Pages

Monday, October 15, 2007

I love it a lot!

It's a more adult Elvis film, no question about it. Elvis shares a bed with a woman, gets to say both "dammit" and "sonofab...", shaves and showers and in one scene stands in front of the camera dressed in underpants.

I'm talking, of course, about Live A Little, Love A Little that I watched for the first time on DVD the other night. Breaking the formula of most of his previous films makes it well worth seeing, together with the fact that it's actually quite good (view the trailer here).

The tempo is high, Elvis is credible in his role as a photographer and there's plenty of comedy. "Nuts, absolutely nuts," as Elvis himself points out a couple of times. Also, three of the four songs are excellent, I especially like Edge Of Reality that was used in the dream sequence.

Speaking of the soundtrack, the actress Elvis picks up at a party when he sings A Little Less Conversations appeared as a guest during Elvis Week in 2005 in Memphis. I saw her at a tribute concert where she got up and danced to the same song when the band performed it. I clocked her appearance in Live A Little, Love a Little to little over five minutes but apparently that was enough to make her famous in the Elvis world.

Another plus with the movie is Elvis himself. He is extremely good looking with his jet black hair combed straight back and wearing all sorts of cool clothes. Finally, lets not forget the dog in the movie, the Great Dane named Albert. I read somewhere that he was nominated for the equivalent to an Oscar for trained animals.

The only complaint I have is the fight that Elvis has with Red and Sonny West in a newspapers printing office. It's far too long and why it actually starts is a bit unclear. OK, Elvis gets fired but why would his boss have two workers beating the crap out of him because of that? Maybe this was a remnant from his earlier films where a fight was obligatory.

But this is a minor point. To me Live A Little, Love A Little shows that Elvis at 33 could do a pretty decent job as an adult actor and make really watchable movies. Add to this that the new DVD release has great picture and sound quality and you're in for a treat in front of the television!

No comments: