Charro!

The movie Charro tried to save Elvis' acting career,unfortunately it was a case of too little too late. the movie had a lot of promise, a great musical film score,good supporting cast,and even a tolerable script, but you can see the interest has gone from Elvis'acting. Had he made this in the early '60's I am sure it would have made for a better film . It is obvious they based a lot of this on the successful Clint Eastwood "spaghetti" westerns but it lacks the sparkle of Sergio Leone direction.Compare Elvis' acting in this to Flaming Star and the difference is sadly noticable.

Charro is not an inventive movie by any means but it is quite entertaining. It's a standard western about a man defending a town from outlaws without any unexpected twists. This movie only includes one Elvis song which might be good for some and disappointing for others. As for Elvis himself he's a perfectly serviceable actor and has a pretty good screen presence. He might not have the range but the has the charisma necessary to carry a movie. The movies he makes from what I've seen so far are better than I thought they would be and so I will probably watch more of them in the future.

So I bought a new box set of Elvis movies. In it was "Charro." I thought it looked refreshing to see Elvis play a more serious role instead of the usual musical. I did some research and found this generally to be poorly received. Well I watched the film anyway. . .

I honestly was expecting this to be utter garbage. The first five minutes went by. I thought it was pretty good so far - I was wondering when it would start to suck. 20 minutes go by. I was being drawn into the plot and finding the action riveting and exciting, with a nice musical score, too (Still isn't bad yet).

Then I get to the climax - - - Original and intense. What was so bad about it? The acting was solid, it had a good script, and I found it a very pleasurable experience. Is it just the general bias towards any Elvis film after the '50s or is it because it's not some hoity toity British trash? I say, if you're a fan of westerns and/or Elvis. You should certainly give this movie a chance.

*** / **** stars.

Definately his best film. This film proves that Elvis could act. It's quite refreshing to see a film like this after some of those PATHETIC films like Paradise, Hawaiian Style, or Clambake. I give this movie five stars. Even if you're not an Elvis fan, I reccomend this movie. It's not your typical Elvis movie, and Elvis only sings in the opening credit. With the late Ina Balin and the late Victor French as the bad guy, this movie has a strong supporting cast.

A lot of people put down Elvis movies as having not much value . I'll take an an Elvis movie any day over some of the movies they make today. Some of the silliest movies ever made are some of these so-called action movies. Talk about not being believable. The heroes of action movies always manage to dodge hundreds of rounds of bullets coming at them , sidestep explosions all around them, and come through it all with hardly a scratch on them....Now THAT'S ridiculous! Give me a feel-good Elvis flick anytime over these STUPID films. Was Elvis a great actor? No, he wasn't, but he wasn't all that bad either.