Elvis

6/26/2022

After about ten minutes, I was both exhausted and terrified. Was what I had just seen - colourful but frenetic and haphazard going to continue? Well, it does calm down - and continues to quite cleverly interweave the early years and aspirations of this young boy with the openly racist political situation that prevailed in the Southern United States in the early 1940s. From here on in, I am treating this as a provocative and entertaining but entirely speculative drama about this man. Historians always argue about what did happen - or what might have, and I haven't any factual insight to add. On that basis, this is a quickly paced and creatively structured depiction of the main points of the life of Elvis. Austin Butler has an uncanny resemblance. As was often said of Dustin Hoffman, it's a

6/27/2022

MORE SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS @ https://www.msbreviews.com/ "Elvis features a glorious, electrifying, iconic performance from Austin Butler that will deservedly guarantee him all the awards of the year. Unfortunately, the actor isn't enough to overcome the many technical issues, besides Tom Hanks' massive miscast and the formulaic musical biopic narrative. Baz Luhrmann's style theoretically fits the legendary singer's vibrant aura, and the filmmaker's intention is clear. Nevertheless, the frenetic, choppy editing and the restless camera movements rather come off as a messy, confusing, headache-inducing atmosphere instead of elements that elevate the overall piece. The unnecessarily hefty doesn't help. I was hoping to be surprised, but then again, I'm admittedly not the biggest Elvi

7/31/2022

Film ruined the career of Elvis Presley. In the 1960s, while The Beatles and Rolling Stones were airborne across America, he was caught in a trap: starring in over 20 inane film projects. This allowed the rock n’ roll revolution that centered on Elvis to pass him by. Ironically, this story and more were adapted to the screen last month in the biographical film, ‘Elvis’. The picture was directed by Baz Lurhmann (of ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ fame) and stars newcomer Austin Butler as our favorite jailhouse rocker. It spans Presley’s career entirely, but with a rigorous focus on the abusive relationship with his manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks. The conspiracy theorists have been right all this time. Elvis Presley is alive and well, but young, thirty, and goes

8/19/2022

**Good moments but WAY too long.** A spectacular performance by Austin Butler, fabulous costumes, and set design were all weighed down by a much too long runtime and the impending doom of focusing on Elvis’ crooked manager.

9/24/2022

ELVIS (2022) has flashes of brilliance but Baz Luhrmann's scissor-happy editing causes it to suffer as the music isn't allowed to breathe. And Tom Hanks's Goldmember impersonation is... something.

10/14/2022

_Elvis_ is exactly what I expected going into this and I still found myself having a great time with this film. It is so incredible seeing the highs and lows of an artist's career and being there for the ride is such an intimate experience, even if the actual story is probably butchered to death to fit in a feature length film. But a biopic is only as great as the leading actor carrying this film and I glad to report that Austin Butler absolutely nailed this role. Fantastic through and through. My one big complaint about this film is the runtime. Almost three hours feels entirely unnecessary, but with it being on HBO Max, it is way more digestible in two chunks. **Score:** _74%_ | **Verdict:** _Good_