Hello!? And they actually called this dismal, 1963, movie - "Fun In Acapulco"!?.... Oh? Really? Well, it sure didn't come across as being "fun" to me. No way.And, let me tell ya - Once it was established that Elvis's sidekick (for comedy relief) in the story was going to be a 10-year-old brat named Raoul, I just knew that the so-called "fun" in this flick was gonna go nowhere, fast.And, speaking about the sexual chemistry between Presley and Swiss beauty, Ursula Andress - Well - To be honest, there wasn't any chemistry, at all.And, what about the 11 songs that Elvis sang for his adoring fans?.... (Answer) - Totally forgettable, one and all.And, finally - On top of all of my other complaints - This decidedly dull-edged, "boy-meets-girl", musical/comedy lost itself even more points for the filming of far too many of the outdoor scenes in the story with the actors obviously posing in front of back-projection screens..... Sheesh! This film certainly didn't win me over as an Elvis Presley fan. Nope. It sure didn't.

One of Elvis' best films...well, certainly one of my favourite Elvis films anyway! I'd place this second behind Viva Las Vegas in my list of favourite Elvis flicks. Unfortunately, for some reason Elvis wasn't allowed into Mexico during the filming of 'Fun in Acapulco', and in this day and age with first colour Television and then bigger screens, the fake backgrounds and body stand ins are all too obvious. Nevertheless, it has no influence on the enjoyment or entertainment of the movie. 'Fun in Acapulco' also features two stunning "Elvis Girls" in Elsa Cardenas as a sexy Mexican Bullfighter, and the glorious Ursula Andress a year after her appearance in Dr. No as the ultimate "Bond Girl." After losing his job as a sailor for the rich around the beautiful port of Acapulco, Elvis (as Mike Windgren) under the guidance of a wily 8 year old wannabe Agent ("are you sure you're not a 40 year old midget?") Elvis performs as a singer at one Club while other Clubs managers watch his performances and attempt to hire him. In the process, Elvis is chasing beautiful "Hilton Acapulco" Hotel employee Andress...and having to fend off the attention of Cardenas. Tough life, eh. Throughout the film, Elvis has an obvious fear of heights following the death of a family member "The Flying Windgrens" in a trapeze act accident in which Mike (Elvis) holds himself responsible for. But after feeling guilty for injuring a jealous clifftop diver "Moreno" in a fight, and also being branded a coward by Cardenas for his fear of heights, Mike decides to settle things once and for all. Combat his demons, kill off the coward claims and bury his guilt for wounding Moreno The King entertains the masses by leaping into the ocean from the clifftops...and they all live happily ever after! Moreno gets Cardenas, Elvis gets Ursula Andress AND a job. This is an enjoyable film, and Acapulco looks a beautiful, picturesque place that it's hard to see why it seems to have lost it's pull in recent decades, with tourists flocking to Cancun instead. The soundtrack is good too. Aside from the dodgy "Bullfighter Was a Lady" and "No Room to Rhumba in a Sportscar" the other songs are fabulous. "Vino Dinero Y Amor" is Dean Martin-esque while the arrangement sounds like "Viva Las Vegas" and was recorded just 6 months before the famous Vegas song. The stand out tracks are "Fun in Acapulco" , "Bossa Nova Baby" and "Marguerita". Not only are they good songs but The King is in fine voice too!

Fun in Acapulco is directed by Richard Thorpe and written by Allan Weiss. It stars Elvis Presley, Ursula Andress, Paul Lukas, Elsa Cárdenas and Larry Domasin. Music is by Joseph J. Lilley and cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp.Mike Windgren (Presley) is working as a boatman down in Acapulco when an unfair dismissal sees him taking up employment as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Getting involved with two gorgeous women, Mike has plenty on his hands, especially since he has greatly annoyed one of his co-workers who thinks he has claims on one of the girls. But why is Mike in Acapulco in the first place? It seems he has something in his past that greatly troubles him...By the time 1963 had rolled around, Elvis Presley movies had settled into a safe formula purely designed to cash in on the star. All hope Presley had of becoming an actor of worth had been left behind with the likes of Jailhouse Rock, King Creole and Flaming Star. Fun in Acapulco basically sees Presley have women problems, have a fight with another macho man, kill off a demon in his past and sing a bunch of tunes. Unfortunately where the songs are concerned for this one, they are in keeping with much of Presley's 60s film output, not really worthy of his talents. The exception is Bossa Nova Baby, where a truly fine rendition from The King is backed up by an energetic snake-hips performance. In fact one of the film's strengths is that Presley looks in great shape, as does Andress and Cárdenas, the pic is never less than colourful and graced with beautiful people!It plays out exactly as you expect and production values waver from scene to scene. But there's nearly always something cheery about Presley's movies, and this one is no different. If you can accept them for what they are, and ignore what a shame that Presley's early acting promise wasn't fulfilled? Then there's a good time to be had down in Acapulco. 6/10

"Fun in Acapulco" was one of a number of musical comedies made by Elvis Presley during the sixties, and follows what was a common formula in Elvis's movies- a setting in a popular tourist resort, attractive scenery, equally attractive girls, and a string of easy-listening tunes, often with an ethnic flavour. Although Elvis was still a good-looking twenty-something in 1963, in career terms he was middle-aged, the wild young rocker of the fifties having been replaced by a more family-friendly crooner. Just as much of the music in "Blue Hawaii" had a vaguely Hawaiian tinge, much of the music here has a distinctive Latin flavour. (Not exclusively Mexican; the film's best-known number is "Bossa Nova Baby", and the bossa nova was from Brazil, not Mexico).The plot is essentially a love-triangle involving Elvis's character Mike Windgren and two pretty girls, a female bullfighter named Dolores and Margarita, the daughter of the chef at the hotel where Mike works as a lifeguard and singer; the triangle develops into a quadrilateral when it turns out that Margarita already has a boyfriend, another lifeguard named Moreno. Neither Margarita nor her father is, in fact, Mexican; they are supposed to be aristocratic refugees from some unnamed Eastern European state. Perhaps this detail was inserted to placate that section of American public opinion which refuses to believe that the gene for blonde hair can be found anywhere south of the Rio Grande, or perhaps Ursula Andress's accent was just too obviously Central European to make her credible as a Latina. We also learn that Mike was previously an acrobat in a family circus act and lost his nerve after accidentally killing his brother during a performance; part of his reason for being in Mexico is to try and regain his courage and self-respect by taking part in a cliff-diving contest.The Presley Formula did not necessarily demand great acting or great plots, and "Fun in Acapulco" has neither. Plot lines involving fratricide, even accidental fratricide, do not sit well with light-hearted musical comedy, and the ramifications of the love-quadrilateral are never really resolved. The main problem is the character of Margarita, who is blatantly two-timing Moreno with Mike but gets furiously angry whenever Mike shows any interest in Dolores. To make such a hellcat sympathetic would tax the skills of even the most gifted actress, and although Andress was one of Hollywood's hottest properties following her appearance in "Dr No" the previous year, she was far from gifted. Her obvious physical attributes are much on display here; her acting talents are kept well hidden. Her main qualification for film stardom, apart from her looks, was the fact that she was the second wife of the influential director John Derek, who was later also to make a star of his even less talented fourth wife Bo.Elvis himself is content to stroll through the movie, relying on his charm and his singing voice rather than his acting. Elsa Cárdenas as Dolores is rather better, but the actor who really stands out is young Larry Domasin as Raoul, the Mexican boy who befriends Mike and acts as his manager. (The name is spelt as "Raoul" in the cast-list, although the normal Spanish spelling would be "Raul"). I felt rather sorry for Moreno, having to put up with so much from Margarita, but Alejandro Rey plays him as the villain of the piece, an arrogant, swaggering Latino bully who is put in his place by the quieter, more modest Anglo-Saxon Mike. Ethnic stereotypes are not confined to the characterisation; local colour is provided by endless references to bullfighting, tequila, mariachi music and the desire of Mexican residents to emigrate to the USA.The music is easy on the ear and whatever one may think of Ursula's acting skills one cannot deny that she is equally easy on the eye. Besides Andress and Cardenas, the film features a third glamour girl in the shape of Teri Hope who plays a sexually precocious teenager similar to the one played by Jenny Maxwell in "Blue Hawaii", rather odd casting given that Hope was 24 at the time and had appeared as a Playboy pin-up five years earlier. (Contrary to what one reviewer thought, Teri Hope and Teri Garr are two different people). There are also some attractive travelogue-type shots of the Mexican scenery, although Elvis himself apparently never went to Acapulco; all his scenes were shot in Hollywood."Fun in Acapulco" was the top grossing movie musical of 1963, at a time when musicals were much more in vogue than they are today, so the Presley Formula was obviously a successful one in its day. It did not, however, produce any films of lasting significance, and like most of Elvis's films from the sixties, this one today has the look of a dated curiosity. 5/10