Last Vegas (2013)

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Back in grade school and in high school graduations, I wondered what it would be like to see my friends again after we'd all gone our separate ways and then saw each other again many years later. The thing is, we do still keep in touch once in a while thanks to the wonders of modern communication. Plus it's easier to keep tabs of each other through social media. Unless someone goes off the grid, we pretty much know what's up with all of us.

Then I thought, what about my parents? Their childhoods were spent before the era of mobile phones. Knowing how their friends back in the day are now doing must be quite a challenge... with my dad entering the social media landscape very recently, and my mom just watching the computer screen beside him.

They were on my mind when I saw Last Vegas, a film about four childhood friends who grew up and went on to live their lives in opposite coasts of the country. One day, one of them was getting married  in Las Vegas and he wanted his three closest buddies to be there with him for it. They met up in Las Vegas and had a really good time overall (I'm skipping a lot of the drama here). A respite from the life of the elderly for their lot, surely.

I've been to Las Vegas once in my lifetime and I sure want to go back there again (because I want to see the Cirque du Soleil shows I didn't have time to watch on my first visit). It's known for the long stretch of giant hotel-buffet-casino-theater establishments. These were featured in the movie, of course, but not in an in-your-face way. I found it refreshing that the venue did not overshadow the stories of the four stooges that wanted to celebrate life there.

In October, I'm attending a friend's wedding; not in Vegas, but in Manila. I'm sure that we'll have fun catching up because we all went our separate ways after high school and I haven't seen them for years. The reunion won't be akin to the grand way that the four stooges celebrated (i.e., penthouse suite, VIP passes, extravagant parties...), of course.

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