Honeymoon in Vegas ( 1992 ) : Indecent Proposal Light [Mike’s review]
Today on Cage Club we struggle with commitment in Honeymoon in Vegas. We are entering the Cage’s comedy phase now here at Cage Club. The next five of his seven movies will be comedic in tone but weather they are funny or not is up to you. Personally I enjoy this movie very much, to tip my hand just a bit. I originally saw this movie in the theater the summer of release and have not watched it since. It’s also the first Cage movie I believe that I saw in theaters as well, but far from the last.
Nic Cage plays Jack Singer, Private Eye. Most of his cases are catching wives cheating on their husbands, nothing like Sam Spade or anything, strictly small risk stuff. He is in love with Betsy played by Sara Jessica Parker. Betsy want’s to tie the knot but Jack has deep rooted trepidations engrained in him by his overbearing mother. He dying wish, don’t marry, so you can see Jack’s dilemma here. Eventually Jack caves and proposes to Betsy because he doesn’t want to risk losing her, the best thing that ever happened to him. The decide to elope to Vegas where they cross paths with retired big time gambler Tommy Korman played by James Caan. He’s basically playing Ace Rothstein from Casino, but interesting to note that Caan is famous for portraying Axel Freed, professional Gambler in the 1974 movie The Gambler, which was remade with Mark Whalberg. Everyone is staying at Bally’s Gorgeous Hotel and Casino. When in Vegas, stay at Bally’s. That’s Bally’s Casino, you can’t go wrong. Either a cloning machine exploded or there is an Elvis convention in town and everyone is staying at Bally’s. There is an Elvis convention going on and they got every shape and size from all over the world, you think of it they got it which saves me the time of listing the numerous variety of “The King” present here in this movie. I wonder if it’s a Guinness record? ( I’ll mention the “Kid Elvis” which was adorably played by a young Bruno Mars). Tommy Corman likes to throw his weight around and when he sees Betsy, who’s the spitting image of his dead wife (Yeah!?!) he knows he must have her at any cost. Tommy invites Jack to a friendly game of cards where he hustles him until he’s so deep in the hole that Jack has no other alternative than to allow Tommy to spend the weekend with Betsy!!! Tommy is one creepy guy but he seems harmless enough so Jack begrudgingly agrees because he likes his legs un-broken and his face not rearranged by Tommy’s enforcer “Johnny Sandwich”. Tommy whisks Betsy off her feet to Hawaii where she is wined and dinned to the extreme. Tommy plants some false ideas in her head about Jack and the arrangement that makes Betsy second guess their relationship. Meanwhile, Jack sulks back home until he sees Betsy & Tommy captured on TV at a volcanic eruption. Jack takes off on his quest to get his girl back by flying to Hawaii, but once he’s there he is given the run around by Pat Morita who plays a local cabbie paid off by Tommy to occupy Jack. They go visit the Peter Boyle who plays the broadway enthusiast Chief Orman where he performs a few tunes to Jack’s dismay. Tommy really lays on the charm and deception now that time is running out so he proposes to Betsy who agrees to marry him!!! Is Betsy just marriage crazy or super confused? She’s hard to read but something’s bothering her. Jack is detained in prison for stealing Pat Morita’s taxi but charges are dropped once Tommy takes Betsy back to the mainland so they can elope in Vegas. Why Tommy didn’t just arrange a wedding at his wonderful beachside mansion is a question of the ages, but they hightail it to Nevada with Jack in pursuit. Betsy decides to call the whole thing off and exposes Tommy’s true intentions, he lied to keep Betsy with him. He then offers her $1,000,000 to marry him which may or may not be where the idea for Indecent Proposal came from, we can explore that more in-depth some day on the Robert Redford Club. Cage manages to hitch a ride back to Vegas with “The Flying Elvises” or is it “Elvi”? They give Jack a ride but he’s gotta suit up and sky dive like the rest of them if he ever wants to get back to Betsy in time, which he does! He takes the risk! Jack lands in the loving arms of Betsy who had her whole other thing going on, trying to avoid Johnny Sandwich until she could figure out what to do. Tommy sees the couple embrace and decides to let it go seeing how Jack did jump out of a plane for her which is a highly romantic gesture. Plus he was dressed as Elvis which only makes everything better. The final shot is Jack and Betsy getting married at last in a Vegas chapel with the Flying Elvises as witnesses. I will go on to assume they lived happily ever after.
This movie is pretty much the exact opposite of the last movie, Zandalee. For the past few films Cage has been playing it pretty dramatic, albeit on different levels. This movie is maybe his most commercial film since Moonstruck, but then he did Time to Kill, Wild at Heart and Zandalee, all more serious performances. I can’t decide which shade of Cage I like more! His one truly great comic performance is still Raising Arizona, but he’s done really well in the dramatic work too. Wild At Heart is simply awesome but I also love his dramatic chops on display in Birdy. It’s gonna be a long running question I’ll keep exploring moving forward at Cage Club.
That should do it for this week. While I don’t think I’ll ever go skydiving, if I ever do I want to be a Flying Elvis ! Up next we have something a little different on Cage Club. Did you know that Nic Cage hosted Saturday Night Live, once and only once ?!?! It’s a very special episode of Cage Club next week as we watch and review his one episode of SNL !!!
Mike
@the_mikestir
