Hey what's going on everyone! Dan here and I'm gonna be reviewing the Elvis Movie!

To be honest I didn't think I was gonna review this film at all, but it left a real impression on me that I didn't think a biopic could do. I've seen many biopics of celebrities before and normally they're alright. But the Elvis Movie experience was not a typical biopic on a celebrity, this was a real rollercoaster ride. I felt all sorts of emotions here and a great deal of that comes from the cast giving it their all and how this film did not stray away from the darker parts of Elvis's career and personal life. I mean all Biopics do go into the bad stuff of each celebrity but only a little bit while they highlight the good stuff mostly. Here, it was half good and half bad, nearly a perfect blend.

I do wanna give credit to the cast and the director before I keep going. Baz Luhrmann directed this film and I best know him for The Great Gatsby film from 2013. Here, He made the settings very much so like they were in the 1950's-1970's and how the nation had a racial divide and made sure each character had depth to them. This was Austin Butler's major film debut since he was best known for his television work like on Zoey 101, The Carrie Diaries and The Shannara Chronicles. Butler killed it in this film, he truly did the role of Elvis Presley justice. It wasn't like some cheap impersonator or impression, he truly became Elvis and got his moves down, his singing voice, mannerisms and charisma down. Austin blew the audience away and I look forward to his future film projects. Tom Hanks did a phenomenal as The Colonel and he truly became a villain. Tom Hanks is best known as a hero like Woody, Forrest Gump, Hell even as Mister Rogers, he's always been a kind character or a hero. This time, he truly became a villain here which shocked me and he was convincing, he became a true fiend and it was honestly a bit frightening at how well he played the character.

The plot itself is about the rise and fall of Elvis Presley, so it's not like were getting this unique story since a lot of people know about Elvis. That being said, This film gives us a pretty good idea of how Elvis came to be and how his life was during his career and in his personal life. We all know he had serious drug problems and bad habits later in his life and how he was a polarizing figure. We've all made the Elvis jokes and roasted him for being fat and the whole "dying on the toilet" joke, we've all made those jokes and impressions of him. We've all seen Elvis referenced in almost every source of media in cartoons, tv shows, commercials, etc. He's a well recognized pop icon and that's something even the film touched on as well. Elvis was marketed to everyone and the goal was to make him a household name by any means necessary. I am a little salty they didn't mention his peanut butter and banana sandwich his iconic food, I tried that because of him and it's actually not bad, even with bacon in it. Since this is a Biopic, things will be exaggerated and certain parts of the story will be dramatized just like the Winning Time series or any other biopic about a celebrity. Though if I am gonna be honest, I think the film is very much faithful to the real story. I like to believe what the film presented was at least 90% true with some exaggeration here and there.

What I enjoyed most about this film is highlighting Elvis at his highest and his lowest points and the film holds nothing back. We know about his twin brother Jessie who was stillborn, we know how Elvis was discovered by the Colonel and given his big break, we see how his mother died and the press hounding at Elvis and his father at their home, and we see Elvis when he revives his career with the infamous performance "If I Can Dream" in 1968 during a time when the US was going through a rough divide causing violence and destroying itself. Despite a lot of the things we know about Elvis, you can't deny that he was a kind soul and wanted to end the senseless violence happening during this time. I felt that his performance here was the kickstart to a lot of celebrities and musicians speaking out against the horrible things going on around this time. The film portrayed each of Elvis's biggest moments in the best way possible sticking as true and faithful to the story as one can be.

Now it's time to talk about the things I didn't like about the film, I don't have too many complaints but I still feel they're worth mentioning. Even though this is a two and a half hour film, there are times they kind of rush through the story telling and they skip over some details that I feel are important at least. Another complaint I have is when they put modern music into the film which at it times kills the immergence of the film settings. Like we cut to the 50's and 60's and I hear music from todays artists in the movie or remixes of music from the times periods. I would prefer if they stuck to music from those time periods to keep me immersed, just sayin. My last complaint and this is another fact about Elvis, He met his wife during his time in the Army in 1959 where he met here when he was 24 and when she was 14. Again, it's another fact about Elvis and this is his wife so they were obviously going to touch on that. However, they had the 24 yr old character and the 14 yr old character kiss....I don't know if it actually happened though I wouldn't put it pass me if they did. Hopefully it was nothing more than that if that's the case. Though why did the film feel the needed to include that? I understand its a romantic moment but its still between a 24 yr old man and a 14 yr old girl, I don't think its a good idea to normalize or romanticize relations with a minor for obvious reasons. I'm not saying Elvis is like R. Kelly, but I do hope they never did anything that would cross into illegal territory.

What made this stand out from other biopics is the self destructive path and the toxic environment around Elvis and how the film held nothing back. Straight Outta Compton was a pretty dark biopic holding nothing back from the police brutality and racial discrimination and I feel Elvis accomplished the same level of dark themes here from racial discrimination, drugs, adultery, manipulation, etc. Keep in mind, we see Elvis up to the very end of not only his career, but his life and it was a sad ride ladies and gents. This showed just how overworked and abused Elvis truly was by his management and even his own father. I couldn't tell who was worse, Colonel or Vernon Presley. Normally we stop at a good point in a celebrities career, but Elvis didn't get a good ending, he had a sad downfall towards the end. The only silver lining is that The Colonel was investigated and sued for his abusive management of Elvis, he truly treated the King like a circus monkey. The film and Butler did an excellent job of portraying Elvis as someone who wanted to get better but was always manipulated and brought back in and by the time he wanted out, it was too late.

Overall, the film served as a great biopic and cautionary tale to never let yourself be taken advantage of. Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll creating music that is still played generations later, and lived a sad life where he was overworked and taken advantage of by the toxic people around him. The film did him justice, Austin Butler did him justice and was a great experience.

Rating this, I'd give it:

7.5/10

I recommend watching this film and hopefully you're as entertained as My family and I was.

That's it, see ya next time!