The month of February is generally considered in the minds of many critics, myself included, to be a rather dry spell for the cinema. This month is usually the dumping ground for some of the worst movies the studios have ever made, the majority of which are excessively lame and stupid comedies short on laughs, like the recent Saving Silverman and Monkeybone, or vapid and empty romantic flick, like Sweet November.
So the decision to release the new film 3000 Miles to Graceland during this month should not come as a surprise to anyone. The movie has a no-name director and is populated with a cast of actors who haven't had a hit in years. At any other time of the year, when its competition would be stiffer, this movie would be blown out of the water. But because every other movie out right now is so incredibly bad, 3000 Miles to Graceland seems good by comparison. But it is not a good movie; everything else in theaters now is just much worse than it is.
The movie stars Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell as a pair of crooks who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis convention. They and their gang of hoods dress in Elvis costumes to try to sneak into the casino, but once inside quickly begin brandishing assault rifles with reckless abandon. The heist goes wrong, as most movie heists do, and bullets start to fly. From there the movie denigrates into a series of double-crosses as Costner and Russell each vie to get the cash all to themselves.
As action movies go, this one is average, with well-choreographed gun fights and plenty of explosions (though a few of these, like the gas station that blows up in the movie's trailers, seem extemporaneous). Though Russell and Costner are both criminals, we are clear throughout the movie that Costner is the villain and Russell the hero, as Costner displays a thirst for blood during the heist, murdering everyone in his path from security guards to a midget Elvis impersonator, in contrast with Russell simply knocking guards unconscious. Both actors do adequate jobs playing their characters, but neither performace is exactly what anyone would call memorable.
The director of the film tries his hardest to make the movie seem hip, but only occasionally succeeds. The opening credits roll over a computer-animated fight sequence between two scorpions, intercut with shots of cool cars speeding down desert highways. A sequence after the casino heist takes place in a run-down motel room, with Costner and thug Christian Slater both trying to intimidate each other with their tough facades with a lot of gun waving and cold stares. Such blatant attempts at being hip really don't work and smack of desperation. Yet in a few scenes, like those featuring wise-cracking FBI agents Thomas Haden Church and Kevin Pollak on the trail of the criminals, this attitude of confidence and coarseness works well.
This director, while never having directed a feature film before, has worked steadily in music videos, and it shows in this film. The action sequences during the heist and towards the end both are incredibly kinetic, cutting quickly between shots over the steady beat of an electronic dance mix. Yet this same energy is employed in scenes that should be much calmer, as conversations over dinner turn into frantic scenes with fast cuts from one speaker to the next.
I don't know if the director can totally blamed for these bursts of energy in inappropriate places, since both Costner and Russell were allowed to separately edit their own versions of the film. Costner's version, heavier on the action than Russell's more character-driven cut, is the one that we're seeing in theaters now. You'd think that after Waterworld and The Postman nobody would let him anywhere near an editing room, but apparently studio heads are still willing to let him have a moderate amount of control over his films. As this film clearly demonstrates, these executives should really start to reconsider this policy.
In the end, though not an awful film by any means, 3000 Miles to Graceland is the kind of movie that will easily be forgotten. A few months from now when it hits video shelves, you might recall it when you see it at the store and decide to pick it up. But my bet is that a year from now you'll be saying, "What was the name of that Costner movie where he robs a casino dressed like Elvis?" And that's probably the fate this movie deserves.
