9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
~ TRULY WONDERFUL ESCAPISM ~, June 22, 2001
'Heartbreak Hotel' is one one the all-time greatest entertainment treasures. With a solid, brilliant cast led by the incredibly talented Mr. David Keith as Elvis Presley, this movie could brighten even the dullest mood with its simple charm, humour and wonderful music. Some have complained about the lack of facial likeness between Mr. Keith and 'the King' as if that was an error of some kind rather than focusing on the fact that Mr. Keith captures the essence of Elvis without having to rely on physical likeness which can only testify to this great actor's limitless capabilities, so much so, that there are moments when Elvis almost appears transfigure through David Keith, who incidently is also a native of the State of Tennessee. No-one ever intended this movie to be taken seriously, but only enjoyed for its sheer entertainment value. The majority of the singing is actually performed by David Keith himself, which no Elvis impersonator could top !! I have read reviews of this movie which cast doubt on this fact, but if you watch the end titles you will see his vocal performing credits. I also know that he used his own voice because HE told me in person during several chats I had with him whilst he was here in Hope, BC with James Spader filming the upcoming movie 'The Stick-Up'. Charlie Schlater is also an immensely talented actor with the same kind of natural charisma and talent of Michael J. Fox. As I said previously, all the cast are magnificent and obviously adored making this movie as their pleasure and happiness shines through. Remember, this is not an Elvis biography, but merely a fantasy tale which in its own way honours the memory of the real Elvis. A heartfelt tribute to 'the King'. David Keith can also be seen in 'An Officer and a Gentleman'; 'U-571'; 'Men of Honor'; 'Brubaker'; 'The Rose'; 'The Lords of Discipline'; 'Major League 2'; and 'Texas' among many others.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
E.T. PHONE HOME, August 28, 2008
This review is from: Heartbreak Hotel (DVD)
From the beginning HEARTBREAK HOTEL wants us to know that the story it is going to tell us has nothing whatsoever to do with the real life of Elvis Presley. In fact it proclaims;
"In the kingdom of rock and roll
There are many legends,
But only one King.
This is a fable about him.
The time is 1972."
The story that unfolds takes place in the small town of Taylor, Ohio, a depressed and depressing place where Marie Wolfe (Tuesday Weld) owns a small hotel called the Flaming Star, named in honor of an Elvis presley movie. Marie's life has always revolved around Elvis as did her husband's before he ran off with another woman and left her alone ages ago to raise their two kids, Johnny who's about 17(played by Charlie Schlatter)and Pammie who's considerably younger. Marie's life has degenerated into boozing it up every night with a series of boyfriends, her latest being Steve who isn't exactly popular with Johnny, but then none of her boyfriends have been big with him. After a fight over breakfast one morning Johnny stomps off. He's definitely the adult in their relationship and he's tired of having to shoulder all the responsibility. Besides, he has troubles of his own; his band The Wolfetones has been rejected 3 years in a row for the school talent show and, even, worse, he hasn't got a prayer with the girl of his dreams-- Beth,who auditions for the show by playing Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" as if it were a classical piece on the piano, and when asked who the composer was she replies "An obscure 20th century artist." Johnny adores her; she's got beauty and guts!
Wouldn't you know it? Just when things on the home-front seem to be improving, the plot sickens. After a night at the drive-in watching yet another old Elvis movie, Johnny and his mother bond in a way they never had before. They start to really talk, have a meaningful dialogue and all sorts of other stuff that would make Dr. Phil perk up hopefully. Then, alas, Steve shows up and Johnny is left waiting on the couch for Mom to come back "in 10 minutes". As it turns out she did have a good excuse for staying out all night though, they were in a car accident and she wound up in the hospital...after they had an argument and he slapped her around a little first of course. That does it for Johnny. He has to take some sort of action. He simply can't bear seeing his mother so unhappy anymore. He has to find some way to cheer her up and fix her up.
Then he sees the article in the newspaper; Elvis is appearing in Cleveland on Saturday! Talk about fortuitous, and really short notice! That's when the brilliant idea springs into his mind fully formed--he'll get Elvis to go on a date with his mother! THAT OUTTA DO IT! So with about a day and a half at most to concoct and carry out his diabolical scheme, Johnny and his friends swing into action with the help of Rosie at the pizza place, an enormous pink Cadillac, a bottle of ether, and a lifetime's worth of knowledge of Elvis his mother had imparted to him. How could he fail?
He doesn't. And the next morning he has a soon-to-be-pissed-off Elvis lying unconcious on a couch in one of the hotel's unused rooms. Pammie studies Elvis and asks Johnny what he's going to do with him. Johnny says, "Give him to Mom as a welcome home present." "I think she'll like him better than the earrings I got her," she replies.
If I've made this movie sound dreary or gloomy or dismal in anyway, please disregard whatever it was that I said that made you feel that way. This is not some boring fim about a disfunctional family, this is a comedy through and through--its just that its a comedy with a very big heart and a weird premise. All that stuff about Johnny's mother is simply a set up for the rest of film, and even THAT isn't totally devoid of humor. Once Elvis (played by David Keith) enters stage right, things turn into every fan's idea of what it would be like to kidnap their favorite singer/actor. He behaves exactly as Elvis should behave; he's arrogant and isolated and lonely but it turns out that what he's really needed all along was to get to be a regular person again (and eat copious amounts of really greasy cheeseburgers),if just for a little while. It just that Elvis' ideas of "a regular person" aren't quite the same as everyone else's.
Life lessons are learned, truths are exchanged, Charlie learns how to be cool and Elvis remembers what cool really is, and everyone emerges the better for their having met, including the audience. This is another entry in my JUST PLAIN FUN Movie Category, and You don't have to be an Elvis fan to enjoy it. You can take my word for that since I have NEVER been an Elvis fan and saw this film originally simply because it got some good reviews from both Siskel AND Ebert. It wasn't long after that I bought my first vhs copy and later my dvd.
All of the performances are first rate. David Keith and Charlie Schlatter have the most screen time with most of the weight falling on David Keith, 'cause if you ain't buying Elvis you ain't got a movie, right? Some critics thought that 1988 was too soon for a movie of this type, that Elvis was still too fresh in our minds and that David Keith bore little resemblance to him physically. That didn't bother me at the time and it bothers me even less now. Both Keith and Schlatter are very engaging actors who are more than capable of making us accept the film's somewhat looney premise, and in the process they also manage to bring an unexpected amount of depth to what could have been mere cardboard characters in the hands of lesser talents. They also both do their own singing in this film and I think they do a slam bang job of it. There may be better Elvis imitators than Keith, but I seriously doubt that they are as good an actor as he is, and you need both qualities to make this character work--the part calls for an actor not an aper. Schlatter is the teenager every mother would want as a son, and Weld is totally convincing as the lonely mother who barely looks older than her son. She has always been somewhat under-rated inspite of excellent performances in her youth in such films as PRETTY POISON and SOLDIER IN THE RAIN.
I just looked at this review--my God, no one is going to read all of this! However I would like to add one thing for posterity; THIS ISN'T A FABLE, its more like a fairy tale. The Elvis presented here is pure and clean and unreal. I don't think he even drinks a beer much less suffers from drug withdrawl which obviously would have been the case in real life. In a fable some moral is usually presented at the end, and there is none here. This is more like Spielberg's E.T. where the strange loveable creature has to return to his own planet at the end, never to return again.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HEARTBREAK HOTEL (Chris Columbus, director) - 1988 USA, February 25, 2000
Heartbreak Hotel is one of my favorite movies.The only bad news is that amazon.com tells us the picture is currently unavailable because the studio isn't making it in the VHS format.
It's a strange spin on the Elvis myth, a story in which an Ohio teen (Charlie Schlatter) unites his troubled mother (Tuesday Weld) with Presley (David Keith) by kidnapping The King during a tour stop in Cleveland.
All three do fine work in the improbable tale, during which young rock'n'roller Schlatter ends up getting musical and romantic advice from Keith.
The Presley character sees a great deal of himself in the troubled teen played by Schlatter, who at first totally rejects Presley as an early-1970s caricature and Vegas performer who had lost touch with teens of that period.
The music is wonderful in this picture, including lots of obscure Elvis performances like "If I Can Dream" and "American Trilogy," and some things off THE MEMPHIS RECORD.
Keith played Presley in some TV specials as well, and is at his best when he duets with Schlatter onstage at a high school talent show near the end of the picture.
All in all, Heartbreak Hotel is a very imaginative story and an absolute must-see (out of curiosity if nothing else) for the ever-increasing number of Presley fans around the worldwide.
Feb. 25 2000
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