Netflix has numerous lists and ranking systems to help you decide what to watch. Click on its Top 100 rentals, and you'll get a predictable list of what's popular right now—blockbusters from recent months and perennial favorites that won awards or attracted large fan bases. Off to the side of the basic top rentals list, though, is an intriguing alternative: the list of the most popular local rentals, in terms of what people in your area are renting much more than people elsewhere.
The list for Las Vegas reveals a predictable interest in our own city, with Casino in fourth place on the Top 25 and Leaving Las Vegas at No. 9. We're also curious about the inspiration for one of our new production shows—Hairspray places 10th—and, sadly, big fans of white-trash comedy: Ron White's concert video They Call Me "Tater Salad" ranks second, and Bill Engvall's Here's Your Sign is seventh. Netflix doesn't rent porn, but the nonfiction film Breasts: A Documentary comes in at 22nd. Surely it's being rented only for educational purposes. (No. 1 ? The first season of Star Trek: Enterprise. Draw your own conclusions.)
I took a look at some of the less obvious choices to see what else the movies we watch say about who we are as Las Vegans. (Rankings are as of April 4.)
Bandits (2001)
Netflix Ranking: 13
What It Is: Second-rate crime comedy from Barry Levinson, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis as a pair of smooth-talking bank robbers and Cate Blanchett as the woman they both love. The movie is going for Out of Sight-style quippery and cool sexuality, and occasionally it gets there, thanks mostly to the game performers (especially Blanchett, who looks amazing). But it's superficial and meandering and way too derivative to be worth its two-hour-plus running time.
What It Says About Las Vegas: We, too, are always playing catch-up to cooler, more original cities. We paint ourselves with a veneer of detached hipness, but deep down we are insecure and desperate for approval. Like the Thornton and Willis characters, we are helpless in the face of a beautiful and sassy dame. Also, we take people's money.
The Escapist (2001)
Netflix Ranking: 5
What It Is: Released in the U.K. in 2001 but only this year making its way to America (bypassing theatrical release, of course), this half-baked thriller stars Johnny Lee Miller as a pilot whose wife is murdered by a cold-blooded thug (Andy Serkis, best known as the guy who "played" Gollum and King Kong via motion-capture). In the grand tradition of Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Miller sets out on an elaborate revenge plot to avenge his wife's death by killing her killer, which involves getting himself incarcerated in England's most notorious prison. Unlike Seagal or Van Damme, though, Miller is a twee little Brit, so he doesn't get to kick much ass.
What It Says About Las Vegas: Clearly, we all feel trapped here, whether by our monotonous jobs or our gambling debts or our dead-end relationships, and we long to start over with new identities (as Miller's character does) in order to track down hardened criminals who have murdered our pregnant wives.
Hollywood Homicide (2003)
Netflix Ranking: 3
What It Is: Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett star in the world's eight-billionth buddy cop action-comedy, recycling warmed-over clichés from Lethal Weapon and its legion of imitators while solving a boring and poorly plotted murder mystery involving a rap group. Writer-director Ron Shelton, best known for sports-themed movies like Tin Cup and White Men Can't Jump, actually gets a bit of mileage out of the Ford-Hartnett pairing, which doesn't give in to the stereotypical insult-laden banter nearly as often as you'd expect. At times the pair have an almost natural, lived-in feel to their friendship. Unfortunately, that quickly gets lost amid all the inane plot twists, endless car chases and wan Hollywood humor.
What It Says About Las Vegas: Once again, this film points to our inferiority complex, our desire to immerse ourselves in all the details of the city to the west whose glamour and star power we continually strive to appropriate. It also presciently anticipates the current controversy over rap-related violence, featuring a brutal shooting at a rap concert and a conspiracy led by a Suge Knight-esque rap mogul with a criminal past.
Lilo & Stitch 2(2005)
Netflix Ranking: 8
What It Is: Although 2002's Lilo & Stitch is generally considered a minor entry in the Disney animated canon, it's inspired a flood of spin-offs, including a TV series, a straight-to-video prequel (2003's Stitch! The Movie) and this straight-to-video sequel, which, at 68 minutes, barely qualifies as a feature film. Stitch is an alien who looks like a dog and talks like Jar Jar Binks; Lilo is a little girl who is, naturally, his best friend. They live in Hawaii with Lilo's sister and two bickering aliens who act as Stitch's clueless caretakers. Having not seen the original Lilo & Stitch, I don't know what was at stake back then, but this time around the main tension revolves around Lilo's hula competition and Stitch's erratic behavior.
What It Says About Las Vegas: Predictably, we love Elvis in Vegas. Lilo and Stitch are both obsessed with the King and seek his almighty counsel when things go awry. The soundtrack features a couple of Elvis remixes as well, and the Hawaiian setting occasions obligatory references to Blue Hawaii. Like Hawaiians, we in Vegas are servants to the tourist economy (Lilo's sister works at a surfboard-rental kiosk) and are generally unfazed by the bizarre. Were a trio of strange but lovable aliens to land on the Strip, one imagines that they'd be just as warmly embraced.
The Net 2.0 (2006)
Netflix Ranking: 18
What It Is: Unwarranted quasi-sequel to the lame 1995 Sandra Bullock techno-thriller The Net. Featuring none of the original stars or characters or even ideas, this brain-dead feature-length chase scene was directed by the son of the original's director, produced by one of its phalanx of producers and stars Nikki DeLoach, whose biggest role to date has been on the failed nighttime soap North Shore. DeLoach plays a computer-security expert who takes a new job in Istanbul only to find herself pursued by some vague conspiracy for vague reasons. Her identity is stolen only because that's what happened to Bullock in the first movie, not because it really advances the conspiracy in any way.
What It Says About Las Vegas: Both deeply nonsensical and alarmingly xenophobic, The Net 2.0 is like every bad stereotype foreigners have of stupid, boorish Americans. In that way, it resembles your average Las Vegas tourist, who might stand to gain something from having their identity stolen and being pursued relentlessly by Turkish police. Like any computer-driven thriller, this movie plays into our fears of technology, which, in a town full of video-poker machines, is perhaps more prevalent than elsewhere. Of course, the technology in the film is so divorced from reality that it'd be just as rational to be afraid of the boogeyman.
Our Fathers (2005)
Netflix Ranking: 11
What It Is: Showtime TV movie about the child abuse scandals in the Catholic church, specifically the charges brought against Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law in 2000. This dry, matter-of-fact and very long movie follows several key figures in the scandal, including Law (Christopher Plummer), lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Ted Danson) and star plaintiff Angelo DeFranco (Daniel Baldwin, staying one step ahead of brother Stephen). Based on a no doubt very well-reported book, the film is thorough and thoroughly boring, with the dialogue only deviating from recitations of facts to indulge in sentimental clichés.
What It Says About Las Vegas: We're a much more religious town than the average outsider expects, and even more Catholic than you might realize: The religion most associated with Vegas is Mormonism, but according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, there were more than 200,000 Catholics in Clark County and just more than 80,000 Mormons in 2000, when the church scandals broke. In 2002, a priest in Las Vegas was charged with abusing teenage boys. Of course, we don't have some reverent, pious movie at the top of our list; even when it comes to religion, we like our stories a little salacious.
School of Life (2005)
Netflix Ranking: 23
What It Is: Blame Canada for this treacly, pseudo-inspirational crap that premiered as a TV movie here in the States but was released theatrically in its country of origin, where their love for annoying comic actor Ryan Reynolds demanded a broad platform for his unique brand of smarm. Actually, some trademark Reynolds smarm might have livened up the PG-rated tale of a rivalry between two middle-school teachers played by Reynolds and David Paymer. This is the kind of movie where dying of cancer is always inspirational, and the most unruly kid in school does nothing worse than throw spitballs.
What It Says About Las Vegas: Deep down, we all yearn to be inspired. Our educational system is so tied up in controversies and bureaucracy and teacher exodus and violence that even an abysmal movie like this one is a comforting and necessary illusion, one in which we can imagine a world of smart, interested and well-behaved students whose biggest concern is which of their cool and motivating teachers to vote for as teacher of the year. That world is called Canada.