Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This film that takes the mickey out of the depravity in Las Vegas ends up making $50,000 its opening weekend and no movie theater companies take it. I'm not big on conspiracy theories but you figure it out. There was a time when Hollywood films weaved in human themes with the entertainment and this film hearkens back to those days. Wow I made the film sound incredibly boring but the opposite is true. When the very human and flawed characters resonate then things in the film become much sweeter.The scenes between the Casino boss and Matthew Broderick are especially well done and funny. Not fall down funny but very skillfully written and acted. Also unexpected events pop out of nowhere in the film and keep you on your feet and things interesting. And they didn't need barnyard animals wandering around a hotel room to achieve that effect.Just a very skillfully created and acted comedy/drama that just might change a few peoples opinions on a few things.Very sweet film.

It is remarkable to me that anybody could even sit through this film -- I walked out after 45 minutes. The Matthew Broderick character, a TV sitcom writer who I guess we're supposed to feel some empathy for because he's given up drinking and smoking (or so he says) but just CAN'T give up playing the ponies, is basically just a jerk, who lies-lies-lies to his long-suffering wife about his gambling, in ways that are apparently supposed to be seen as clever or amusing but are in fact pathetic and unfunny. (Sample gag: he's calling his wife from the men's room at the track, lying about being at a meeting "at the network"; he's frantically trying to tip/bribe the men's-room attendant to "not sweep" while he's on the phone...and then some other guy FLUSHES a urinal. Wife: "Are you in a bathroom?" MB: "They have bathrooms at the network, you know." Hysterical, eh?) It only gets worse, when he heads off to Vegas ostensibly to "rescue" his niece (the titular Amanda) from a life of prostitution -- and instead heads straight for the casino, after having promised his wife that the trip was "NOT about gambling." He eventually "finds" Amanda (although it hardly seems like he's even interested in looking for her), who turns out to be the most happy-go-lucky 19-year-old hooker of all time. (I don't actually know if she's 19 or not, maybe they didn't even say -- she acts like she's about 13, though.) And get this: despite the fact that he finds her turning tricks by hanging around by the elevators in a third-rate casino (with a couple of other skanky-looking chicks), trying to pick up any guy who walks by, we're meant to believe that she's been such a roaring success as a prostitute that she's been able to buy a nice red sports car AND a house AND support a sleazy boyfriend (who apparently isn't even her pimp). But she's a good person, you see, because the next thing we see her doing is going to a REALLY BAD NEIGHBORHOOD (where she leaves her nice car unattended with the top down, at night) to buy heroin (or something) as a favor to one of her girlfriends -- not that she would ever use such nasty stuff herself, but she buys her friend "a little less each time" because she's helping her quit. Or something like that. By this time I'd had enough, and bolted for the door. Trust me, these comments don't even begin to encompass the lame and obvious jokes, the unbelievable plot situations, the awful performances (Broderick's included), and so on. I've never been compelled to post a comment -- positive or negative -- on IMDb before, but if I can save even one person from wasting their time and money on this piece of junk, it'll have been worth the effort.

Let me start by saying that this is an excellent film in almost every respect - clever dialogs which underlie a mature understanding of the psycho-dynamics of the characters, brilliant directing and overall very good acting. The main theme of the movie is denial - all characters lie to each other and especially to themselves about almost every respect of their lives. This is a fresh breath of air relatively to all those formula Hollywood movies where all characters only act according to some ridiculous higher ideology. I feel that for the first time in a long while I am actually watching the story of real people. Although the story in the movie comes to a solution, this is by no means a corny Hollywood like solution but actually is able to reveal some new insight into the story - which is always the sign of a great work of art. I am quite sure this movie deserves a larger audience than it got, I am certainly going to follow the next works of the creators of this film. Great job everyone.

A really nice movie. Clever, a lot of very very funny lines, and uniformly strong performances. Better than so much of what is in theaters, I can't figure out why this didn't open on the big screen...oh yeah, it's for grown ups. Matthew Broderick manages to make his wealthy spoiled writer/producer sympathetic, mostly because his lines are so sharp, the character hasn't lost the ability to see the B.S., even as he peddles it. And the girl is a great new version of Reese Witherspoon, but 20 percent less cloying. I love that she's not super sexy: the movie is soaked in sex but not about sex...it treats it in such a matter of fact, American-as-apple-pie kind of way. If you watch this, you'll laugh. I keep calling up scenes and entertaining myself a day later. Congrats to the writer/director... and thanks.