Opening with metallic computer-generated scorpions battling in a scorching desert wasteland, 3000 Miles to Graceland announces itself as one helluva nasty movie. A comedic wallow in antiheroic violence, the movie vomits off the screen, as if director Demian Lichtenstein--obviously a veteran of music videos--had mainlined amphetamines before stepping behind his oh-so-busy camera. In a futile attempt to out-Woo John Woo, Lichtenstein goes to extremes to achieve a kind of absurd in-your-face exhilaration, and for additional thrills, the movie gives second-billing to Kevin Costner in the most vile role of his career. As leather-clad Elvis impersonator and Presley bastard child Thomas Murphy, Costner's like a black-sheep brother to Raising Arizona's biker from hell.
With four accomplices including a fellow Elvis worshipper named Michael (Kurt Russell), Murphy storms a Vegas casino for a $3.2 million robbery that turns into a haywire bloodbath. Partners are eliminated, double-crosses abound, and Michael connects with a trashy sexpot (Courteney Cox Arquette) whose preteen son (David Kaye) is a precocious criminal in training. Murphy's on their trail, FBI agents are on Murphy's, and gradually things get really nasty. We're supposed to laugh at the blackness of it all, and sometimes the ballsy humor scores a bull's-eye. The road-movie action accommodates several twists of plot, and while Russell's enjoying a semireprise of his performance in John Carpenter's Elvis, there's something perversely thrilling about Costner's deadpan ruthlessness. But really, how amoral can one movie be without wearing out its welcome? Frenetically depraved, 3000 Miles to Graceland is like exotic roadkill: morbidly fascinating until you get a whiff of its stench. --Jeff Shannon
(15 votes)
2.
A skilled band of criminals gang together with a goal to get rich at the 2001 International Elvis Convention in Las Vegas. Dressed to the nines as flawless Elvis impersonators and armed with enough ammo and electronic gadgets to easily knock off any establishment, it's no surprise when, at the last minute, the deal goes bad. A wild action-adventure film with twisting plot and a kicking soundtrack by George Clinton, 3,000 MILES TO GRACELAND is a non-stop rollicking ride.
(15 votes)
3.
It's International Elvis Week in Las Vegas, where the strip is flooded by a sea of King wannabes decked out in jumpsuits and sideburns. But five of the impersonators swaggering into the Riviera Hotel are toting heavy weaponry in their guitar cases.
It's the heist of a lifetime, orchestrated by ex-con Michael (Kurt Russell) and his cunning former cellmate, Murphy (Kevin Costner.) The crooked Elvises steal away with $3.2 million, leaving the hotel in ruins and a high body count in their wake as they make a dramatic rooftop escape via helicopter.
But when Murphy betrays his men, attempting to murder each one and keep the full stash for himself, Michael escapes with the loot and sets out to launder the marked currency. Along the way, he hooks up with Cybil (Courteney Cox), a beautiful grifter with small-town baggage and big-town dreams. Determined to retire from his life of crime but unable to shake his opportunistic one-night stand, Michael careens through state lines with Cybil by his side, Murphy on his tail and law enforcement in hot pursuit.
Five years of shared cell time provide Murphy and Michael with enough personal information to predict the other man's moves. Now their knowledge is put to the test in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that escalates to an explosive finale in the remote Pacific Northwest.
(15 votes)
4.
Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building…with $3.2 million in stolen jack.
As leaders of a gang who pull off a daring Las Vegas casino heist while disguised as participants in the town's International Elvis Week, Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner are armed, dangerous and sporting hunka-hunka sets of awesome sideburns. Awesome, too, is the film's supporting cast: Courteney Cox, Christian Slater, David Arquette, Kevin Pollak, Howie Long, Ice-T, Jon Lovitz and more. Get in, strap down, hold on. 3000 Miles To Graceland, directed and co-written by Demian Lichtenstein, is one kicky, volatile, heat-seeking missile of an action thriller.
(15 votes)
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