Cheap Elvis Stories (Video) (Ben Stiller) Price

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Customer Reviews of Elvis Stories

Elvis is alive and well and living in Ben Stiller
I first came across this video at the tail end of high school, and I loved it then, starting with Mojo Nixon's low-budget video work of genius and going straight through each fantastic elvoid appearance in the movie. Then the movie, like Elvis himself, dropped out of sight for many years, and resurfaced in my lap as a recent birthday gift. As I shooed the King away from my lap and carried the video home in its tabloid sheath, I was worried that "Elvis Stories" wouldn't age well -- that, like the _Scooby Doo_ oeuvre, what had been fresh and original to me when I first saw it would seem hackneyed and formulaic now. I worried that I would sit there and not laugh at any of the things I thought were so funny years ago.

Those fears vanished as soon as Mojo's rugged and familiar face greeted me again. "Elvis Stories" is in fact better than I remembered it. The writing and acting is all really good and really funny, and it's great to recognize so many people in the video, especially because I had no idea who any of them were when I first saw it. But the lasting appeal of "Elvis Stories" comes from the way it is presented, as a documentary in which an interviewer and cameraman we never see roam America to preserve these stories like Smithsonian people travel to the backwoods of Appalachia to preserve songs and folktales. This totally deadpan style of delivery lets the lunacy of the characters really come through, and Stiller works it really well. Sometimes I laughed harder at the way the camera went from character to character than I did at what they were saying. John Cusack's performance is absolutely brilliant and shouldn't be missed by any fan; Jeremy Piven shows why he's graduated from stand-up to full-time employment; Mike Myers shows up in one of his funniest bits ever; and Stiller's and Dick's skit is absolutely fabulous, and features a wonderful psychiatrist who, if I remember the credits correctly, may be John Cusack's brother. But as we scoot from story to story and watch a protean Elvis change from supermarket shopper to semi-gaseous state, in this shlockumentary we also see the quirkier and funnier side of American culture that strengthens the comedy and my conviction that belief in Elvis-after-death is a phenomenon worthy of celebration, and I'm ecstatic that Stiller decided to preserve it when and how he did.

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Life after Elvis?
If you have just stumbled across this because you never even heard of it, you have no idea how funny this can be until you've seen it! Yes, this is the first officially released of Ben Stiller's short films he made during a brief stay on Saturday Night Live and before getting another (ill-fated)shot at sketch comedy with his own show on Mtv and Fox. I think people 10 years ago just were not ready for comedy so hyperactive, so ready and willing (& brilliantly able as well)to ape TV junk culture and use it to mirror a tabloid world gone mad with its own irreverence. Getting to the tape itself, a loosley based not-documentary about people having different kinds of paranormal experiences involving "the king" loaded with cameos by friends of Stillers like Jeremy Piven, John Cusack, Mike Meyers, Andy Dick and Stiller himself in what has to be one of the funniest pieces-EVER!-"Hairdresser posessed by Elvis" where throughout the course of an interview, Stiller and Dick argue like a married couple about exactly what happens when Stiller turns into Elvis unexpectadly spouting abuse like "hey sissy boy, put on a dress and do a lil' dance!" If you thought the "Cable Guy" was a dark, overlooked comedy-come on in and check out this early work by one of the funniest talents of this age finally getting his due in Hollywood, Ben Stiller. Now if only someone would hook him up with Albert Brooks...