considering I'm working and studying and have a boyfriend that wasn't bad going!) and I'm looking forward to watching the second series to see what has happened to the characters etc.

Thanks for reading and Ciao for now
-x-

 

Pictures for the review

Display pictures

Las Vegas