Fun in Acapulco1963

I wrote this review? Back in 2022 when I watched all of the Elvis movies with the intention of making a YouTube video ranking them all. I found this in my notes app and thought I would share it with you all. Ok So I recently watched both Elvis biopics and while good neither hardly talk about Elvis movie career at all And as an OG Elvis movie Stan that is slander of the highest order It gives the impression that every Elvis movie is a lazy cash grab made for the sole purpose of paying off colonel Tom Parker’s ever growing gambling addiction. And that’s just not true.  They aren’t all lazy.  Anyways I decided to see what’s what and watch every Elvis movie ever.  This is Taking Care of Business. A ranking and review of every movie Elvis ever made

1. Fun in Acapulco

So before I begin to explain why this movie is the worst let me just give a little history lesson.  So In 1956 Elvis decided that he wanted to be an actor. His manager colonel Tom Parker thought this was a bad idea. Elvis insisted and the colonel said ok. He pulled some strings and got Elvis a screen test. Hal Wallis, the head producer at paramount likes what he sees and signs Elvis on with the agreement that he can make at least one movie a year for another studio. A couple ideas are thrown around for Elvis , including an idea where Elvis teams up with Jerry Lewis who had just broken up with his long time partner dean martin. but none really pan out So paramount lends Elvis to 20th century fox for his debut film, love me tender. It does well he makes a few more movies and now we are at king creole. But let’s move this story from glamorous Hollywood to sunny Mexico. In may of 1959 when king creole premiered at the las Americas theatre in Mexico City, a riot started when 600 teenagers broke into the theatre without paying for admission. They destroyed the theatre and some women were assaulted as they tried to leave. The riot squad was called and the teenagers fled. After a similar riot in 1961 at the premiere of G I Blues Elvis was banned from the country.  However the trouble actually started in 1957 when on a trip to Tijuana Elvis was interviewed and he stated that "he would not care to go sing in Mexico, as he found it a distasteful country and that he would prefer to kiss three African Americans than a single Mexican woman." But if you saw the Elvis biopics or are aware of Elvis lore you will know that Elvis never left the states apart from his stint in the army and had never been to Tijuana. The slander was started by Ernesto Peralta Uruchurtu, a politician and the regent of Mexico City when he told everyone that Elvis would be performing at his friend’s daughter’s quinceanera before ever even reaching out to Elvis. Ernesto sent a letter with a blank check but Elvis never responded. Therefore to save face and to explain why he couldn’t perform they planted false quotes in the newspaper. The damage was done and Elvis was declared persona non grata and all of his media was banned from Mexico til 1971.  Now let me ask you this, as a filmmaker does it make sense to you to set a movie in a country that your leading actor cannot visit? No? Well, that’s not what paramount pictures thought.  So in January of 1963, the entire cast and crew saddles up and traveled to Acapulco.  Everyone except for Elvis. The result is that every scene that features Elvis is shot in front of projection or on an extremely cheap set. This isn’t the first movie to do this either with g I blues heavily featuring projection and sets but that movie at least has charm and humor which goes a long way.  Anyways let’s begin.  So as usual Elvis sings like a million songs And let me just say that all the songs just suck. They all feel like they’re an apology and say that Elvis would not rather kiss three African Americans over one Mexican woman. And that’s kind of how the whole movie feels. It’s just weird to make a movie into an apology to a country that will never see it over something Elvis never even said.  Also, there’s this thing with Elvis’ movies where the writers weren’t confident that they could carry one plot through a whole movie so instead, they have like three. And if these movies were written well they could work but 99% of the time it doesn’t.  So in this movie, Elvis becomes a singer at a hotel, and during the day for some reason, he wants to be a lifeguard. We see that he is afraid of heights but diving specifically and we later find out that it’s because he used to be a trapeze artist missed a catch and accidentally killed his brother. Which I guess is why he’s in Mexico in the first place. And this is as far as the movie goes for character development.    Then the movie ends with him making this super high dive for… some reason. I guess to prove he’s not scared of the girl he likes because? I watched this movie like twice and I still don’t understand why he