It’s a movie about Elvis-impersonating criminals. There are lots of explosions and cool one-liners in the trailer. The cast is Kurt Russel, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Kevin Pollack, and Ice T. In other words, you’d think the only thing that could fuck it up is Costner.
Well, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong: Costner goes way too over the top whenever he gets the chance, but he’s not really the problem. The heist itself is just the set-up. The plot of the movie is about the fallout. Sadly, the plot is at exactly the wrong level of complexity. There are lots of double crosses and secrets hinted at, but there aren’t enough clues about what really happened to make them interesting. If the movie were either better explained or less randomly convoluted, it could have been great.
Still, it’s worth checking out. In addition to the great cast (many of whom should have gotten a lot more screen time), you get lots of explosions, the hints of a nice origin story for the two main bad guys (which was appropriate to leave vague, in my opinion), all kinds of Elvises, explosions, gunplay, and lots and lots of Courtney Cox in various stages of near-nekkidness. Don’t get too worked up over that, though. It’s mainly just random flesh; apparently only David Arquette gets to see the whole picture. I’m sure that this teaches us a valuable lesson of some kind–nice guys don’t always finished last, God has a sense of humor–I’m not exactly sure.
Summary
This could have been a great movie if the script and plotting were better. Still, there are some good action scenes and a few amusing bits. Worth renting.
