Lookin' To Get Out (1982)

After ripping off some thugs for $10,000, two unscrupulous losers (Jon Voight who co-wrote the screenplay, Burt Young) ditch New York City and go to Las Vegas to gamble the money. Once there, they con a hotel into believing they're friends of the owner in order to get the luxury treatment. Directed by Hal Ashby (SHAMPOO), the movie was originally recut by the studio by about 15 minutes which have been recently restored to the film. It's a hard film to like. Voight's character in particular is so charmless and annoying and as played by Voight, so hyperactive that the performance just wears you out. If we're supposed to care what happens to these two jerks, there has to be something that pulls us to them rather than pushing us away. To Ashby's credit, he doesn't attempt to sentimentalize them nor does he redeem them. The film has a good feel for 1980s Las Vegas (though the exteriors were done on a sound stage) and the Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler does a formidable job of capturing it as does the pulsating score by Johnny Mandel. With Ann-Margret, whose underacting is a breath of fresh air, Richard Bradford, Bert Remsen and in her film debut as Ann-Margret's daughter, Angelina Jolie.