Film Review: 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

There are various reasons why critics gang up against certain films. In case of 3000 Miles to Graceland, 2001 action comedy directed by Damien Liechtenstein, it was alleged misogyny of its authors, reflected in unfavourable portrayal of a female character. On the other hand, male characters are hardly model citizens, which includes protagonist Michael Zane (played by Kurt Russell), electronic experts who has recently been paroled from prison. He has accepted offer of his friend and fellow criminal Thomas M. Murphy (played by Kevin Costner) to join him in audacious heist at Riviera casino in Las Vegas. Since the hotel hosts Elvis impersonators convention, Murphy and his gang arrive there dressed like Elvis Presley. Despite heist not going as planned and resulting in shoot out that would result in large number of fatalities, most of the gang manages to escape with large loot. Disputes over its distribution result in additional round of violence and death until only Zane and Murphy remain. Zane manages to get his hands on money and tries to bring it to secure location. In it he receives aid from Cybil Waingrow (played by Courtney Cox), attractive motel owner with whom he had passionate affair, and her young son Jesse (played by David A. Kaye). Zane, however, gets pursued both by Murphy and authorities, while it isn’t clear whether Cybil has her own plans with the money.

3000 Miles to Graceland is unusual film and it tries to signal at the very beginning, with the opening titles featuring fight between CGI-created scorpions. Damien Liechtenstein, who began his career in music videos, doesn’t shy away from showing his roots, but his style is less irritating than among his peers. On the other hand, he appears to be too much in love with his work and leaves in films some unnecessary scenes that could have easily been left on cutting room floor. What seems refreshing is that the script, co-written by Liechtenstein and David Recco, doesn’t feature any moralising and that the only reason audience is supposed to be root for Zane is that his adversary, embodied by Kevin Costner who obviously enjoys rare opportunity to play villain, is portrayed as murderous psychopath. Humour, which is of mostly black variety, is often lacking. Kurt Russell, who plays protagonist, obviously enjoyed references to Elvis Presley, partly because he had co-stared as child actor with the King in 1963 film It Happened at the World Fair and partly because he him in Elvis, John Carpenter’s 1979 biopic. Those references, however, together with presence of Christian Slater in one of minor roles, would only remind audience of True Romance, another combination of action film and black comedy which used the same motives, but was significantly better.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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