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This sadly, is a get-the-bad-guy movie. We see the bad guy go around and cuss a lot, kill innocent people, and wait for our hero to show up and kiss his ass. I hate get-the- bad-guy movies.
This movie can't decide whether it's a tribute to Elvis or a glorified heist for money. Kurt Russell is just out of jail and is heading to Vegas in a '59 cadillac. Where someone just out of jail gets such a nice set of classy wheels is beyond me. He checks into a lowly hotel and meets Courtney Cox and her thieving son David Kaye.
After a one night stand with her, Russell is greeted to the other members of the party who will help him with the heist at the Vegas gambling hotel. These are Kevin Costner, David Arquette, Bokeem Woodbine, and Christian Slater. They also meet their getaway helicopter pilot, Howie Long. They all dress up like Elvis, and do the heist despite the fact that the movie shows no part of the men ever getting together to plan it out, and it goes well.
There's suddenly a dispute over the money and Costner turns on everybody. Russell is wearing a bullet proof vest so is uninjured. He goes back to the hotel, gets the cash and has Cox assist him as he takes off with Costner on his heels.
From here, the movie will only appeal to those who like watching innocent people getting killed, stuff blowing up, or main characters talking tough to each other. Take for instance where Costner goes into a gas station. He kills the old man, gets the money from the drawer, disables the phone, fills his car up, steals the old man's girlfriend, and blows the place up. Why? He could have just used his gun to threaten the old man, take his money, disable the phone, fill his car up, take the old man's girlfriend, and left him with a friendly wave good-bye. That would have been funny. But instead, Costner leaves a very good trail of dead people so that two investigators (Kevin Pollack, Thomas Haden Church) find it easy to follow.
It's amazing how many cameo celebrities there are in this movie. Yet they're only in the movie for a few minutes before they get killed. Take Jon Lovitz for example. He's in the movie for maybe ten minutes at the most before taking an arrow into the chest. It's almost like saying, "Here's a crappy movie. But it's got lots of great Hollywood stars! Don't you agree?"
The director's style seems to be taken directly from tips by David Fincher, who makes his movies seem surreal at times. Even the beginning credits are like a ripoff of Se7en. The only thing worth watching in this movie are the clouds that pass by quickly every so often to help the movie show time has gone by.
This movie might appeal to the campy daydreamer. But there are far better action movies with better bad guys than Kevin Costner shooting innocent people for fun.
p.c.
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