‘Last Vegas’ boasts many inaccuracies about city

By CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

11 years ago

Mary Steenburgen, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline star in “Last Vegas.” (Courtesy)

Jerry Ferrara, left, and Romany Malco in a scene from “Last Vegas.” (AP Photo/CBS Films, Chuck Zlotnick)

Kevin Kline, left, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas star in “Last Vegas.” (AP Photo/CBS Films, Chuck Zlotnick)

Robert De Niro, left, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline star in “Last Vegas.” (AP Photo/CBS Films, Chuck Zlotnick)

RedFoo hosts a bikini contest at the Aria pool, judged by, from left, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman, in a scene from “Last Vegas.”

“Last Vegas” director Jon Turteltaub, left, discusses a scene while filming in downtown Las Vegas. (Courtesy/CBS Films)

“Last Vegas” director Jon Turteltaub, center, works on setting up a scene while filming in downtown Las Vegas. (Courtesy)

Seriously, all they had to do was look at a map.

The inaccuracies in “Last Vegas” fall somewhere between “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s” giving out addresses on something called “North Flamingo” and “Con Air’s” reconfiguring the entire Strip, putting the Hard Rock Hotel in the lot directly north of Circus Circus among other ridiculousness, for its climactic crash scene.

Sure, there are factual errors, such as Mary Steenburgen playing a lounge singer at Binion’s, which has never had a lounge.

But the most easily fixable head-scratcher in “Last Vegas” involves the route the movie’s leads — Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline — take from there to their hotel.

When gridlocked Strip traffic forces them out of their taxi in favor of the sidewalk, they end up schlepping their luggage north past the Mirage to get to Aria.

And are taxi drivers really going from Binion’s to Aria via the Strip?

There’s long hauling and then there’s looooonnnnnggggg hauling.

‘Last Vegas’ opened Friday, Nov. 1. It is rated PG-13.