3000 Miles to Graceland

3000 Miles to Graceland is a 2001 crime comedy starring Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. The film co-stars Courteney Cox Arquette, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arquette. The film features cameos by Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Thomas Haden Church, Bokeem Woodbine and Ice-T.

Plot
Parolees Michael Zane (Russell) and Thomas Murphy (Costner) pose as Elvis Presley and make a heist at the Rivera Casino in Las Vegas. Later, Michael decides to hang out with a nice looking woman named Cybil (Cox Arquette) and her son, Jesse. Thomas betrays Michael by stealing his Cadillac and decides to commit cross country crimes like killing a man who owns stuffed wild animals and lots of money. U.S. Marshal Quigley (Church), who has held a grudge against Thomas for years orders his fellow officers to find him and arrest him.

But, before Quigley can arrest him, Thomas gets arrested by another police force and is taken to the county jail that is in Quigley’s jurisdiction. Michael is arrested as well and ends up in the same jail his friend is in and berates Thomas for betraying him.

Thomas decides to flee to Canada, but later decides go back to Vegas to commit another heist and fights with Michael during the police raid. Thomas is killed in the raid while Michael survives the shootout since he was wearing a bulletproof vest. The film ends with Michael lip-syncing to “Such A Night” during the end credits.

Why It’s 3000 Times Terrible

 * 1) Poorly written story.
 * 2) Weak characters.
 * 3) The main characters have little to no screen time together, except in the earlier scenes.
 * 4) Countless plotholes (primarily the scenes that involve Michael hanging out with Cybil and her son, Jesse).
 * 5) Pointless cameos by Jon Lovitz, Thomas Haden Church, Bokeem Woodbine, Howie Long and Ice-T.
 * 6) Slow pacing.
 * 7) Too much jumping back and forth to certain character after character.
 * 8) Michael and Cybil have no chemistry with one another.
 * 9) False advertising: On the poster, it looks like the heist would happen in the third act, but it actually happens at the beginning.
 * 10) The ridiculous and completely out-of-place scorpion fight scene in the opening credits sequence. And yes it's in the actual movie.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The costumes that our main characters wear are authentic and bear major resemblances to Elvis himself.
 * 2) The opening heist scene was exciting, same for the shootout scene near the end.
 * 3) Interesting idea of having two crooks pose as Elvis Presley.
 * 4) Some of the dialogue is extremely funny.
 * 5) There are tons of Elvis references since it has our characters dressed as Elvis (for example: Michael owns a 1959 red and white Cadillac) which makes this film somewhat entertaining, despite the primarily weak story.
 * 6) The film ends with Michael lip synching to "Such A Night" during the end credits.

Reception
3000 Miles to Graceland received primarily negative reviews from critics and audiences. The film currently holds a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 3.5 out 10 and a critic consensus that reads "While the premise sounds promising, the movie turns out to be a tedious and unnecessarily violent heist movie that's low on laughs and leaves no cliche unturned." The film also holds a 5.9 on IMDb.

Box Office
3000 Miles to Graceland opened up at #3 on its opening weekend with a domestic gross of $7,160,521. The total domestic gross was $15,749,959. It made $2,970,216 in foreign markets. The film made a worldwide gross of $18,720,175 against its $62 million budget making it a box office disaster. Following the poor theatrical gross, the film did better on both VHS and DVD sales.

Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Actor for Kevin Costner, but lost to Freddy Got Fingered.

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