By Gary

Elvis has the Baz Luhrman brand all over it from it’s opening with the gold to the decadent feel throughout.

Fans of Elvis’ music will love this movie.

Charting Elvis’ rise from childhood to rock and film star in the 1950s the biopic balances this with the complex relationship Presley had with his manager Colonel Tom Parker.

Baz Luhrman seems to try and hypnotise his audience with an epic collage of images, sensations and music which is used really well in this movie, I suppose in a way Elvis was able to hypnotise his audiences.

The film does feel like one long montage sometimes maniacally so.

It also feels like you are on a rollercoaster with its frantic pace the 2 Hours 40 Minutes runtime seems over in a flash.

This movie does a fantastic job of highlighting Elvis’ career while also trying not to highlight his more controversial moments.

I liked how they incorporated moments from American history in this and we got to see Elvis and the Colonels’ reactions.

I thought Austin Butler was okay as Elvis, his mannerisms and movements were so good.

Tom Hanks is amazing, as always, playing Colonel Tom Parker, the film paints him as the villain, and it seems he would do anything to keep his cash cow going.

I thought Hanks got all the best lines.

I did think there was kind of two films going on at the same time, one telling Elvis’ story and the other telling Colonel Parker’s.

My Rating: 8 /10