I'll tell you why so serious

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A Disappointing Continuation

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I had a little trouble believing Elvis Presley would have been this laid back in real life. Michael Shannon's portrayal made it look like he was walking around in a trance most of the time. I'm unfamiliar with Shannon the actor, in fact this is only the second time I've seen him, the first being in his role as the vicious government agent in "The Shape of Water". I don't know if he was the best choice to play Elvis Presley; if Kurt Russell wasn't too old for the role, he could have done as good a job as he did as an Elvis impersonator in 2001's "3000 Miles From Graceland". Shannon appears rail thin as Presley, with a skeletal face that looked to me like a cross between Don Imus and Boris Karloff. As for Kevin Spacey portraying Richard Nixon, I thought the characterization came off as more of a caricature than a real impersonation of the former President. He probably used Nixon's language appropriately, but I don't envision Nixon laying all over his desk the way Spacey did in the story. He almost looked like a reptile looking for his next meal, and rather creepy at that.It's pretty difficult to imagine that the way Elvis Presley got to see Richard Nixon occurred along the lines depicted in this story. One of the things I got a kick out of and reflected on was how Elvis imagined 1970 as a 'make or break time' for the country, what with rampant drug use escalating and massive demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. And I thought to myself, has there ever been a time in recent memory when it didn't seem like a make or break time for America? And we always manage to work our way through it, just like we will in the present day.One thing for sure though, if you're interested in this story as history, it will breeze by in what seems a matter of minutes. It's just under an hour and a half long, but it seemed like it was over in fifteen minutes when I watched it. So quick in fact, that there wasn't time for an announcement that Elvis had left the building.

Having been an Elvis fan for the past 46 years, I was enraged by Michael Shannon's portrayal. He is both too old and too coarse in appearance to play Elvis. Elvis was full of light and energy. This actor is flat, one dimensional and appears to be under the influence of large amounts of Thorazine. Pathetic! I am not sure who was in charge of casting, but they missed the boat entirely. the movie was labeled a comedy but I never found anything funny about it.

It's December 1970. Entertainer Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) is distressed about the effects of drugs and the counter-culture on America. He recruits his friend Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer) on a mission to be named Federal-Agent-At-Large to go undercover. They show up at a White House gate to get a meeting with President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey). Nixon refuses at first despite his aides Egil Krogh (Colin Hanks) and Dwight Chapin (Evan Peters)'s pleas. Jerry has the idea to get Nixon through his daughter Julie.This movie is mildly amusing. The history is possible. The performances of Shannon and Spacey are intriguing. Shannon may not be completely correct but he brings a self-possessed actualized personality to the role. The movie plays it mostly straight. There aren't any big surprises but I do like Nixon's initial refusal. There are plenty of light moments which leaves the movie feeling lightly fun. It would be more compelling to go overboard with the broad comedy or go darker. This ends up existing in the milky white toast middle.

I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. My wife skipped, her loss because this is a very good and entertaining movie.Today we can read about it in the archives, in December of 1970 Elvis and a couple of his friends went to D.C., gave a letter that Elvis had written, for the White House guards to have delivered to President 'Tricky Dickie' Nixon (who a few years later resigned in a scandal). It seems that Elvis collected badges and he wanted one from the USA's Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. What started out as Nixon requesting that the meeting, during his lunch hour, be limited to 5 minutes he found Elvis so fascinating that they met for much longer. Michael Shannon, superb actor in a variety of roles, is Elvis. As he said in the DVD extra he wasn't trying to do an impression of Elvis, instead he wanted to portray him in a way that was authentic to the character.And one of my personal favorites, Kevin Spacey is Nixon and from the voice and the mannerisms it was almost like seeing the real Richard Nixon.The movie is very interesting and entertaining, much more than I expected going into it. What may seem like a rather dry topic for a movie turns out to be much, much more than that.