{"id":3949,"date":"2024-09-11T14:22:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T14:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3949"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:32:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:32:53","slug":"3000-miles-to-graceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/11\/3000-miles-to-graceland\/","title":{"rendered":"3000 Miles to Graceland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"3000 Miles to Graceland <\/strong>(2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sexuality, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Demian Lichtenstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Recco and Demian Lichtenstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: George S. Clinton and Richard Meijer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Franco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 23, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arquette, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Thomas Haden Church, Bokeem Woodbine, Ice-T, David Kaye, Louis Lombardi, Paul Anka, Daisy McCrackin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $15.7M (US)\/$18.7M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0We learned about author John Updike in my junior year literature class and how he came up with ideas for his short stories. It\u2019s one of the few things I remember learning in high school. By way of illustration, let\u2019s briefly examine one of his best known works \u201cA&P\u201d. Mrs. Lockhart (a lovely teacher) said that what he\u2019d do is randomly pick out four things- for example, the product being advertised on the first billboard he saw, something in a store window or the store he stopped in front of at a traffic light- and build a story around them. In the case of \u201cA&P\u201d, if memory serves, it was a can of herring, bathing suits, a box of Hi-Ho crackers and an A&P supermarket. What I\u2019m wondering is if the makers of 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> were influenced by Updike in any way. Among the plot elements are Elvis impersonators, a casino robbery, Paul Anka, an antique dealer, wombats and jelly sandwiches. It all amounts to one wild ride.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll tell you right now that 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I think it\u2019s cool which puts me in the minority. Critics savaged it; audiences avoided it. It cost a lot to make ($62 million) and didn\u2019t even make back half its budget. I\u2019ve not met a single person that likes it (at least no one that will admit it). It has all the earmarks of a fiasco; it\u2019s loud, violent, mean-spirited, incoherent, misogynistic and dumb. It\u2019s uneven in tone and leaves certain plot points unexplained, especially where Courteney Cox\u2019s character is concerned.<\/p>\n

\u00a03000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> is a bad movie, I\u2019ll concede on that point. But it\u2019s a GREAT bad movie. It has a cool cast (led by Kurt Russell), cool vintage cars, bad ass weaponry, strong violence and Ice-T (in a small role). It\u2019s not your typical no honor among thieves actioner as it bears the influences of Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, True Romance) AND Viva Las Vegas. It\u2019s an odd mixture; it doesn\u2019t exactly go down smoothly, but it\u2019s not an unpleasant taste either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Recent parolee Michael (Russell, The Thing) stops at a rundown motel outside Vegas where he meets single mom Cybil (Cox, Friends) after her young son Jesse (Kaye) tries to steal the skull-shaped air valve caps from his 1957 Cadillac. A scene or two later, Michael and Cybil end up in bed together while the kid sneaks in and helps himself to money from Michael\u2019s wallet. That night, Michael meets up with the crew- Hanson (Slater, Heathers), Gus (Arquette, Ready to Rumble) and Franklin (Woodbine, Dead Presidents)- led by Murphy (Costner, The Untouchables), a chain-smoking sociopath with a thing for Elvis. The plan is to rob a casino during an Elvis convention dressed as\u2026. that\u2019s right, Elvis impersonators. The robbery is a bloody one. They manage to escape after a violent gun battle throughout the casino. Four of them make it back to the motel where they argue over how the money will be split now that there\u2019s one less person. We all know how things like this typically end, violently. When all is said and done, Murphy is the last man standing or so he thinks. It turns out Michael expected something like this and wore a bulletproof vest. He high-tails it back to the motel, grabs the money and hits the road with Cybil and Jesse in tow. From here on in, 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> becomes a cross-country game of cat-and-mouse with Murphy trying to get his hands on the stolen loot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director (and co-scribe) Demian Lichtenstein lets you know right way you\u2019re in for a wild ride with an opening credits sequence of two computer-animated scorpions fighting. Over the next two hours, he shows he wasn\u2019t just blowing smoke. The casino robbery\/bloodbath is mighty impressive. He intercuts it with a stage show featuring Elvis impersonators and dancing girls. Either they don\u2019t hear the ruckus or strongly believe in the adage \u201cthe show must go on\u201d. Dozens of guards and guests are killed and the performers don\u2019t miss a beat. Singer Paul Anka appears briefly as a pit boss who\u2019s handy with large automatic weapons. Over the course of 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong>, Costner\u2019s character leaves a trail of bodies for two US marshals (Pollak and Church) to follow. He blows up a gas station after killing the owner and abducting his girlfriend who he later gives to a biker gang. This movie is mad violent! Good thing I like that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0My biggest problem with 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> is the inconsistency with which Cox\u2019s character is handled. Is she a prostitute? In the opening scene, she indirectly tells Michael she\u2019ll have sex with him if he gives her money. Is she a con artist or an opportunist? And what kind of mother leaves her kid with some guy she hardly knows? At one point, she ditches Michael and takes the money, leaving him to look after the boy. What guarantee does she have that she\u2019ll see the boy alive again? I just couldn\u2019t figure her out. It does make for one of the movie\u2019s more interesting relationships though. And while we\u2019re on the subject of unresolved issues, does it strike anybody as odd that nobody makes a big deal about all the people killed during the casino robbery?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The screenplay is a bit of a mess, but that\u2019s part of the appeal of 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong>. Let me revise that. That\u2019s part of why the film appeals to me so much. Sometimes a movie is so bad and over the top that you have to forget everything you know about what constitutes a quality film and just enjoy the ride which I did. At one point, it\u2019s brought up that several people filed a lawsuit against Elvis\u2019 estate claiming that they were his illegitimate children. Can you guess which two characters were part of that suit? How about what the DNA tests revealed? Other than the Elvis connection, it has very little to do with the actual plot.<\/p>\n

\u00a03000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong> has a pretty cool cast that also includes Howie Long (Broken Arrow) and Ice-T (New Jack City) as associates of Murphy. Jon Lovitz (SNL) shows up as a slimy money launderer. Russell always makes a great leading man, but what\u2019s most interesting is that he played The King in the 1979 TV movie Elvis. Costner is pretty good playing a sociopath similar to the one he played in 1993\u2019s A Perfect World, even abducting Jesse at one point. Even with its messy narrative and wild overediting, I really dig 3000 Miles to Graceland<\/strong>. It\u2019s nuts, but fun.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sexuality, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Demian Lichtenstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Recco and Demian Lichtenstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: George S. Clinton and Richard Meijer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Franco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 23, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arquette, Jon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3000-Miles-to-Graceland-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3949"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4479,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions\/4479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}