3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 19, 2019

The dynamic pairing of Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner is neither wasted nor fully realized in 3000 Miles to Graceland, Writer/Director Demian Lichtenstein's Vegas heist film that follows what happens in Vegas and after the money is taken in a maelstrom of gunfire. The movie isn't so much about the heist's planning and the execution but rather the testosterone, the angling, the maneuvering that happens when the two men left standing take disparate paths towards the same goal: seizing control of the entire fortune, the other one's future be damned. It's a modestly entertaining if not hugely imperfect venture that favors sex and violence and style while putting characterization on the back burner, but not eliminating it altogether. It's a serviceable movie, better than its reputation would suggest but hardly more than a time killing entertainer.

Five Elvis impersonators -- Michael Zane (Russell), Thomas Murphy (Costner), Hanson (Christian Slater), Gus (David Arquette), and Franklin (Bokeem Woodbine) -- dress as The King, pack heavy firepower in their guitar cases, and pull off a complex, daring heist at a Vegas casino, stealing several million dollars and shedding quite a bit of blood in a brutal casino floor shootout. They escape via helicopter but not before Franklin is mortally wounded. Hanson demands the team split Franklin's share, which gets him killed when Murphy won't hear of it. Turns out Murphy has his own ideas for the money. He shoots and kills Gus and believes he's killed Michael, but a bulletproof vest saves his life. Michael gets the upper hand when he gets his hands on the money and teams up with a sexy motel proprietor named Cybil (Courteney Cox) and her street-smart son Jesse (David Kaye). But as they flee with the money across state lines, headed towards the Canadian boarder, Murphy remains in cold-blooded pursuit, determined to take the money at any cost to himself and the world around him.

A brazen, bloody robbery yields a simple chase film with money in the middle and unscrupulous characters doing whatever needs to be done to make sure they come to have it all. Nobody is immune from money's power, not even young Jesse, who commits the first crime in the movie when he steals Michael's wallet and buys himself a cowboy outfit that includes a pair of cap gun revolvers, which he points at any number of people throughout the film. The picture exudes a sense of hopelessness for humanity, in a way saying that nothing's ever going to change, that violence and blood money are to be the cornerstones of the future, at least in the small corner of the world the movie explores. While that's a direction, that's not much of a plot. The film struggles to draw the audience into the world, to engage with the characters, to find a connective tissue between the external viewing audience and the internal violence that plays out on the screen. It works well enough as thoughtless entertainment but there's very little meat beyond the basic ebb and flow.

One of the movie's glaring problems is its failure to think outside the box. It's a straight shooter that plows through the motions with little concern for deeper characterization and a laser focus on a gritty, raw style that doesn't necessarily work (adding insult to injury are various CGI scorpions that look so fake that they completely yank the audience out of the movie, including right at the beginning under the opening titles). It's a picture in a state of admittedly watchable disarray, a film that believes violence and sex and contrast are all that's needed to create a successful cinema venture. Lichtenstein makes it work just well enough to hold interest but there's no work here to make the movie something more than one that just kicks the can down the road, following stale characters engaging in predictable activities leading towards a plainly obvious conclusion. Even Costner and Russell do little to amplify the movie; their presence alone is enough to carry it to some semblance of respectability but it's clear they're aware of the holes and shortcomings and they do little to enhance the material or entice the audience to engage with them.

3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

3000 Miles to Graceland makes its Blu-ray debut with a fairly strong image within the parameters of the picture's inherent stylization which pushes contrast a bit and a feel of grit and rawness, giving it an almost retro throwback look. Grain is constant and flattering within the movie's visual context, usually unobtrusive and never clumpy or overwhelming. Facial textures are nicely revealing, showcasing pores, scruff, wrinkles, and other imperfections and details with impressive clarity. The movie travels through a host of different locales, from glitzy casinos to shady motels, from diners to warehouses, and the picture offers a consistently sharp, revealing appearance that allows viewers to get a handle on the movie's many locations with as much clarity as the source has to reveal and the format can muster. Colors run a bit hot. Contrast is amplified, more so in some shots than in others, but the palette is never wanting for intensity and saturation. Colors pop with positive presentation throughout, including showy Elvis costumes and plenty of blood. Black levels raise no concerns and flesh tones appear accurate within the film's visual parameters. There are no major source blemishes or encode issues of note. This is a good, healthy pressed MOD (Manufactured on Demand) release from Sony.

3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

3000 Miles to Graceland features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is adequate in delivery. It lacks finesse, favoring mostly crude musical clarity and only modest engagement to gunfire, at times prodigious in quantity but lacking in quality. The shootout in chapter three on the casino floor immediately following the robbery is a great example of the track's shortcomings for music and gunfire. Music doesn't stretch abundantly into the rears but does find some good font end width. Gunfire pops from all over but is more muddled than it is tight and precise. The track does pack a good punch when a fuel staton explodes in chapter six, which is probably the single best one-off sonic highlight the movie has to offer. For the duration, it's a fairly front heavy experience, lacking expert detail and finely-tuned atmosphere. Dialogue is clear and firm in its front-center position. It is also well prioritized throughout.

3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of 3000 Miles to Graceland contains only one supplement: the film's Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:04). No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

3000 Miles to Graceland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

3000 Miles to Graceland was nominated for many of the major Razzie categories when it released back in 2001. Truth is it's not quite that bad. It's entertaining if one puts blinders on and ignores the lack of ingenuity, the poor effort in the acting, the over stylization, and the general lethargy that haunts the film. The first act is enjoyable and there's just enough in the way of decent character moments and action to carry the rest of the film. It's grossly imperfect but hardly one of its year's worst. Sony's MOD Blu-ray is featureless beyond a trailer. The video quality holds up and the audio isn't poor. Worth a look.