There's no Grace for Graceland
Oh dear, what went wrong? Maybe I was wrong to be expecting "3000 Miles To Graceland" to be a clever heist movie along the lines of "Ocean's Eleven", because I certainly didn't get it. The actual robbery, which is sadly the best part of "3000 Miles To Graceland", is over within the first half hour, which leaves another 90 minutes for the movie to try and entertain you with the two main stars playing a grown up version of hide n seek. It doesn't help that the plot is extremely weak and full of so many coincidences that it becomes highly unbelievable.
It's Elvis week in Vegas and the casinos are swarming with all sorts of Elvis Impersonators. For Thomas Murphy (Kevin Costner - For Love of the Game) and his band of diverse outlaws, it provides a good cover for an audacious, all guns blazing, robbery. Unfortunately the group of robbers quarrel over dividing up their ill gotten gains, and Murphy gets greedy and tries to kill the rest of the gang. However, electronics whiz, Michael Zane (Kurt Russell - Executive Decision), survives and with the help of his greedy lover, they set off in search of Murphy for their share of the booty.
There is far too much in "3000 Miles To Graceland" that we are expected to take for granted, plus there is no real depth to any of the characters, which left me asking the question WHY? far too often. Okay, so I said that the robbery was the best part of the movie, this is only because it is interlaced with footage of Elvis impersonators, strutting their stuff. The rest of the robbery is just a bloody shootout full of mindless violence and annoyingly filmed in slow motion.
Not even a cast which includes Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell and Christian Slater can save "3000 Miles To Graceland", in fact some of their performances are part of the reason it ends up so bad. So are there any redeeming points to this movie. If you can count the Elvis impersonators and a few Elvis songs, then yes. But in all seriousness, there is nothing redeeming in "3000 Miles To Graceland", even the beautiful Courtney Cox.
Okay with the dubious honour of sharing top billing is Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Costner plays Thomas Murphy the brains behind the robbery and the most evil one of the robbers, Kurt Russell plays Michael Zane, a newly released convict, who is the electronics whiz of the team and the sort of good guy, well were meant to cheer him on. Opposite him is Courtney Cox as Cybil Waingrow, his lover, and general money grabber. In the supporting cast you have such actors as Christian Slater, David Arquette, Jon Lovitz and Kevin Pollack but they all pale into insignificance compared to the bad acting of the main stars.
"3000 Miles To Graceland" is directed by Damien Lichtenstein and sadly this is going to haunt him for a long time. His use of slow motion becomes more than tedious as he favours this technique in the shoot out, and the lack of any character building scenes can be put down to poor direction and a worse screen play.
What this all boils down to is that "3000 Miles To Graceland" is one of the most disappointing movies I have ever watched, especially if you think of the calibre of its cast. I've actually watched this twice just in case I was having an off day the first time, but it only got worse on the second viewing. It's a real shame, as the initial idea for the robbery could have made a very good movie, shame that they decided not to make it the focal point. Although not the worse movie I have had the displeasure to watch, it ranks very lowly even for hardened fans of Kevin Costner.
