When you hear about a new Tom Hanks film that is released you have certain expectations unless it is one of the Davinci Code series of stories. When this appeared on my radar and after I saw the preview I was thinking it was going to be one of the best of 2022. After watching it, I do not feel that way, unfortunately.
src
To be fair to all involved, I would imagine that it is very difficult to make an innovative movie about Elvis Presley because no matter what they are thinking of doing, it has probably been done before. This is one of those topics like Star Trek that has a massive following of extremely dedicated historians that are going to pick apart anything that is said and look for faults in it. I am not old enough to have really been a part of the Elvis craze and he died before I was born, so while my parents had a ton of his records, I wouldn't say that I was ever really a fan. I think that you need to have been alive when it was happening to truly have a passion about most things and for me, I realized how huge Elvis was, but it simply wasn't possible for me to be a part of the obsession.
That being said, when you see a big budget and Tom Hanks in the lineup you expect excellence. I don't really think that is what we got with this movie and it is also extremely long, which is something that will normally turn me off as well.
src
You didn't need to be a film buff to realize that Tom was not going to be playing the role of Elvis but instead he was playing the role of long-time manager Colonel Tom Parker. I know that they were going for a different Elvis-perspective by telling the story from Parker's perspective, but even though that is an interesting idea, I think it actually takes away from the overall experience. Also, and as odd as this might seem to say, I don't think that Hanks did a very good job portraying the character. Keep in mind that I had never heard of Tom Parker until this movie was made so as far as I know he did a damn-near exact impersonation of the man.
When you see a movie named "Elvis" I think that the expectation is that it is going to focus on him and not really be told from a 3rd person perspective in the narration of a man that is accused of ripping off one of the biggest stars of all time. It almost seems like the defense is presenting their case in court during a lot of it.
src
I also don't like when they put "fat suits" on people in films especially when said actor is one of the most recognizable faces in all of entertainment. I get it ok? Tom is too old to be intentionally putting on a ton of weight and doing so could have seriously jeopardized his health, but at least from my eyes, it was quite evident that he was wearing a suit and a ton of makeup throughout the entire film. With a budget of 85 million dollars, I felt like they could have done a better job.
Plus, Tom's voice acting sounds as though he is attempting to reprise one of Adam Sandler's worst characters, Little Nicky. If you haven't seen Elvis yet, you are definitely going to be able to hear what I am talking about. Once again, this might be EXACTLY what Tom Parker sounded like, which would be seriously odd - but the entire time Tom is talking I kept expecting him to "release the love!" at some point.
src
Another thing that kind of irked me was when they were doing a musical scene, which you should expect in a film about Elvis Presley, they kept integrating modern music into the numbers and even hip-hop - ing it up to appeal to.... I don't even know who. Elvis has such a legendary set of songs that already exist that I felt that this was both unnecessary as well as a disservice to his legacy.
I learned a lot from watching this, especially the stuff relating to Tom and Elvis' time in Vegas that I probably wouldn't have known if it weren't for this film's existence. I enjoyed a great deal of it, but a lot of it rubbed me the wrong way and by the time it was over, I was glad it was over.
Should I watch it?
Well, I think you will end up doing so even if I told you the movie was terrible, which it certainly is not. Tom Hanks movies always get watched by everyone whether they are about Elvis or a lonely guy on an island whose best friend is a volleyball. Tom is one of the most marketable stars in the world and this is likely to stay that way. I think that there is a lot to be learned by watching this and I always enjoy when I can leave a film knowing something that actually happened that I didn't know before. I think the film was too long though and I guess that was always going to be the case since their intention was probably for this to be one of the greatest films of the decade. I definitely don't think it is that. To be honest I would have preferred a documentary about the whole Colonel Tom involvement in Elvis' life than to see an artsy mashup more than 3 hours long about it. That probably already exists though.
Had I not been in bed I likely would have skipped large portions of this film and while I still think this is worth seeing, I would suggest you do it with remote in hand because honestly, 3.5 hours for anything that isn't Lord of the Rings is just too damn long.
Elvis in NOT on Netflix, but I am sure you can figure out other ways of finding it.
