A ’90s romantic comedy starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker. While the Blu-ray release is pretty much barebones, if you love this film back in 1992 and owned previous video versions, this Blu-ray release is probably the best looking version of the film at this time. It’s not the greatest romantic comedy, nor is it the worst. If anything, it was OK.
Images courtesy of © 1994 Orion Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Honeymoon in Vegas
FILM RELEASE DATE: 1992
DURATION: 98 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (widescreen 1:85:1), English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish and French mono, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French
RATED: PG-13 (Language and Some Sensuality)
COMPANY: Twentieth Century Fox/MGM
RELEASE DATE: July 5, 2011
Written and Directed by Andrew Bergman
Produced by Mike Lobell
Executive Producer: Neil A. Machlis
Associate Producer: Adam Merims
Music by David Newman
Cinematography by William A. Fraker
Edited by Barry Malkin
CAsting by Mike Fenton, Valorie Massalas
Production Design by William A. Elliott
Art Direction by John Warnke
Set Decoration by Linda DeScenna, Tina Albanese
Costume Design by Julie Weiss
Starring:
James Caan as Tommy Korman
Nicolas Cage as Jack Singer
Sarah Jessica Parker as Bets/Donna
Pat Morita as Mahi Mahi
Johnny Williams as Johnny Sandwich
John Capodice as Sally Molars
Robert Costanzo as Sidney Tomashefsky
Anne Bancroft as Bea Singer
Peter Boyle as Chief Orman
Burton Gilliam as Roy Bacon, Elvis Impersonator
Brent Hinkley as Vern
Dean Hallo as Lyle
Seymour Cassel as Tony Cataracts
Jerry Tarkanian as Sid Feder
Keone Young as Eddie Wong
Danny Kamekona as Niko
John McMahon as Chris
Jack Singer (Cage) is terrified of commitment but even more terrified of losing his beautiful schoolteacher fiancée Betsy (Parker). So as an act of faith, he takes the plunge and agrees to tie the knot in a quickie Vegas ceremony. But when he makes a bad $60,000 bet with mobster Tommy Korman (Caan), the marriage “knot”and all of Jack’s dreamsstarts unraveling fast. The only way that Korman willforgive the debt, he says, is if Jack will loan him Betsy for the rest of the weekend!
From the filmmaker who wrote “Blazing Saddles” and “The Freshman” comes a romantic comedy titled “Honeymoon in Vegas”.
Written and directed by Andrew Bergman, the film would star Nicolas Cage (“Moonstruck”, “Peggy Sue Got Marrie”, “The Cotton Club”), Sarah Jessica Parker (“Sex and the City”, “Square Pegs”, “Ed Wood”) and James Caan (“The Godfather”, “Elf”, “Misery”).
The film revolves around Jack Singer (played by Nicolas Cage), his dying mother wanted him to promise on thing…that is to never get married.
For Jack, he is shocked that his mother request such a thing but because it was his mom’s dying wish, he came to accept it.
That is until he met Betsy (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), his girlfriend and a woman that is everything he wanted. A woman he would love…but as their love was strong, both noticed they were starting to become disconnected.
That is because Betsy does not want to be a girlfriend but wants to become his wife and if he is unwilling to do be her husband, she won’t stay in the relationship.
Knowing that he would be breaking his mom’s promise, Jack knows that Betsy is perfect for him and so, out of nowhere, he tells her that they will be going to Vegas to get married.
The two stay at Bally’s Hotel and enjoy their time together. But watching them is a professional gambler named Tommy Korman (played by James Caan). When he sees Betsy, he sees his late wife and now, wants to marry her.
So, Tommy concocts a plan to get Jack involved in a crooked Poker game in order for him to get close to Betsy and remove Jack from the picture.
The plan works and Jack loses $65,000. With no money to pay for it, Korman tells him that he will erase the debt if Jack allows him to spend one weekend with Betsy.
Disheveled and upset, Jack explains to Betsy what happened and Betsy is shocked that Jack would make her into someone’s whore. He tries to tell her that all he requests is a weekend and not anything sexual. And knowing that she and Jack do not have money to pay back the debt, the two agree and Betsy would spend time with Tommy for the weekend.
For Jack it begins to eat him up of what he has done to Betsy but to his shock, he finds out that Betsy is no longer in Vegas. Tommy has taken Betsy to Hawaii and now, Tommy will do what he can to keep Betsy with him and keep Jack away from her.
Can Jack reunite with Betsy? Or will she end up marrying the wealthy Tommy Korman?
VIDEO:
“Honeymoon in Vegas” is presented in 1080p High Definition (Widescreen 1:85:1). Many people who are familiar with my reviews know that I have a sort of disdain towards how films from the mid ’80s to the early ’90s have looked on Blu-ray.   I have this feeling that a lot of film made economic decisions to use certain types of film and in HD, unfortunately these films tend to look soft, fuzzy and literally look their age. While some films do look good, so far, many films continue to have this uneven picture quality and unfortunately, “Honeymoon in Vegas” is the same.
Moments where the film looks very good (ie. outdoor scenes, especially with Sarah Jessica Parker in the pool or when everyone is in Hawaii) but at times, soft and not vibrant at all. So, it’s a mix-up of good and not-so-good and where noise tends to show itself at times.
But still, I’ve not owned the VHS and DVD versions of the film but if you are a fan of the film, I would expect that this version is probably the best version on video to date.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Honeymoon in Vegas” is presented in English 2.0 Surround DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish and French monaural. Dialogue and Elvis music is clear as it comes from the front channels. It’s pretty much a basic lossless stereo soundtrack but one thing that the film is known for (especially its original soundtrack) is its music. But overall, dialogue is clear and understandable.
Subtitles are in English SDH, Spanish and French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Honeymoon in Vegas” comes with its original theatrical trailer.
“Honeymoon in Vegas” is your average romantic comedy that has its fair share of laughs but a year later, a film with similar concept titled “Indecent Proposal” would one-up this comedy and have it fade to movie obscurity.
I vaguely remember this film and its hard to believe that both Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker were in a film together.
While Nicolas Cage was known for romantic comedies in the ’80s and ’90s, Sarah Jessica Parker was known in the ’80s for “Square Pegs” and eventually started to be in several films as a main lead actress but things obviously went uphill for the actress when she was the lead for “Sex and the City”. But her role in “Honeymoon in Vegas” had its hilarious moments when she would scream at Jack for making her a “whore”. But once she leaves Jack to spend time with Korman, I just felt that the comedy that I was enjoying between both she and Jack, was done.
If there was one actor who did probably save this film from being terrible is James Caan as his performance was quite solid. He was the no-nonsense hustler but at the same time, he was able to provide a few laughs during the film. While the late Pat Morita, also did a wonderful job in the film whenever he was able to receive some screen time.
As for the film “Honeymoon in Vegas” was OK.  As mentioned earlier, “Indecent Proposal” took a similar premise and did it much, much better. Granted, one is a drama and the “Honeymoon in Vegas” is a comedy but I was not exactly loving it. And I’m also not the type to enjoy Elvis impersonators and there are plenty of it in this film. There are just too many moments where the storyline seemed unbelievably forced and kitschy.
As for the Blu-ray release, it has no special features but the trailer and the PQ is uneven but if you really enjoyed the film, there is no doubt that this will be the better version on video to own for the time being.
Overall, for me this title is a mere rental but if you really enjoyed this film back in 1992, then definitely give this Blu-ray a chance.
