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Elvis and Nixon is when The King met The Crook, and is set between December 1970, when Elvis Presley wanted to stamp his mark on American politics, and February 16th, 1971, when then-President Richard Nixon began recording the audio of every meeting and phone call that took place in the Oval Office.
The singer wants to meet Nixon because the world is at war, the hippies are all on drugs, and he thinks he can help plus… he wants to go undercover as a member of the FBI and get the official seal of approval from the man at the top.
Between the two leads, Michael Shannon doesn’t really look or, wholly sound, like Elvis, but he gets through with his swagger, while Kevin Spacey is very amusing as Nixon, at one point berating Egil Krogh (Colin Hanks), a key member of his team, “What are you – a fucking potted plant?!”
There’s decent support from Alex Pettyfer and Johnny Knoxville as Elvis’ friends who come along for the ride, plus Hanks and X-Men Apocalypse‘s Evan Peters as Chapin, another of Nixon’s team, but it’s the two main men you’ve come to see. It took a while to get to the meeting, but was very enjoyable when it did. Elvis and Nixon is certainly worth a watch, but won’t change the world, even though the picture of the pair on the day – December 21st, 1970 – is the most requested image from the National Archives.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and brings the great style of the period to the screen (small screen, not big screen, of course, since this was made by Amazon), including the Oval Office, but it’s a shame there’s no Blu-ray for this movie, so while the DVD picture is fine for a DVD, it could’ve been so much better in HD.
With Dolby Digital 5.1 sound on the disc, there are a number of songs from the time behind the onscreen action, but aside from that, the total number of Elvis songs are…. zero.
As for the extras… erm… hello? Anyone there? Nope. Instead, you get a ton of trailers and an advert before the main menu…. which is no use to anyone.
There are English subtitles, a decent number of chapters in 16, and the main menu features clips from the film mixed with the soundtrack.
Elvis and Nixon is released on Monday, October 31st on DVD, but is out now on Amazon Prime.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 8 7 0 |
| OVERALL | 5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 83 minutes
Studio: Entertainment One
Cat.no.: EO52046R0PR0
Year: 2016
Released: October 17th 2016
Chapters: 16
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Disc Format: DVD9
Director: Liza Johnson
Producers: Cary Elwes, Cassian Elwes and Holly Wiersma
Screenplay: Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal and Cary Elwes
Music: Ed Shearmur
Cast:
Elvis: Michael Shannon
Nixon: Kevin Spacey
Jerry: Alex Pettyfer
Sonny: Johnny Knoxville
Egil Krogh: Colin Hanks
Chapin: Evan Peters
Charlotte: Sky Ferreira
John Finlator: Tracy Letts
Haldeman: Tate Donovan
Margaret (Ticket Agent): Ashley Benson
Mack: Kamal Angelo Bolden
Mary Anne Peterson: Ahna O’Reilly
Donald: Ian Hoch
Grady (Airport Security): Ritchie Montgomery
Stewardess #1: Nathalie Love
Stewardess #2: Atlanta De Cadenet Taylor
Stewardess #3: Skye Forsyth-Peters
Stewardess #4: Poppy Delevingne
Elvis Impersonator: Joey Sagal
White House Guard #1 (Wolfe): Marcus Lyle Brown
White House Guard #2 (Black): Anthony Marble
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.