Michael McLean

This is a simply brilliant film. John Woo at his best, violent, visceral and ballistic, the set pieces are so well delivered with striking choreography that takes action sequences to the next level even for a film made over 20 years ago. This is one of the best action movies ever made.

A jumpsuit and sideburns does not an elvis make. A flashy yet ultimately vacuous story of an icon. I am a big Baz Luhrmann fan but I was disappointed with this film, the narrative is a disjointed series moments rather than a cohesive story that fully engages the audience. Austin Butler for me was one of the films major failings, he simply doesn't have the gravitas or screen presence to carry the the film, there are brief flashes where he is almost there but those flashes are few and far between, when he is good he is decent but when he is bad it's pretty bad. The film just doesn't work, the Tom Hanks role is played with an almost pantomime villain quality that irritates without really exploring the counter points of the relationship between the two men, most of the other characters a simply caricatures used to fill in a few blanks because we know they played a part in the story. I wanted to like this film but I can't really say that I did. It's like a song that we all know being played by a cover band with no soul and singing very off key!