Under no circumstances am I encouraging anyone to see what seems, from the reviews, to be an abysmal attempt at a movie. But I’m perplexed by the throwaway reference to a Las Vegas Strip icon. From the LA Times:
BEHOLD Mike Myers.
As Guru Pitka, a self-styled Deepak Chopra wannabe whose every utterance has been pre-packaged and trademarked, he glowers from behind a flowing Rasputin beard, waxed curlicue mustache and eyebrows that arch and swoop like a roller coaster. He’s a one-man production number: You take him in the way you would, say, the Taj Mahal, or a Steve Wynn hotel lobby.
So what’s the meaning of that comparison? Is it sarcastic, like if I told a student, “You need to transfer to a more rigorous institution, like Princeton or a clown college?” Or is it serious, as in, “You can now get better rates on rooms at expensive Vegas hotels like the Bellagio, or the Palazzo?”
I’m not sure even the author knows. If it is sarcastic, how humbling for one of the most recognized innovators in the casino biz to be reduced to a punchline in a review of a bad movie. There is a lack of respect for casinos outside of Las Vegas–it’s hard to be taken seriously if you are serious about the business (except if you can make money off the stocks). This is why they don’t hire historians who specialize in gambling at prestigious schools like Columbia or Middle Tennessee State University.
Beyond the question of at whose expense that joke was made lies the deeper issue: A Steve Wynn-designed hotel lobby is considered enough of a cultural landmark (at least to readers of the LA Times movie reviews) that a writer can drop a reference and assume that the readers will immediately understand it.
The only Wynn lobby that’s really distinctive is the Bellagio. Most people have forgotten that the Golden Nugget was ever a Wynn property, and I can’t even bring to mind what the Treasure Island lobby looks like, even though I’ve been there plenty of times. The Mirage’s aquarium is awesome, but it’s not really a stunning architectural statement–it’s the sort of thing you might find in a dentist’s office (or Sack’o Subs on Ventnor Ave), but done up a lot bigger and nicer. WLV’s lobby is another that apparently didn’t make a huge impression on me, distinct from the rest of the place, because I’m having a very hard time visualizing it.
The Bellagio lobby, though, is something you remember, because of the Chihuly ceiling and the adjacent arboretum. I don’t remember ever seeing tourists taking pictures of any other “Steve Wynn hotel lobby,” but I guarantee that at this exact instant, there is at least one photo being snapped at the Bellagio’s.