Jack Singer
Created by Andrew Bergman

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

Elvises?

JACK SINGER is the hapless procrastinating, commitment-shy private eye, still haunted by a promise he made to his late mother, who finally agrees to marriage, only to lose his beloved Betsy in a rigged poker game with a lovesick mobster, in Honeymoon In Vegas, a quirky but popular 1992 comedy. It starred Nicholas Cage and a pre-Sex in the City Sarah Jessica Parker as the star-crossed lovers, and James Caan as the tough guy mob boss who won't take no for an answer. There isn't a whole lot of detecting going on here, but the result was likable enough.series of attempts by the increasingly frantic and often slapstick attempts to get his fiancée back, while coping with a Vegas in the throes of an Elvis-impersonator convention, culminating in Jack's classic encounter with a team of parachuting Elvises (Elvi?).

With a soundtrack crammed with some great covers of some classic Presley tunes, performed by everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Travis Tritt to Willie Nelson and Bono, some memorable scenes, and engaging performances by all involved, it's a great popcorn movie. I mean, how can you not love a film with characters with names like Johnny Sandwich and Sally Molars? But what's the deal with those dreams Jack keeps having about his mother being naked?

Writer and director Andrew Bergman is the creator of retro 1940's eye Jack Levine, whom he first introduced way back in 1974. Since then, Bergman has concentrated mostly on his film career, and has in fact created quite a name for himself as a screenwriter and director. His screen credits include Blazing Saddles (co-written with Mel Brooks), The In-Laws, Soapdish, The Freshman, Fletch and Striptease, as well as Honeymoon in Vegas, probably his most successful film yet. Not too shabby a sideline for a damn good P.I. writer.

FILM

• HONEYMOON IN VEGAS...Buy this video...Buy this DVD
  (1992, MGM)
  96 minutes
  Written and directed by Andrew Bergman
  Produced by Mike Lobell
  Starring Nicolas Cage as JACK SINGER
  Also starring James Caan and Sarah Jessica Parker
  With Anne Bancroft, Pat Morita, Johnny Williams, Seymour Cassel, Peter Boyle, John Capodice, Robert Costanzo

SOUNDTRACK

• HONEYMOON IN VEGAS.(1992, Sony Records)...Buy this CD
  Includes covers of Elvis songs by everyone from Trishas Yearwood and Willie Nelson to John Cougar and Bono. Highlights include "Burning Love" by Travis Tritt and "Suspicious Minds" by Dwight Yoakam. Alas, it's missing perhaps the best cut in the film: Bruce Springsteen's burning, churning rip through Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas," that takes it all home during the closing credits.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.