3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

So much average

As Good As It Gets

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

3000 Miles To Graceland (2001)**Spoilers**Plot In A Paragraph: A gang of ex-cons led by Murphy (KC) and Michael (Kurt Russell) rob a casino dressed as Elvis, during Elvis convention week. KC plays Murphy as a cold bad ass, who has zero regard for human life. Almost everybody who dies in the movie is killed by Murphy. We see a lot of people murdered during the robbery (the only time people are killed by other members of the gang) and they are quickly forgotten about. Russell (who received top billing) shows he had not lost his ability to do a good Elvis impression, we know from the outset he is the good guy. During the robbery he dresses in a white jumpsuit as opposed to KC's black, and he is the only member of the gang not to kill someone, hitting them with the butt of his gun instead.As for the rest of the supporting cast Courtney Cox gives a career low performance, her accent is awful and her character unlikeable (like when she steals the loot herself, leaving her son with one of the thieves) Christian Slater is OK, as is David Arquette, Bookeem Woodbine however is the token black character, who is so cliché, he actually dies first!! It has several problems with it. A ludicrous opening involving robot scorpions, a ridiculously annoying child actor, time wasting subplots and a few plot holes. But I for one do find it fun to watch. Im not sure what it says about me if I find such acts of violence by despicable people fun, but hey ho. I think if they ditched the subplot involving Cox and her kid, the core audience this movie was aimed at, would have loved it. With a whopping 13 producers (Just like Get Carter) 3000 Miles was produced by Franchise Pictures who didn't seem to know what they wanted. So like with Get Carter and Driven, they started interfering. When the film finished shooting, the director, KC and Russell all disagreed about the way the film should feel. The studio let both stars edit their own versions which were then shown to test audiences. Russell's cut was more comedy oriented and focused on his character's relationship with Cox while KC's was more action oriented. It's unknown who's cut was released, it could be a mash up of both, as there is plenty of action, but also a lot of Russell and Cox!!The movie performed so badly at the domestic Box Office, it wasn't even released in theatres in the UK, going straight to DVD (The first KC movie to do that since God knows when.... Maybe something from 81-85) and that was not until after his next movie was already released.

This is one of those good average movies. I love a good action movie and this has it, yet the sex and bad language was unneeded. But, as is the case, this is what the people want.The movie does do well in showing the terribleness of guns while still having good action scenes. The violence is not unlike that of more historical movies like 300 or worse. The violence is artistic, (if violence can ever be called that,) but it is violent. More or less, the bad content goes down to sex and language, take that out you have a violent action movie few would complain about. The movie has a good story involving a young boy, named after Jesse James the war hero turned criminal. The kid in the beginning is fascinated with gangsters which is a good theme for teens.Overall I must say it is a good movie for action fans who can handle the content, but these are things so abundant in our culture that people may fail to see the problem. If you, like I, don't like bad language there is better movies. If violence is what you don't like, there are good dramas and comedy's without it. Don't like sex in movies, as I feel the same with, let me know of good movies without it. But, it can be said that there are worse movies when it comes to content.

PLOT: A small group of Elvis impersonators rob a Las Vegas casino and soon after, theft and betrayal among them ensue. MY THOUGHTS: This film is a very good action flick in terms of guns and gunfire. Its a good double-cross story and it makes you root for both the good guy and the bad guy. It also tells a very unique story using Elvis impersonators as the focus. PROS/CONS: Kevin Costner plays a very good bad guy in this film. Whenever he is in a scene, you can't take your eyes off him because he is so unpredictable and twisted. This film is one of those movies where you ask yourself "why did they do that?" in some cases. During the opening credits, they have very poorly computer generated scorpions fighting each other (which could easily be passable due to the story), however, they have red eyes and giant spike-toothed smiles that don't seem to fit with what is going on. Some of the music choices for this film too were kind of odd seeing that it revolves around Las Vegas and Elvis impersonators. The movie also has various parts where it lags and slows the film down. With all that said though, it doesn't really hinder the movie in any way, just force you to ask yourself "why?" and make you do a double take. RATING: 7/10

I was up late night and found 3000 Miles to Graceland on, and since there was nothing else on I decided to watch it. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as when I first watched the film in theater back in 2001, and yes I stupidly paid to see this in the theater. It had been over 10 years since I've seen this movie. Who know my opinion of the film might have changed, but after watching it again it hasn't. It's just a terrible movie. This will be one of my shorter reviews and there I think will be some spoilers, but I don't care since this is just a terrible film.The story revolves around a group of bank robbers (Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, David Arquette and Bokeem Woodbine) dress up as Elvis's and rob a Las Vegas Casino. Things go wrong when Woodbine (Franklin) is shot by police and security. The four remaining robbers escape by helicopter with the help of Jack (Howie Long). The four head back to their run down motel outside Vegas to sort their shares, but Murphy (Costner) as other plans as he shots and kills Gus (Arquette), Hanson (Slater) and believes he's also killed Michael (Russell) who was wearing a vest. From there on it's a race to get the money as Cybil Waingrow (Courteney Cox) and her son get mixed up with it along with two US Marshal's (Thomas Haden Church, Kevin Pollak).The bad story was bad enough, but adding in uninteresting and uninteresting characters and you've got a terrible film. Russel's character was supposed to play the good guy as he had a conscience, but that doesn't take away that his character is about as interesting and likable as a rock you have to stare at four hours kind of like this film. Costner playing the bad guy seemed not to want to be in this awful film. He probably was wondering when his career took a downward turn. It was just a few years ago he was starring in films like A PERFECT WORLD, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, JFK and THE BODY GUARD. I think his career took a turn with WATERWORLD and THE POSTMAN. Waterworld wasn't good, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be, especially if you watch the extended edition. The Postman in my opinion is a good film, but not great. Still neither were box office hits and his career started to go downward until he relegated to star in crappy heist films like this one. The most interesting and fun characters are the the supporting characters. Howie Long the ex-NFL player turned analysis and actor was having a fun time with this film as he had no pressure on him. Also Thomas Haden Church and Kevin Pollak seemed to have good chemistry as partners and to be honest I was rooting for them to kill all the bank robbers including Russel's character.You'd expect the action to be good in a heist film. Now I wasn't expecting great action like HEAT that was just a special film, but I was expecting to be entertained. I wasn't and outside of the beginning action scene in the casino which was decent it was all bad. Even the climax in a warehouse was a let down. There's lots of blame to go around for the lack of good action, you could blame the studio Warner Brothers for this, but I don't. I think the WB gave up on this film after they saw it, and if I remember it right there wasn't a lot of promotion for this film. You could just tell WB had no confidence in this film. No I blame the director Demian Lichtenstein who also co-wrote this piece of crap. Apparently Demian was a big music video director, but had only directed one feature film before this one called Lowball, and I had to look it up to find out that it was a direct to VHS film. Maybe I should blame WB for hiring this guy to write and direct a feature film, because he's terrible.Overall 3000 Miles to Graceland is a terrible film and as bad a I remember it. If you haven't seen this film avoid it at all costs. It will drain away months of your life.