Rock Hudson had been one of the biggest stars of the 50s and early 60s but by 1984 he was reduced to made for tv dreck like THE VEGAS CASINO WAR. Also known as "Las Vegas Strip War" the film's most likely to be referred to as Hudson's final film.He plays Neil Chaine, a charming, old school, casino owner who takes revenge on his former business partners in the most satisfying way possible by beating them at their own game. Along the way he finds time to have sex with Sharon Stone in a cell on Alcatraz, and get the better of a blatant Don King rip-off boxing promoter called Jack Madrid (a truly unusual performance by the normally dependable James Earl Jones) in a business deal.
The story's not actually as exciting and/or bizarre as this brief synopsis suggests. Burdened down by a threadbare script, shoddy production values, uninspired direction and some dreadful overacting THE VEGAS CASINO WAR is a thoroughly undistinguished production. The sole justification for investing 96 minutes of your time is Hudson's presence.
At the time of it's release, less than a year before his death from AIDS, the secretly homosexual star was already a sick man, and it shows. He's clearly lost a good deal of weight and his face wears the haggard look of illness. Apart from a few camera angles which capture - fleetingly - the familiar Hudson features of earlier decades, he is mostly unrecognisable. His character is written as a man of action and charisma but Hudson looks tired and uninspired. Of course that may in part be due to the third rate script sapping his energy but whatever the reason he does little more than go through the motions.
With hindsight it's easy to read more into the film than may have been intended. There's a couple of scenes where Hudson strips off his shirt for no good reason other than - perhaps - to try and persuade us he's healthier than he looks, while one line which "This body's the one thing in my life I have any certainty about" - is loaded with retroactive meaning.
As cinematic swansongs go THE VEGAS CASINO WAR is not the way any star would want to go. It's certainly nowhere near as sad and pathetic as Bela Lugosi's final bow in "Plan 9 from Outer Space" but it's closer to that end of the scale than it is John Wayne's splendidly valedictorial farewell in "The Shootist."
I agree. Rock seems to have aged ten or more years in a very short time. Your review may seem harsh, but it is totally accurate. Not to beat about the bush he should never have made it or been persuaded not to do it. The saddest thing is it was the last fling of the self denial bubble that Rock and indeed the movie world lives in. Watching this now it is clear and must have been then, the cards were well and truely on the table.
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