Watch Jailhouse Rock For Free

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Good music with a pretty good story. Worth a watch for any fan of the King!

1957 Elvis is perhaps the best Elvis. It's twenty years away from the Fat Vegas years that ended with his tragic death, ten from his failed marriage to "Naked Gun" staple Priscilla, one after his film debut, "Love Me Tender". It shows an Elvis not yet let down by what life had to offer, an Elvis excited by his success and willing to smolder for the camera so long as it pleased his adoring fans. "Jailhouse Rock", his third film and his first for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, is a black-and-white musical drama that hardly paints its lead star as a saint. The majority of Elvis' movies altered their then-controversial star into an ersatz Southern gentleman, a good guy so incapable of doing any wrong that all we could do is sit back, appreciate his presence, and savor his musical abilities. "Jailhouse Rock" all but shifts every preconceived notion regarding the star's cinematic persona — here, he is a rough-and-tumble punk with a mean streak and a short attention span when it comes to women. It's easier not to root for him here than it was in "Viva Las Vegas", and that's a problem when a film is so in love with its protagonist that every single character seems to wait on them hand and foot. Missing from "Jailhouse Rock" is the sense of fun his other films carried on their shoulders; his best, 1964's "Viva Las Vegas", was so irresistibly colorful and spry it was impossible not to want to take a vacation in Elvis' Vegas. And even his worst moments (most of his films were bad, so it's best not to talk about them), were frothy, delectable pieces of escapist fluff that turned our frown upside down as they sneakily took George Washingtons out of our wallets. Since "Jailhouse Rock" plays it straight, with its borderline soap operatic drama, we find ourselves less chirpy and more down in dumps, wondering how our beloved King of Rock 'N' Roll can really be a youth capable of manslaughter, how he can be capable of beating up every man who does him wrong, how he can ignore Judy Tyler as she gives him her love and a record deal. I would dramatically cry if I cared more; but a movie as clichéd and hard-bitten as this one doesn't allow such emotions to pour out.Elvis never had much talent as an actor, unlike Frank Sinatra, the previous generation's go- to musical sex fiend, so most of his projects centered on his strengths — and as an actor, those said strengths were limited. He only seemed to shine with a mic in hand or when an Ann-Margret wannabe fell into his arms without much hesitation. Since "Jailhouse Rock" was only his third movie, Elvis' inexperience in the film industry is more clear than it should be; he's so stiff in his non-musical scenes that one can only wish there was a way to give talented people more of a personality when it came to selling themselves on screen. But the musical sequences, as few and far between as they are, burn in the memory. We've all seen the number the film has become famous for, and, in the context of the movie, it harnesses nostalgic power unseen by his other films. I was entertained by "Jailhouse Rock", but, in the end, it pays more attention to its star than the audience interested in its star. It's too bad the star isn't much of an actor. Then we'd have something.

I suppose back in 1957 I would have given it maybe a 5 or 6 but now it just looks so .....tired, pathetic and ...... GAY. The song Jailhouse Rock is just appalling, and if you don,t agree with me calling it GAY, you just check out the lyrics. "Number forty-seven said to number three "You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see I sure would be delighted with your company Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me"I can tell you now that if I ever got banged up in a US prison the last words to come from my lips would be "You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see". I;d be well and truly banged up in more ways than one. No wonder Elvis walks funny in that song.

In a time when the family image needed to appear picture perfect, Elvis infused rebellion into his music and channeled it directly to the teenagers who, after struggling under the repressive thumb of a picture- perfection they never wanted, were desperate to espouse and enact. What was it about this man that brought such a craze and drove teenagers away from what was expected of them? Bob Dylan himself said that "(w)hen I first heard Elvis' voice, I just knew nobody was going to be my boss." Indeed, in either a tribute or a prophecy, Dylan continued, "hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail." (admin). Elvis was the start of something that was never seen before: fervent, vital, rebellious, energy. One of the first, of many to come, to reject the establishment and to attempt to create a new one based in joy and levity. Nowhere is this more evident than in his movie Jailhouse Rock which features his classic hit record Jailhouse Rock. This musical is one that any lover of music should own-Elvis masterfully captures a sense of the exhilarating and the rebellious that leaves even the modern viewer with a sense of wicked joy, and although the music is so sinfully hypnotic as to suggest that it was created out of dark voodoo magic, two of the things actually responsible for engrossing listeners, both contemporary and modern, are first, the novelty of his willful taboo breaking, and second, his choice to present a (paradoxically) flagrant- yet-restrained display of sex appeal that artists have tried and failed to reproduce ever since. The movie is about a rebellious young man that gets thrown into jail. This concept of the jail house creates a sense of wicked exhilaration and rebellion that appeal to both modern and contemporary audiences. The idea of rebellion frames every scene and is in every song. Elvis presents the idea that going against the status quo is desirable and that will never go away because he broke the taboo of how to act. In Jailhouse Rock, Elvis gets thrown into jail and through song and dance; the audience discovers that it is a party. He presents the idea that going against the law is fun and that being in jail is admirable and desirable. Also, that it is fun to be rebellious and that nobody should ever want to leave the Jailhouse Rock. "Shifty Henry said to Bugs, 'For Heaven's sake, no one's looking', now's our chance to make a break.' Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, 'Nix nix, I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.' Let's rock, everybody, let's rock." The warden even tells the man that is sad about being in jail that he needs to cheer up and have a good time. The warden said, "Hey, buddy, don't you be no square. If you can't find a partner use a wooden chair. Let's rock, everybody, let's rock." The man that is supposed to enforce the law is the man that is supporting the prisoners' unlawful behavior. His performance in the movie Jailhouse Rock also shocked viewers with his daring dance moves and lyrics. He dances and shakes his hips in such an undesirable fashion to the parents that all of the children, desperate for a way to break out of the norm, craved his music and performances. He is known for brainwashing young girls with his charming, soothing, passionate voice. Anyone listening to him perform can feel his passion he had for what he did whether they liked him or not. The entire presentation oozes with sex appeal. He creates a dark, rebellious life and packs it with everything desirable to the cookie cutter teens of the past and individualistic teens modernly. We can see some subtle-but-brash innuendo in the words in his song "Young and Beautiful" that Elvis repeats to his love interest "Your lips so red, your eyes that shine, shame the stars that glow, so fill these lonely arms of mine, and kiss me tenderly, then you'll be forever young, and beautiful to me" to viewers in the 60's, this would have been shocking, indeed. Such things are not talked about, certainly not sung about. And yet, there is something so irresistible about the promise implied by "your angel smile, your gentle touch, are all I'm dreaming of, oh take this heart I offer you and never set me free." Even today, a time we consider so much less repressed, one can't help but hear his invite to be his love and not melt. There's innocence and an evocative brashness in what Elvis does/says. He can be sexier with his PG winks and dances and hints than anyone today can with their blatant displays. In fact, it's the subtlety that makes it sexier than any crude content that is modernly presented. Elvis's performance in Jailhouse Rock is timeless. He will always be the king of rock and roll that was sinfully hypnotic through his willful novelty of taboo breaking and have undeniable sex appeal that has yet to be reproduced.Works Cited admin, . "rapbasement." Lil Wayne Passes Elvis in Most Hot 100 Hits. N.p., 30 September 2012. Web. 28 Apr 2013.