In the tradition of the "Evil Dead" movies, Bruce Campbell is back in true form in this horror/comedy/drama flick that's a roaring good time. You just don't know what to expect next once you start this bad boy. Filled with laughs, horror and surprisingly, heart, "Bubba Ho-Tep" is everything you'd want from a B-Movie and more.Campbell stars as an elderly Elvis who lives in a Texas retirement home. People keep thinking he's just an impersonator off his rocker, but in reality he had traded places with an "Elvis" impersonator so he could get away from all of the fame and hardships of a rock-n-roll star. However, something strange has been happening in this retirement home. Folks are dying mysteriously every night without any clear explanation. As it turns out, an Egyptian mummy is the cause for the deaths and it needs to feed on their souls to stay alive. It's up to Elvis and his buddy, JFK, to take on this monstrous foe before it slaughters every living person in the retirement home. The end results are unpredictable and off-the-wall.The premise alone intrigued me to see it. That, and Bruce Campbell. I'm always in the mood to see a good funny horror movie, and this movie did a great job of fulfilling that need. Not one minute went by where I was bored or disappointed. While the story may be over-the-top, it's done in such a creative and clever way. The movie has fun with itself and it's very easy to see. Bruce Campbell does a marvelous job as "Elvis," and let's not forget the great Ossie Davis as the one and only "JFK." The movie combines elements of comedy, drama and horror. It doesn't know what it wants to be at times, but the cast knew that from the get-go and they even goof on that fact (watch the featurettes and listen to the commentary).The DVD has some outstanding features. The movie sounds and looks really good for a flick that was done under such a low budget. The commentary tracks are definitely worth you time, and you MUST listen to the commentary track where Bruce Campbell does it as "The King" and stays in character the entire time. It is the funniest thing I have ever heard. Other extras include featurettes, a music video, deleted scenes, the original trailer and more. All of this makes one heck of a great package."Bubba Ho-Tep" is a great time from Campbell and company. Any fans of the "Evil Dead" movies will definitely want to put this on their list. Just keep in mind that this is a movie that you watch to be entertained and nothing more. This movie was pure enjoyment from beginning to end. It's bound to become a classic sooner or later. The King still lives, Baby! -Michael Crane Bubba Ho-Tep (Limited Collector's Edition)
I read about Bubba Ho-Tep in a magazine review which, naturally, highlighted Bruce Campbell's spot-on Elvis. The review did not prepare me for the mix of emotions evoked by this odd and even sweet film. Imagine Elvis and JFK living in a tired old-folks home in West Texas. Now imagine a cowboy-booted mummy who's made the home his personal feeding ground. If you can do that, you've got the odd part down. The pathos that comes from setting, from the failing health of its heroes, not to mention the sense of loss so well portrayed by Campbell....lost relationships, lost chances, lost life....makes for some very sweet, but never maudlin, moments. Of course it wouldn't be a movie about old folks if there weren't a bit of crankiness. Again, Campbell comes through with some very funny takes on an old man's obsession with bodily functions. Finally the movie is surprisingly moving. The real enemy is death, and the only thing worse than death is a wasted life. Elvis is given one last chance to end well.
One could watch Bubba Ho-Tep and see only a self-conscious B grade horror flick. I suspect that approaching the film with such expectations could lead to disappointment. There are better made, more expensively produced such films to choose from.
But if one watches Bubba Ho-Tep with a bit more care, one may find instead an odd, sweet, sour and wierdly moving meditation on aging, death and (yes) the meaning of life.
Don Coscarelli, as much as I love the "Phantasm" series, hasn't offered us much more than those films over the last thirty years or so. Come to think of it, Coscarelli took his sweet time bringing us the few sequels to the first "Phantasm." Doubtless he had problems securing financing, always a serious problem for an independent filmmaker operating outside the secure bubble that is the studio system. Now that I think of it, I know for a fact he has serious problems raising money--his long promised "Phantasm 5" has been languishing in development limbo for what feels like an eternity. While those of us who adore the Tall Man, Reggie, and Mike wait for the conclusion to a wonderful ride, we can content ourselves with the amazing low budget film that is "Bubba Ho-Tep." The hype concerning this project reached levels of hysteria on various Internet sites the likes of which I haven't seen since...well, ever actually. Cult film fans went nuts over "Bubba Ho-Tep" before a single frame went before the public eye. It's not difficult to understand why: Coscarelli directing, genre favorite Bruce Campbell starring, and the plot provided by eclectic writer Joe R. Lansdale.
"Bubba Ho-Tep" lives up to the hype, if not exceeding it. Imagine if you will a story involving an aging, far from deceased Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) pairing up with a black guy who thinks he is President John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) in order to fight an evil, soul sucking Egyptian mummy who preys on the elderly residents of a Texas retirement home. Wow. That's a plot that only someone who took the brown blotter at Woodstock could come up with, right? Not when Joe Lansdale is at the helm. I've only read two of his books to date, "Sunset and Sawdust" and "A Fine Dark Line," neither of which had anything to do with horror, Elvis Presley, or mummies. But the oddball characters and situations in those two stories did hint at a writer willing to take a few chances with tried and true formulas. From what I've gleaned over the last year or so, "Bubba Ho-Tep" isn't Lansdale's weirdest story. He apparently wrote several short stories and novels consisting of historical figures in unlikely alliances embarking on some strange quest. One of the great extras on this DVD version of the film is hearing Lansdale read the first chapter of "Bubba Ho-Tep" while storyboards of Elvis lying in bed pass by on the screen.
Speaking of Elvis in bed, the film begins with a despondent and supine Presley wistfully recounting the ups and downs of his life as the threat of cancer rears its ugly head. We discover exactly how the King ended up in a retirement home instead of a grave in the late 1970s; Presley, weary of fame and his life on the road, switched identities with an impersonator. This fake Elvis was the one who passed away from excesses while the real Elvis cranked out the hits at county fairs and other small venues. It was during one of these performances that he fell off the stage and broke his hip, an injury that kicked off his long, slow decline into infirmity and old age. Of course, no one in the retirement home buys for a second that he's the real deal, and no one really cares about him. He's just another old guy with no one coming to visit him. Then the home's death rate soars thanks to the arrival of the mummy, and it isn't too long before Elvis teams up with the aforementioned wheelchair bound President Kennedy to battle this ancient evil. Bubba Ho-Tep is a scary chap; a desiccated, shuffling creature sporting boots, a cowboy hat, and a face that could birth a thousand screams. As Presley and Kennedy form their alliance, they slowly come back to lives filled with purpose and meaning. They also come to an understanding about their mortality and each other.
"Bubba Ho-Tep" isn't so much a horror film as it is a comedy of epic proportions. How can anyone watch a film that features Elvis battling a mummy with a walker without laughing? Or fail to chuckle about the great bit of dialogue between Elvis and Kennedy as they mull over the possible meanings of some hieroglyphic graffiti scrawled on a bathroom stall by the mummy? Coscarelli's film is so hilarious that I often set in open-mouthed wonder at the shenanigans unfolding onscreen, too overwhelmed by the plot's cleverness to laugh until later. I'm going to go out on a limb here by saying that the film's greatest strength, at least for me, is how Campbell and Davis made the whole thing so darn believable. Did anyone else experience this phenomenon? I had to laugh at myself for so totally buying into such a metaphysically bizarre storyline. The government covering up the JFK assassination by dyeing the president black, putting a bag of sand in his head, and depositing him in a retirement home? Sure, I'll buy that. The movie makes you believe in a way few fantasy films do.
The amount of extras on the disc take forever to wade through, but is well worth the effort. The commentary track with Coscarelli and Campbell is great, but even better are the audio comments from Campbell in his Elvis character. We hear the King snacking away on chips while he takes the film to task for its strong language and violence. The featurettes are wonderful, describing as they do the special effects in the film, the costumes and makeup, and the awesome musical score. Whether Coscarelli ever makes "Phantasm 5" is open to debate, but he's definitely back in the game with this masterpiece. "Bubba Ho-Tep" is one of the best films I've seen in the last couple of years. - Horror - Comedy - Elvis Presley - Cult Classic'
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