TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

TheLittleSongbird Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.That review summary may seem like a subjective statement, as there are people that like 'Kissin' Cousins' or don't think much of Elvis' earlier efforts, but count me in as somebody who considers Elvis' films before 'Kissin' Cousins' pretty good. 'Wild in the Country', 'Girls! Girls! Girls!' and 'Fun in Acapulco' were average or just slightly above that, but 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star', 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Loving You' in particular were close to great. Elvis certainly made worse films than 'Kissin' Cousins' but there is a lot here that made his later films less good.Of course, 'Kissin' Cousins' isn't unwatchable. Glenda Farrell is sweetly affecting as Ma, while Arthur O' Connell makes much of little as does a suitably blustering Jack Albertson. Yvonne Craig has a pretty vapid role but has a perky charm and shares decent chemistry with Elvis. Didn't think much of the soundtrack this time round, but there are a few good ones with the title song, the rousing "Catching on Fast" and aptly named "Tender Feeling" coming off best.Despite singing beautifully, Elvis himself looks awkward and disinterested in a dual role that do nothing to play to his strengths (quite the opposite). His hillbilly character especially is a waste of film celluloid. While there are bright spots in the cast, most of them are at best forgettable as tamely stereotypical characters. A few good songs aside, the best the rest of the soundtrack gets is eminently forgettable, with "Smoking Mountain Boy" and especially "Barefoot Ballad" worse than disposable.'Kissin' Cousins', unlike Elvis' earlier films, doesn't even have the distinction of looking good, with the film evidently looking as though it was made in a rush and on the cheap judging from the phoney and un-evocative sets, Elvis' tacky blond wig and scrappy photography and editing. The script is badly out of date, unfunny and sappy sitcom-level, while the story feels over-stretched, sluggishly paced and painfully predictable. Gene Nelson directs without interest, energy or distinction.All in all, not unwatchable but a misfire. See Elvis' earlier efforts to see that he was capable of a good performance when allowed and that he did make good films. 4/10 Bethany Cox

beauzee elvis is not engaged here at all and who could blame him? by late '63 he surely expected to be making one serious picture after another.nonetheless, storyline happens to be very entertaining > the Military heads desperate to secure ol' Smoky Mountain for their missile site, while trying not to be swept away from the sexed up "kittyhawks", bring a smile.did not need "two Elvis(s)"....but whatever. they both sing real good. as one song suggests, "ON(C)E IS ENOUGH". :)title tune is particularly strong, shoulda-coulda been a smash...guess the competition from overseas at the time, like, his many imitators, cut down on his airplay. KISSIN' COUSINS/IT HURTS ME (not from film) was as good as many singles from the previous decade!

Dave from Ottawa Elvis returns to the military comedy genre a few years after 'GI Blues' in this hillbilly romp about a pilot recruited to help convince his kin folk to let the S.A.C. put a missile silo on their land. Elvis also plays a secondary role as his look-alike hillbilly cousin. The material is straight out of Li'l Abner - man-crazy half-dressed hillbilly females, disgusting possum based cuisine, a mournful coon hound and a patriarch named Pappy, not to mention moonshiners with a powerful dislike for 'Revenuers'. It's pretty familiar stuff, but dished up with enough energy and amiability that for once the whole exercise manages to rise above the usual (low) formulaic quickie level of the 'Elvis movie'. There are a few half decent songs and a couple of rousing musical numbers in the spirit of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (albeit much less elaborately choreographed). Of interest - leading actress Yvonne Craig became famous two years later as Batgirl.

moonspinner55 Army Lieutenant Elvis Presley is assigned to infiltrate the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to sweet-talk a hillbilly family into letting the government lease their mountain for a missile base; turns out Presley is distant kin-folk to the wrasslin' hick clan and bears a striking resemblance to the resident blonde hellraiser. Grubby-looking semi-musical manages to give us two Presleys for the price of one, but the script, direction, and production values are strictly third-rate. The bevy of squealing gals who chase Elvis through the woods have a much better time than most viewers will, seeing as how nobody cared enough to write a single decent song for the soundtrack--and E.P. himself walks through the picture looking non-plussed. Lovely Yvonne Craig, TV's Batgirl, is very frisky (until she goes all coy and demure) and has a fun scene proposing marriage to Elvis, but for a comedy this is awfully glum stuff. *1/2 from ****