One Night in Vegas
One Night in Vegas
| 07 September 2010 (USA)
One Night in Vegas Trailers

On the evening of Sept. 7, 1996, Mike Tyson, the WBC heavyweight champion, attempted to take Bruce Seldon’s WBA title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. At this point in his career, Tyson’s fights had become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, where the ever present hype of the professional boxing scene would come face to face with the worlds of big business, Hollywood, and hip hop. Sitting ringside was controversial rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur and Tyson were friends, a feeling of kinship linked them as each rose to stardom from poverty only to be thrown in prison. Following Tyson’s victory, Shakur and “Iron Mike” were to celebrate at an after party, but the rap star never arrived. Shakur was brutally gunned down later that night, and the scene in Las Vegas quickly turned from would-be celebratory revelry to ill fated and inopportune tragedy.

Reviews
Ian

(Flash Review)Talk about a powder keg of personalities. What more do you need to witness real life tension? ESPN dives deep into the evening of Sept. 7, 1996. Where Tyson would battle Bruce Seldon for the heavy weight title and Tupac would be in attendance and later in the infamous BMW. The documentary talks about how these two men were linked and how they both served time in prison. The director added in some creative spoken word rappers to deliver context and some narration. For those under a rock during that time period, guess which early round Tyson earns a KO and what powder keg also happens that evening.

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wrdmegle

I will be brief. The director of "Biker Boyz" should hardly be considered a fine storyteller. Anyone that blends spoken word poetry,comic book imagery, and decent, but repetitive, interviews is probably not the best storyteller out there. I felt this one could have been so much more than it was. Tupac and Tyson were unique in the way they are identified with the 1990s, but that's about it. Tupac happened to be in Vegas because he recorded Tyson's coming out music. Other than this, the connections end. Avoid this one, watch a couple of others including "Larry and Muhammad", "Pony Excess", and "Without Bias".

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Thomas Milom

As a person who was a big fan of both Mike Tyson and Tupac I truly enjoyed this film. I am really writing this review in response to another review called "Too much sugar" or something like that. This film was displayed like a comic book, or a video graphic novel and I thought the poetical narration of the two young men was awesome. The references to slavery and comparisons of the boxing ring to the slave auction block, were different yet realistic perspectives that I never heard before. If felt they added to a movie that had more than enough character, with its two main aspects of Tucpac and Tyson. Overall the film was very entertaining and inspirational. I never knew that Tyson and Pac were close. Watching Tyson is always great because I feel that the media depicts his as an ignorant man, yet he is very intelligent. He does not use the best words when speaking, but I can see the intelligence behind his words. I felt that this film was really good and it takes a look into two of the most influential men of my generation (I am 31). People from the hood love both of these men and anyone from the hood will really like to see the different stories its cast tell about these two men.

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Michael_Elliott

30 for 30: One Night in Vegas (2010) ** 1/2 (out of 4)ESPN documentary about the connections between Mike Tyson and Tupac Shakur and the events leading up to September 7, 1996. That night, in Vegas, Tyson knocked out Bruce Seldon in the first round and later Tupac was gunned down. There's a lot of good things about this documentary but I'm going to be honest and admit that a lot of it bothered me. I will be honest and say I got sick and tired of hearing all the slavery talk and hearing people compare the boxing ring to a slave auction block. I found comments like that to be rather distasteful and it really took away from anything else that person was trying to say. I thought the film also glamorized by Tyson and Tupac way too much and not once did it ever say that either men were in the wrong. No matter if it was their rape trials or the aftermaths of their actions, there's always someone there to defend them. The film makes the point that both men ended up in prison but then it wants to make the point that both were either framed or they did nothing wrong. Even when there's evidence that says otherwise, the documentary just wants to scream that both men were mistreated. Perhaps the director here should have seen the documentary TYSON and seen that you can respect someone without making excuses for everything they do. I did enjoy seeing Tyson interviewed about the events and we get other key figures including Suge Knight, the man who was driving the car the night the hit happened. Several of Tupac's friends and family members are interviewed and we even get Mickey Rourke who was friends to both men. The documentary does a good job at showing the two men and how their lives came together but for my money it really is sad that the material and events were so sugar coated. The 30 FOR 30 series has been a very hard hitting one but this episode falls short of that.

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