'EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert' Courtesy of Neon Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment There's a huge difference between memorializing a piece of pop culture and reanimating it. Dutch DJ-producer-musician Tom Holkenborg, who records as Junkie XL, achieved the latter in 2002, taking the semi-obscure 1968 Elvis Presley song "A Little Less Conversation" and remixing it for a Nike commercial. By adding an unrelenting backbeat, punching up the guitars and horns and funkifying the drums, the electronic overhaul transformed a throwaway tune recorded for a minor Presley movie into a 21st century global smash, catching fire in dance clubs and reaching No. 1 in over 20 countries. The track now lives on as a classic banger. Related Stories Movies Adam Sandler Says His Daughters Inherited His Love for Music: "They Jam in the House All Day Long" Movies Berlin Hidden Gem: The Ballad of a Metal God (Who Happened to Be Gay) Four years after his glittering bio-drama, Elvis, Baz Luhrmann pulls off something akin to Holkenborg's magic act with EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. The Australian director doubles down on his worship of a subject whose flamboyant showmanship, soaring emotions, perpetual motion and ravenous taste for bling make them very much kindred spirits. It's as if Luhrmann were conducting a séance, awakening Elvis from the afterlife with a raw vitality and outsize energy that are rare even among the living. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert The Bottom Line The King is reborn. Release date: Friday, Feb. 20 (IMAX); Friday, Feb. 27 (wide)Director: Baz Luhrmann Rated PG-13, 1 hour 36 minutes Calling the movie an archival doc or concert film might be accurate but somehow seems almost reductive. Much more than that, it's a transcendent theatrical experience, an exhilarating party, a giddying visual and sonic blitz that will be an elixir to the Elvis faithful and an unparalleled primer for those who have never quite grasped what all the hysteria was about. The acronym that serves as the title is not at all hyperbolic. See the film on the biggest screen with the loudest multidimensional sound system possible and believe. While he was making Elvis, Luhrmann began chasing after rumored footage shot for the 1970s concert films Elvis: That's the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour but never used. In what sounds almost like an archeological dig, researchers found that material - 69 boxes of film negative totaling 59 hours - in Warner Bros. film vaults buried in underground salt mines in central Kansas. Additional Super 8 footage was discovered in the Graceland Archives, previously seen only in poor-quality bootlegs, plus a forgotten recording of Presley talking expansively about his life and career. That latter find along with known recordings allows Luhrmann to construct his film as a first-person account; Elvis walks us through various aspects of his personal history and stardom, with candor, humor and even welcome humility. Some detractors accused Luhrmann of beatifying his subject in Elvis - failing to take the superstar to task for his public neutrality on civil rights issues despite his freely acknowledged debt to the influence on his sound of Black music, particularly gospel and R&B. Those critics are unlikely to come away from EPiC feeling differently, though Luhrmann's choice of images and calculated edits points up the very controlling hand of "Colonel" Tom Parker over the persona Elvis presented to the world. In Luhrmann's defense, he's neither the first nor the last director to present immortal celebrity giants like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean or Judy Garland as prisoners, or even victims, of their fame. Besides, this film makes no claims to do anything other than celebrate a legendary entertainer in full command of his powers. While his Vegas residency at the International Hotel from 1969 to 1976 might be considered past that point, any effects of prescription drug abuse, weight gain and medical crises are negligible in footage that intercuts between those template-setting shows, tour dates and the rehearsal studio, often within the same song. Working with Peter Jackson's sound and picture restoration facilities in New Zealand, Luhrmann is able to present performances with crisp definition, lush colors and crystalline sound that give EPiC the same kind of thrilling, you-are-there immersive quality as great concert films like Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense or Spike Lee's American Utopia. Nodding to the pearl-clutching caused by his stage gyrations, Presley skirts the issue of sexual suggestiveness. "Some people wonder why I can't stand still while I'm singing," he says. "I've tried it and I can't do it." Luhrmann is no stranger to continuous motion; his kaleidoscopic montages seem to spring from the same music-driven impulse