Honeybeads Blog

I guess two stars may be a little harsh - once again I find myself wishing I had a gif for the "1/2" star increment. This movie is entertaining enough and keeps your attention throughout, I just don't think I'd sit through it again any time soon. The plot is nothing new - some excons/thugs who dislike/distrust eachother get together and commit large scale armed robbery. We then follow the struggle between the "bad" gangster and the "good" gangster to be the ultimate winner of the loot. The flair of this film, I guess, is that the crooks are all Elvis impersonators - pretty original, huh?

I had two main problems with this movie. First, it felt like the film makers couldn't decide what genre or even tone they wanted the movie to take. From the off-the-wall cgi battle between two metal/robot scorpions in the opening credits to the comically wild sex scenes, I wasn't sure what this movie was trying to be. Sometimes it felt like a serious action crime drama and others it was just goofy. My second issue, along the same lines, was the inconsistency with the characters. Take Kevin Costner's "bad guy" role. One minute he's killing his friends without remorse and the next he's a softy for a hooker and, later, a little kid. Kurt Russel's "good guy" character was even more troublesome for me. He's the excon who's really just a decent guy trying to make a living at high-stakes armed robbery, right? So why is he buddies with Costner in the first place? And, most disturbing? Could we for once have an honest portrayal where the main character does NOT reject the gorgeous hottie who says "take me with you!". I mean, come on.

Finally, and this is a spoiler, I suppose, what was the deal with the DNA test results? Two of them come back as being true decsendants of the King. Costner's character had always claimed to be Elvis' son, so the other match was Kurt Russel? This makes them half brothers and explains thier connection? Whatever...

Brian's Bottom line: Rent it...or not - "True Romance" is a much better choice in this genre (comedy/action/love/crime drama).