ctitus924 states in the previous review that you can see the MGM Grand in Cher's Believe DVD - that is not true - the MGM Grand in this film was involved in a major fatal fire in 1980 and was then sold - it is now Bally's hotel and casino in Vegas. The MGM Grand in Cher's video is newer - it was built later and is farther down the strip. As for the movie- I am watching it now as I type and while it is great to see old Vegas locations, so far I am finding it a little slow moving...but interesting to see Vegas in the late 70's when this was filmed. There are some great clips of various Vegas acts and the cast of recognizable actors in the film is impressive.

I saw this film in the theater when it was released.

For more than a decade I had jobs where I worked nights and saw virtually every movie that hit the theaters in my mid-sized town, sometimes two or three in a day - even driving to other nearby larger cities that got films we didn't. I watched videos quite a lot too.

This is the only movie in my entire life I've ever walked out on... ever! There was not one single character that had a single redeeming quality. They weren't just flawed, they were broken. I couldn't identify/connect with them, I couldn't relate to them, I couldn't dig up a single scrap of empathy for any of the lot of them.

John Voight's character was the worst as I recall, but dear Lord the monomaniacal self-absorption of those people was simply not entertaining.

And to give you an idea of what I AM willing to sit through, I've watched Blood Sucking Freaks and finished it.

But these characters were totally... repellent is the only word I can think begins to describe my response with any accuracy.

I watch movies to be entertained, not tortured.

It's unfortunate that with a cast like this that a good majority of the characters are just truly unlikeable and you can't root for them in their scheme to break the Vegas bank no matter how hard they try. Jon Voight, coming off an Oscar win and box office success with "The Champ" took time off to write a script which resulted in this film, co-starring with Ann-Margret and Burt Young in a messy story and a film that is over long and unfunny. Hal Ashby, director of some of the best movies of the 70's, had a huge fiasco with this one, the worst movie of 1982 that was hideous when I first saw it in the theater and which time has not been kind to in my revisiting and attempted reassessment.

I didn't like Voight's character from the beginning, a truly obnoxious person whose narcissism makes him insufferable. Young gets a lot more sympathy from me, but he's playing basically the same character he played in "Rocky", the desperate schlub who ends up in over his head by the bad choice of becoming involved in Voight's scheme. Ann-Margret is secondary to the plot, looking gorgeous, yet her amoral character seems out of step with other roles she's played, lacking the charisma of her amoral mother in "Tommy".

The only person to come out of this unscathed, and actually giving a great performance, is veteran character actor Bert Remsen whose slyness makes him the big winner in this bomb. It takes forever for the film to really get going, starting in New York and working its way from one sin city to another. The number of sleazy characters that pop in and out of the action are endless and just makes this unpleasant to watch. Toss in one of the worst theme songs I've ever heard in a movie and you've got a two hour time waster that would be better spent having my teeth drilled.