3000 Miles To Graceland

Ta se situacija cesto javlja ovih dana – film se promovira jednom od scena koje je lako promovirati, bez obzira gdje scena dolazi u filmu. Cesto film izda tu scenu i ode u potpuno drugacijem pravcu. 3000 Miles To Graceland je jedan takav film, gdje cak ni ta scena nije u stanju da impresionira prosjecnog posjetioca kino-dvorana.

Radi se o krajnjem kicu – Elvisova sedmica u Las Vegasu. Dok se sef sigurnosti kasina pita u cemu je stvar ("tip je mrtav vec dvadeset godina"), imitatori zapomazu na sceni, djevojke pokazuju sta imaju, nasa cetvorica anti-heroja i jedan heroj udju u kasino, opljackaju tri miliona dolara i nesto kusura, i odlete u pustinju. Sve me boli.

Otprilike na tom mjestu je scenarista potrosio ideje o tome sta da radi sa toliko likova, pa je poceo da ih ubija – Bokeem Woodbine je izbacen iz helikoptera nakon sto umre od krvarenja uzrokovanog ranom od metka, Christiana Slatera ubije Costner nakon rasprave u kojoj argument snage pobjedjuje nad snagom argumenta, a David Arquette i Kurt Russell su "odradjeni", isto Costnerovom rukom, nakon sto mu pomognu da se rijesi Slaterovog tijela.

E, sad, posto znamo da Woodbine, Slater i Arquette nisu neke face (mozete li zamisliti zadnju dvojicu kao pljackase kasina?), prosjecan posjetilac kino-dvorana (mozda i onaj pomenut ranije) zna da zvijezda Kurta Russella sija nesto sjajnije. I on sam ispadne prilicno sjajan, jer je nosio metko-otporni prsluk umjesto plavih antilop cipela, i uspijeva doci do novca prije Costnera. Igra macke i misa pocinje i vidi se iz aviona da ovaj akcioni pljackaski film prati sve kliseje zanra. Ako ste dosad tacno odgovorili na sva pitanja, nema velike tajne o tome kako ce se sve zavrsiti.

Jedna stvar koja odvaja 3000 Miles To Graceland od ostalih bljestavih holivudskih proizvoda bez mozga je u tome sto je prilicno zlonamjeran, narocito prema zenama. Plesacice, konobarice, radnice na benzinskim pumpama, sekretarice, svima njima temeljito dominiraju i lako manipulisu muskarci, toliko da to odvlaci paznju. Cak i glavni zenski lik, kojeg igra Courtney Cox Arquette, ima integritet prostitutke niskog nivoa. Ona je samica majka sina kleptomana, i pada Russellu u zagrljaj prebrzo (i precesto), tako da replika pred kraj filma o tome kako se zaljubila cim ga je vidjela (i jos nesto o ostatku zivota) odjekuje vrlo neistinito. Cak su je i snimali znatno provokativnije.

It’s a common situation these days – film is marketed using one of the more marketable scenes, regardless of where the scene falls in a movie. More often than not, the movie betrays that scene and goes in a completely different direction. 3000 Miles To Graceland is one such movie, where even that scene is unable to impress an average moviegoer.

We’re talking ultimate kitch here – an Elvis Week in Las Vegas. While the casino security chief wonders what’s the big deal ("the fellow’s been dead for twenty years"), impersonators wail onstage and showgirls are showing their stuff, our four anti-heroes and one hero walk in, rob the casino of $3 million and some change, and fly off in the desert. We're all shook up.

Which is where the screenwriter probably ran out of ideas about how to manage all these characters, so he starts killing them off – Bokeem Woodbine is tossed out the helicopter after he bleeds to death from a gunshot wound, Christian Slater is killed by Costner after an quarrel in which the argument of force wins over force of argument, and David Arquette and Kurt Russell are executed, also by Costner, after they help him get rid of Slater’s body.

Now, knowing that Woodbine, Slater and Arquette are rather expendable (can you really picture the last two as casino-robbers?), an average moviegoer (possibly even one mentioned before) also knows that the star of Kurt Russell burns a little brighter than that. He himself turns out to be quite bright, because he was wearing a bulletproof vest instead of blue suede shoes, and he beats Costner to the money. The game of cat and mouse begins, and you see from a mile away that this heist action flick follows all the cliches of the genre. If you had all the right answers correctly so far, there’s no big mystery about how it will end.

The one thing that separates 3000 Miles To Graceland from most others flashy Hollywood products without a brain is that it is also quite mean-spirited, particularly towards women. Showgirls, diner waitresses, gas-station attendants, secretaries, all of them are so thoroughly dominated and so easily manipulated by men, it becomes distracting. Even the main female character, played by Courtney Cox Arquette, has the integrity of a low-level prostitute. She’s a single mother of a cleptomaniac son, and she falls for Russell way too quickly (way too often), so the line later in the movie about falling for him the minute she saw him (plus something about the rest of her life) rings very untrue. She’s even filmed increasingly sexier than her usual "Friends" persona, but not quite in tune with the R rating of the movie.

Russell seems to have the most fun playing the part of a good criminal, the kind kids don’t want to leave. Ironically enough, Costner played such a character himself in Clint Eastwood’s Perfect World. Here, he’s just mean, sadistic and ruthless, with no redeeming qualities, the bad guy who’s so bad he’s not interesting. With lots of explosions, shootings, car chases and a few cameos, including Howie Long, Ice T and Jon Lovitz, 3000 Miles To Graceland may have been worth a look if it were about 30 minutes shorter and a little less predictable.