3,000 Miles to Graceland *** (2001, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, Christian Slater, David Arquette, Bokeem Woodbine) – Classic Movie Review 2711

Co-writer/director Demian Lichtenstein’s full-on 2001 black-comedy action thriller stars Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, David Arquette and Bokeem Woodbine as a gang of ex-con crooks who dress up as Elvis to rob a Las Vegas casino during a fan convention in Presley impersonator week.

But, as usual, the plan inevitably goes awry – in this case because there’s no honour among these thieves. Costner’s character Thomas Murphy decides to keep all the money for himself and shoot all his partners, including Russell’s recently-freed ex-con Michael Zane. Soon it’s a cat and mouse chase for survival and the loot –  $3.2 million.

This violent but exciting heist thriller finds Russell and Costner on blistering form, and it showcases Courteney Cox’s best movie turn yet as Russell’s tricky girlfriend Cybil. It is long (125 minutes) but pounding, with some exhilarating sequences, and a good pulpy feel to it.

But it failed at the box office, perhaps because it isn’t the Ocean’s Eleven-style caper it might seem to be. Also Costner’s character is shockingly nasty, which may have turned off his fans.

It also stars Kevin Pollak, Jon Lovitz and Ice-T.

Also in the cast are Howie Long, David Kaye, Thomas Haden Church, Louis Lombardi, Shawn Michael Howard, Michael Kopsa, Daisy McCrackin, Sharron Leigh, J Winston Carroll, Kim Hawthorne, Craig March, Rod Lake and Norma Campbell.

Russell made one of his early screen appearances in the Elvis Presley movie It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) and later played Presley in the 1979 TV movie Elvis, directed by John Carpenter, and did the voice of young Elvis in Forrest Gump (1994). when Michael catches Jesse stealing from his car. Jesse Waingrow (David Kaye) kicks Russell’s character Michael Zane in the shin, just as Russell did to the real Presley in It Happened at the World’s Fair. The album that Michael autographs in the elevator is the soundtrack to that movie.

[Spoiler alert] It isn’t until the end in Alaska that any character is 3,000 or more miles from Graceland.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2711

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