The greatest movie ever made..!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Disturbing yet enthralling

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I have always felt this was Nick Cage's best performance. We watched this today (2018) with a forgiving eye as we expected the movie to not really hold up after all these years. Although some of the film showed it's age, it held up just fine. Liz Shue was terrific. This really stands alone for us as a classic sleeper movie. I can see us watching it again in 5 years and still enjoying it.

I'll start by saying this isn't a pleasant film to watch; however, it's a powerful one. It is executed methodically, through an unapologetic, uncompromising lens, examining the self-destructiveness of human beings in agonizing circumstances, with the caveat that even in utter anguish you can find some degree of comfort through the mutual support of another.The main character, played by Nicolas Cage, has given up on life. He is deeply dependent on alcohol to numb the pain of a life-altering tragedy involving his past family, though the details remain unspecified. He meets Sera, a disillusioned prostitute, after giving up and moving to Las Vegas to die. They quickly become reliant on one another for support in their otherwise profoundly lonely, profoundly miserable lives. But it quickly becomes established that their paths are set; they will not change.The film's greatest strength comes from the uncompromising nature of its exploration of difficult themes such as caring for someone in the face of unending despair and inevitable death. The story itself is fairly minimalist, making its thought-provoking points brilliantly without diluting them with anything artificial or sappy. The whole thing feels honest and genuine in its execution. The way the characters are portrayed by the two lead actors is also excellent, particularly Elizabeth Shue. Nicolas Cage's performance rides the line of overacting in a few places, but it works given the extremeness of the character.At a few points, the film does feel like it meanders from its strengths. This is most notable in a few scenes when the main characters are not together. Whenever they are together, the film shines. I also found some of the music for the film (which was, in part, composed by the director) to be distracting or out of place, particularly in the first half. The film is also so raw in its depictions of human despair and misery that it is a hard one to really derive true enjoyment from. It's not a film I anticipate wanting to watch again any time soon.Even while much of the film is unpleasant and difficult to digest, it is nonetheless a very strong, well-made film with a conclusion of a subtly uplifting nature. One person can make a difference in another person's life, even if it is at the very end.

"Leaving Las Vegas" is about two sides of the same coin that need each other to feel complete. It is hard hitting and incredibly realistic. Nicolas Cage is perfectly cast for his crazy acting style as a raging alcoholic, and he gives an incredibly heart rending and accurate performance. Elisabeth Shue gives the performance of her career as a desperate and abused prostitute that begins to cling to Cage in his final, suffering days.Ben Sanderson is a failed screenwriter that once had a wife and a kid, but is now an alcoholic. He drinks when he wakes up and drinks himself to sleep everyday. When he doesn't get a drink, he goes into withdrawal. It is unclear whether he was a drunk before or after his wife left him, but it seems he no longer remembers nor cares. He is hopeless, and knows this, but when he is fired from his job, he decides to finally just leave everything behind and move to Las Vegas. He gets a room in a hotel called "The Whole Year Inn", or as he sees it, "The Hole You're In".Here he meets Sera, a hooker who is abused by her boss, but convinces herself that her life is just as good as she wants it to be. She says that every man she sleeps with is like a performance, she becomes whoever they want her to be. This is until Ben pays her and invites her to his hotel room. However, Ben doesn't want to have sex with her. They stay up and just talk, and Sera accidentally falls asleep and spends the night. But she finds that she was herself around another human being for the first time that night. She knew that Ben was hopeless, and he made her feel wanted and not alone. Once her abusive boss is killed, she starts to go out more with Ben. She invites him into her home, and he agrees to stay, only after telling her what she will have to deal with. She feels truly loved by him, and most importantly, not alone. She knows that she can't stop his alcoholism, and he knows that he can't stop her being a hooker. They have both dug themselves into that hole, and no matter how much abuse they take, they can't get out. And the only ones that could possibly put up with their lifestyles, is each other. Or, at first, at least. Their lifestyles begin to tear each other apart. Sera knows that Ben will die and Ben knows Sera is with other men. They are torn apart, and Sera has a horrible night in which she is abused and raped by some teenagers. She is kicked out of her house, and she realizes that she is powerless and lost without Ben. She finds Ben as he is on his deathbed, and in Bens final moments, he has sex with her, showing that he truly loves her, and accepted that she won't change. And Sera doesn't try to help Ben, showing she accepts that he won't change. Ben dies and Sera lives on without him, but Sera knew that it would happen eventually. The film is depressing, but it is unwavering in its harsh depiction of the hole these characters are in. It knows that the only way for them to leave Las Vegas is to die. They needed each other to be complete, but their relationship was doomed from the start because of the position they were each in. It is almost completely hopeless and the characters only get more depressed and cynical, but thats the way it needs to be. This film is to alcohol, as "Requiem for a Dream" is to drugs.

Hollywood screenwriter Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) is a hopeless drunk and self-destructing. He loses his job and his family. He decides to destroy everything in his home, drive to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. He runs into call girl Sera (Elisabeth Shue) and hires her. Her abusive pimp Yuri (Julian Sands) had followed her out from L.A. He's broke and on the run from a gang. Ben and Sera begin a relationship accepting each other's flaws. However these flaws overtake them in the end.This is a movie about a drunk and a hooker with a heart of gold. Cage and Shue make this more than the simple cliché it sounds like. They infuse these characters with humanity. They give two great performances.