Review of 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) by Stuart K — 28 Apr 2014

From music video director Demian Lichtenstein (Lowball (1996) and Venus & Vegas (2010). This crime caper has an original idea, and it was pitched somewhere between Ocean's Eleven (1960) and True Romance (1993).

It had a great cast, but it's all wasted on cliched action set-ups and it didn't help that neither the director nor the stars could get the tone right, and the film was recut by the producers.

It begins when Michael (Kurt Russell) has just come out of jail, and he meets single mother Cybil (Courteney Cox) at a motel, and he sleeps with her. But, Michael is part of a crime gang, along with Murphy (Kevin Costner), Hanson (Christian Slater), Gus (David Arquette) and Franklin (Bokeem Woodbine).

They all plan to go to an Elvis convention in Las Vegas, and rob the casino that's holding it and use their disguises as the cover. The heist is pulled off, although there was a very violent shootout at the casino.

However, Murphy double crosses the others, and tries to kill them, leaving Michael on the run, with Cybil in tow and a share of $100,000 as well. It should have been a good film, and you'd expect good things from a cast like that, (Russell actually played Elvis), but stuff like this has all been seen before, and you don't know if it's meant to be a black comedy or a violent action film with third rate witty dialogue, the mixture is jarring, which is a shame considering the plot.