3000 Miles to Graceland

Amazon.com

Opening with metallic computer-generated scorpions battling in a scorching desert wasteland, 3000 Miles to Graceland announces itself as one helluva nasty movie. A comedic wallow in antiheroic violence, the movie vomits off the screen, as if director Demian Lichtenstein--obviously a veteran of music videos--had mainlined amphetamines before stepping behind his oh-so-busy camera. In a futile attempt to out-Woo John Woo, Lichtenstein goes to extremes to achieve a kind of absurd in-your-face exhilaration, and for additional thrills, the movie gives second-billing to Kevin Costner in the most vile role of his career. As leather-clad Elvis impersonator and Presley bastard child Thomas Murphy, Costner's like a black-sheep brother to Raising Arizona's biker from hell.

With four accomplices including a fellow Elvis worshipper named Michael (Kurt Russell), Murphy storms a Vegas casino for a $3.2 million robbery that turns into a haywire bloodbath. Partners are eliminated, double-crosses abound, and Michael connects with a trashy sexpot (Courteney Cox Arquette) whose preteen son (David Kaye) is a precocious criminal in training. Murphy's on their trail, FBI agents are on Murphy's, and gradually things get really nasty. We're supposed to laugh at the blackness of it all, and sometimes the ballsy humor scores a bull's-eye. The road-movie action accommodates several twists of plot, and while Russell's enjoying a semireprise of his performance in John Carpenter's Elvis, there's something perversely thrilling about Costner's deadpan ruthlessness. But really, how amoral can one movie be without wearing out its welcome? Frenetically depraved, 3000 Miles to Graceland is like exotic roadkill: morbidly fascinating until you get a whiff of its stench. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

I recommend this movie.......2007-04-23

In this movie, there is non stop action and perfect performances by one of my favorite actors, Kurt Russell, as well as Kevin Costner and Courtney Cox. If youre into bank robberies and cop shoot outs, I highly recommend this movie to you.

f**k elvis........2007-01-23

hollywood can't help but produce movies from a craphole. they try to make them all edgy and cool to attract a younger audience with a cheaper taste in films. i was actually excited to watch this movie at first. the storyline was somewhat interesting, so i ordered it from amazon. but i was heavily dissapointed. i ignored the cheasy opening scene with those 2 cgi scorpions... but that little kid was annoying as hell. i think him and the whole cheesy attempt at being cool killed the film. plus elvis is a joke. but i give it 3 stars for Ice T's cop-killin performance.

3000 Miles is a long way to go........2007-01-19

A composition of John Woo action, Michael Bay in-your-face action sequences and the emotional capacity of Charles Manson, `Graceland' succeeds at the level of a Rhino trying to maneuver it's way out of flatware shop. It's a violent, crude and un-apologetic heist movie that doesn't even consider it's audience.

Kevin Costner gets the slimiest and most disrespecting role he's ever received. Playing Thomas Murphy, the supposed love child of Elvis Presley he also happens to be a low grade armed robber. Pulling the biggest heist in his life Thomas and a few others, including Michael Zane (Kurt Russell) dress up as a gaggle of Elvis impersonators and pull a casino heist for over 3 million dollars. When things go wrong and people are double crossed, the chase is on. Michael is running from Thomas and the FBI, along the way he picks up Cybil Waingrow (Courtney Cox Arquette, shaking the Friends role of Monica).

As the movie moves on, no characters are found to be very reputable. I kept having to ask myself what the point was of this story. Costner is the only one who can be praised for playing such a snake, but at the same time he does it with such ferocity, you want Thomas to die as soon as possible. The violence picks up again at the end and it is all pretty predictable. I don't want to say this is a bad movie, but it isn't something to lift your spirits or redeem your faith in man-kind either. If you want a violent movie to watch with no real substance, this could be what you're looking for.

A Nappaland.com Review.......2006-12-31

Plot Summary: A crime gang robs a Las Vegas casino disguised as Elvis impersonators.
Reason for the Rating: Strong violence, sexuality and language.
Watching 3,000 MILES TO GRACELAND I have to admit felt guilty for enjoying a movie that had so few redeeming qualities. Directed by Demian Lichtenstein, it sports an all-star cast including Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox Arquette, Christian Slater, David Arquette, and Ice-T. It's a shoot-em-up flick, filled with gratuitous violence.
In the movie Costner plays Murphy, a guy who assembles a band of criminals to make a hit on the casino during an Elvis convention. Each member of the gang dresses like Elvis to fit in with the menagerie of impersonators visiting Vegas. The robbery is successful--and also allows the director to shoot excessive amounts of gunfire resulting in the demise of slot machines, drinking glasses, gaudy mirrors, and cops.
After the gang escapes the casino with over $3 million (and just one casualty despite the incredible hail of bullets) the gang falls victim to its own greed. The rest of the movie consists of Murphy and cohort Michael (played by Russell) chasing the other to retrieve the money the gang members keep stealing from each other.
Meanwhile, Michael develops a love interest in Cybil (Cox Arquette), who is the Mom of a bright but crime-waiting-to-happen type of child. Eventually Michael's love of Cybil and her son results in him having to choose between love and money.
As I said, the movie is entertaining at times, with plot twists and nonstop action. One bright spot is the cameo of rapper Ice-T, playing a hired gun protecting Murphy. His acting is a delightful mix of street-wise meanness and humor.
The fatal weakness, though, is the director's desire to spend most of the movie creating redundant scenes of violence. Yes, I enjoyed the movie to an extent, but I couldn't recommend it. Mainly what captured my attention was watching this group of all-star actors attempting to salvage a weak script.
Nappaland.com Recommends: Great Actors + Weak Script = Mostly a Waste of Time.
After the Show...If members of your family choose to view this movie, use these questions to spark discussion about it afterward:
---What positive qualities, if any, did you see in the main characters?
---Do you think excessive violence as portrayed in this movie lead people to a cheap view of human life? Explain your answer?
---Why do you suppose so many people like to impersonate Elvis? Whom would you most like to impersonate?

CP

3000 miles to graceland.......2006-11-19

This movie does not even deserve 1 star, however that is the lowest I can give it. Three of my favorite stars Kevin Costner, Kurt Russel, Thomas Haden Church did not make there careers any better by making this movie. In fact it discussed me to the point that I through it away. I don't think any one that made this movie should have made any profit from it. I have no Idea What Was On Kevin's, and Kurt's minds when they made this film. It is the most stupid movie I believe I have ever seen.

Kevin Costner Double Feature (For Love of the Game/Field of Dreams)

Average customer rating:

Great Baseball Movie, with frisbee included
For The Baseball Fanatic

Kevin Costner Double Feature (For Love of the Game/Field of Dreams)
Starring: Kevin Costner , Amy Madigan , Gaby Hoffmann , Ray Liotta , and Timothy Busfield
Director: Phil Alden Robinson , and Sam Raimi
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( K ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004YNUX
Release Date: 2000-10-31

Amazon.com essential video

For Love of the Game
Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) is having a bad day. His girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston, stunning as ever) says she's leaving, and his boss (Brian Cox) says he's selling the business and ace employee Billy may be out of job. Sounds like business as usual for an old-fashioned veteran. However, the business is baseball and for Billy Chapel, the 40-year old former all-star for the Detroit Tigers, it means his career--and his life--is at a crossroads. Although it is no Bull Durham, For Love of the Game finds a solid and very believable role for Costner. The film is based on Michael Shaara's (The Killer Angels) stream-of-consciousness novel (the rough manuscript was found after his death in 1988). The entire film takes place on Billy's day on the mound against the Yankees, a meaningless late-season game for the Tigers, but everything for Billy. In flashbacks, he lingers over his long relationship with Jane and his baseball career (from World Series heroism to a career-threatening injury). His one viable link to the game at hand is his catcher, played winningly by John C. Reilly. Costner, like Chapel, is looking for one more great performance, but the film is too simplistic and loopy at times to resonate. The love story has an extra helping of cuteness, and legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully nearly takes on a leading role, waxing grandiloquent. It's no grand slam, but a solid double. --Doug Thomas

Field of Dreams
A phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema. It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner's status as an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner's handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words "If you build it, he will come," and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool, but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball's past begin appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of "Moonlight Graham" (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a small-town physician ... but what all of this means is unclear until the film's memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Great Baseball Movie, with frisbee included.......2000-09-15

Field of Dreams which is in the top 3 of the greatest baseball films of all time is a great purchase, here you get that movie, and For Love Of The Game, which is like a free frisbee to throw around with your dog, or yourself if you are so inclined...

For The Baseball Fanatic.......2000-09-11

Although I haven't got the DVD yet Field Of Dreams would have to be costner's best movie yet as this brilliant adaption comes to life, with a great supporting cast including: James Earl Jones & Ray Liotta this is a must see... As for the love of the game it is O.K. costner does a feeble attempt at reviving the magic of Field of dreamsbut it doesn't pay off-It comes with the DVD so it is worth watching at least once.

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