The Truth Is Always Stranger Than Fiction..."Elvis & Nixon"

Elvis & Nixon (2016)

Rated R

Starring Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville, Colin Hanks, Evan Peters

Directed by Liza Johnson

The Story:

December, 1970... That morning, Elvis (Shannon) came up to the White House gates hoping to meet President Nixon (Spacey).  The picture taken at the end of their encounter is the most requested photograph in the National Archives.

This is a story of the meeting that almost didn't happen.

It all begins when Elvis decides he wants to be an undercover Federal Agent.

His idea, see the President, get the credentials, and begin working for the government.

Nixon, on the other hand, was scheduled for his afternoon nap at the time Elvis was to be cleared to see him.

Surreal, of that there is no doubt.

While Shannon doesn't attempt to go full-on Elvis, he gets enough of the speech and mannerisms down that you buy the performance.

Then there is Spacey, possibly the best chameleon actor of this (or any) generation, and again, he becomes Nixon right before your eyes.

While everything you see on screen may not have actually happened, they have enough evidence of the main points to wrap the story together nicely, filling in the dialogue that could have happened to get to that point.

It's fascinating. It's fun.

And in today's political climate, it almost makes you miss the good old days of Nixon.

: )

I watched it on DVD from Netflix, but it is now currently streaming on Amazon Prime as of this writing.

Final Grade: B

Serial Killers Need Love Too... "Lucky"

This movie screamed potential...  but comes up short.

The Story:

An apparent serial killer wins the lottery when his mom discovers his winning lottery ticket.  The only problem?  The ticket belonged to his last victim.  Now the killer is thrust into a new type of lifestyle and is able to marry the girl of his dreams, someone who looks just like all of his victims.  Then when she walks in on her husband with another woman...

Choices have to be made.


Again, the black comedy potential of this film is only briefly realized in far too few scenes.

Watching Colin Hanks, from a distance every bit seeming like his dad, he is a great, underutilized actor in Hollywood.  Perhaps the curse of being his father's son relegates him to smaller films and bit parts, but he always does a great job.

Unfortunately, the buy-in that he is a serial killer is rather forced, with little to no explanation whatsoever.  Sure he kills because he cannot get the girl he wants, but then why does he start again?  It's a leap, that mostly forces the 3rd act to get started.

That is where the humor truly begins to shine through, but it's too little, too late.

It is available for streaming on Netflix as of this writing, but I cannot thoroughly endorse the film.

This falls in with the first movies of the year that weren't awful, but they weren't great.

They were simply... to quote my honey... "meh".

: )