Veteran showgirl Shelly Gardner (played by Pamela Anderson) auditions for a new show in Las Vegas.

Flashing back, Shelly quickly prepares to go on stage as part of an ensemble for the legendary Le Razzle Dazzle act. After the show, Shelly hosts an impromptu girl’s night with her much younger co-stars and older friend, cocktail waitress Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis). Soon however, the show’s producer Eddie (Dave Bautista) informs the makeshift family the show will end its 30-year run to give way to a newer, raunchier, burlesque circus act.

Pamela Anderson quickly became a sex symbol through the 1980s and 90s via gentlemen’s magazines and television shows, including Baywatch (1989-2001).Similarly, Jamie Lee Curtis’ sex symbol rose thanks to Trading Places (1983), Perfect (1985) and True Lies (1994). Here the duo – Anderson and Curtis – playageing casino entertainers brutally facing the end of their careers with no superannuation saved or other options lined up.

Las Vegas is shot during the day on grainy 16mm film with anamorphic lenses, leaving little to the imagination of this uncompromising, grim, transitory cultural void. While the city comes to life at night, Shelly’s world is confined to backstage where she quickly bonds with her workmates while lavishing herself with cheap sequined costumes and spouting the uniqueness of the act itself which she believes is based on Parisian tradition.

Verdict: Fantastic casting for a story that shows the folly of naively and passively following one’s dreams. The Wrestler (2008) did it better though. 3 Stars.

Luke McWilliams, themovieclub.net. Viewed at Dendy Cinemas.

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