3000 Miles To Graceland

3000 Miles To Graceland

This is a film that lacks any human charity and is so acerbic and ill-humored that it tries to pass for both a gross comedy and a tough guy action thriller. There are some crooks who pretending to be Elvis impersonators, rob a casino. I really missed the movie “Sugar and Spice” where pregnant five dolls Betty bandits rob a bank in their cheerleader costumes (and one Richard Nixon).

It’s an all-star cast with top billing from Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. Russell himself once played Elvis on TV very well, he manages some of the right speaking notes here. Costner, as the gang leader, smokes heavily and looks hard-hearted. Slater, Arquette Christian et al are Costner’s fellow criminals plus Bokeem Woodbine, who plays a role of black man therefore he has to be the first to die because this film does not have enough intelligence to rewrite this old cliche.

In one of the showrooms there happens a bloody shoot-out during the robbery at casino while Elvis imitators perform elsewhere in another scene. Intercut massively; lots of dancing girls; until we’ve seen so much revue we prefer it to the shooting. (Well, looks like dozens of customers get killed but then again once it is over it just vanishes from memory.) The gang makes off with the loot; there is an inevitable fight over how to share it out; and from then on strangest thing happens in this film.

This occurs between Kurt Russell and Courteney Cox in which she plays the mother of a smart young kid (David Kaye) who has been abandoned at Last Chance Motel: One of those cartoon moviestelevision sets from Road Runner.

There is something enigmatic about her character since we do not know what drives her or why she does such things too herself. Perhaps she loves him indeed which explains why they go straight to bed together, but after some time the little kid who is only 8 enters their bedroom and steals Russell’s money. The fact that actually this is an ideal is never questioned in the film. It seems to me that the filmmakers took much pleasure in inventing this plot point and did not think of any moral issues it could lead to.

At some later point in the movie Cox drives off in a car with most of Russell’s loot and leaves her son behind with him. Would a real mother do this? Some mothers would do that kind of thing were they made heroes by most movies. There is an “explanation” for her behavior based on facts such as: Russell has been known to be a criminal for nearly ten minutes now and he likes the guy which I find quite implausible.

This plot employs conventional double-reverse narrative, post- “Reservoir Dogs” irony, executed very stylishly yet without much thinking. This is about human behavioural patterns and not individuals themselves. Everything they do defines them. Or what they drive at the beginning of the film, Russel steps out of his 1957 red Cadillac while Costner drives a car like Continental convertible from around same era which makes them appear like Elvis impersonators or just because it seems everyone involved in movies like this has Fifties cars (since modern cars are small and weak).

To the supporting roles, the cast is always top drawer. Kevin Pollak shows up as a federal marshal, Jon Lovitz is a money launderer, Ice T is hired muscle. You could guess that they all liked the script. But sometimes these characters appear tired and jaded because Russell and Costner have been too encumbered by their parts while Cox provides most of the energy and not to forget this little boy who appears smarter than everybody in this movie and perhaps just about as experienced as anyone else.

For one thing, ‘3000 Miles to Graceland’ can be commended for its great trailer. A good trailer from a bad movie means that there was potential for it to turn out well in the end. Nevertheless, I cannot see how this film could be mistaken for an Elvis impersonator bloodbath heist flick featuring a lonely woman on fire with an angelic young boy at her side.

Watch 3000 Miles To Graceland For Free On Gomovies.