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Our Rating
Reviewer	Jacqui Thompson
Rated	16 LV
Running Time	122 mins
Starring	Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courtney Cox, Christian Slater, David Arquette
Screenplay	Demian Lichtenstein, Richard Recco
Director	Demian Lichtenstein
Website	http://3kmtg.warnerbros.com/
Movie Details	The Internet Movie Database

It’s showtime! It’s International Elvis Week in the glitzy light-bulb capital of the world — Las Vegas. The streets, hotels and casinos are filled with millions of Elvis fans and impersonators of every size and colour — a perfect backdrop for a bank heist.

Five ex-cons don Elvis outfits (talk about blending in) and set off to rob the Riviera Casino. In a violent and destructive heist they manage to escape with $3,2-million. Now all that’s left is to split the money, launder it and they’re home free. Of course it’s never that simple. If it were the movie would be much shorter.

Kevin Costner redeems himself completely after his dismal performances in "Waterworld" and "The Postman" as Murphy, the vicious, double-crossing heist leader and front man of the Elvis 5. He is b-a-a-a-d! He also truly believes he is the illegitimate son on Elvis Presley.

Guest writer Jacqui Thompson is passionate about travel, wildlife and movies. She's travelled through Africa in her own Land Rover, backpacked across Canada and ventured as far afield as Alaska and Vietnam. Indulging in her latter two passions she now writes movie reviews and wildlife articles.

His right-hand man is his former cellmate Michael, aptly played by Kurt Russell. However, Michael has become a criminal with a conscience and wants to put crime behind him, after just this one-last-time-absolutely-final job. It’s always easier to turn your back on crime when you have a full wallet. Together they put together the heist of a lifetime.

The gang is based at the appropriately named Last Chance Motel. A ramshackle dive that is also home for the beautiful Cybil (with a C) played with enthusiasm by Courtney Cox of "Friends" fame, and her kleptomaniac young son. When the opportunity to better her life and financial circumstances arises she seizes it.

Returning to the Last Chance Motel to divvy up the loot, there is a falling out between the gang members, betrayal and of course death. Murphy decided share and share alike is not part of the new plan or his character. Michael is prepared for the double cross and manages to escape with the loot. Tagging along are dollars-in-her-eyes Cybil and her precocious young son.

What follows is a chase across continental US and Canada as Michael, Cybil and Murphy chase the money and each other. We see a country filled with motorcars filled with nodding dogs staring out at passing cars and strange people. We meet women who don’t seem appalled but attracted to murderers and other bizarre personalities with quirky traits. Only in America could they appear normal.

Although the film’s plot is not unique the delivery is. The pace is exhilarating, the cinematography unusual and exciting and the action sequences both exhausting and deafening. This could be due to director Demian Lichtenstein’s experience in commercials and music videos. The scene where the gang rob and escape from the casino is visually very dramatic. I’ve never seen speed loaders and sparkling sequins featured together before! Although slow motion shots of graphic violence beautifully filmed and set to rockin’ music is unsettling it adds to the five degrees off centre approach that permeates throughout this off-the-wall film.

The film has a retro vibe feel and is filled with colour and vibrancy. The cars, a cherry red ‘59 Caddy convertible, an ancient Plymouth Valiant, the Elvis costumes and a kick ass soundtrack lend an air of heightened unreality to the film. The rapid-fire cinematography places characters in a strange and stylised world inhabited by everything from scorpions to exotic rodent breeders.

Russell says that heist films are a typically American genre that stems from the American heritage and that they appeal to their unavoidably romantic notion of lawlessness and anti-authoritarianism. One does feel that this film offers an insight into a peculiar side (methinks the underbelly) of American culture.

All the characters are strong, even the minor ones, and no matter how small the part they contribute to the oddball feel of this film. Great cameo roles by Kevin Pollack and Thomas Hayden Church as the lawmen who are always just one step behind the outlaws as they flee Las Vegas heading for the remote Pacific Northwest.

This film glorifies violence and shows that crime does pay. A little close to home! I also found the final lengthy shoot out featuring Ice-T as a one-man army ludicrous and the ending predictable. Still "3 000 Miles to Graceland" is a slick, stylish film which will undoubtedly become a cult classic.

Elvis has left the building.