Bubba Ho-Tep : Elvis isn’t dead, He’s busy fighting mummies.
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Don Coscarelli
Studio: Silver Sphere Corporation
Genre: Comedy/Horror
Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis
4/5 stars Well written and hilarious throughout. Not especially scary, but thats to be expected from a “Horror Comedy”
Not only is Elvis still alive, he’s kickin’ ass. Starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis, and Ossie Davis as Jack (who claims to be John F. Kennedy) Bubba Ho-Tep follows these two in their quest to defeat a cowboy hat and snake skin boot clad soul sucking mummy that somehow finds its way to the same rest home. Yeah, you read that right, a rest home. In between drainings of Elvis’s cyst, he and Jack investigate the strange goings on around their bungalow like surroundings. After finding some hieroglyphs carved into the wall of the visitors restroom (that translate to “Cleopatra does the nasty”) and a little research they discover they are up against a soul sucking mummy, and decide that to save their own souls and the souls of their friends they must destroy the mummy. And to war they go. The movie culminates in a fiery , walker swinging, knock down drag out fight.
Some of the shining moments in this movie have nothing to do with the mummy. Elvis coming to terms with the fact that he is old in a world built for the young and the story of how he traded lives with an impersonator to get out of the public eye. Jack is an interesting character as well, claiming to be JFK and having survived the assassination attempt, the government dyes his entire body black and dumped him in the rest home.
Full of colorful phrasing and both a dark and sometimes filthy sense of humor, if you haven’t seen Bubba Ho-Tep yet it is a definite must watch. The DVD has some really cool special features too in addition to a commentary track by the director and star of the film, there is a commentary track by “The King” himself. (Okay, not the real one) There are also some very cool “making of” featurettes, deleted scenes and a music video. For Bruce Campbell fans and B-movie aficionado’s alike Bubba Ho-Tep will make a great addition to your home collection and is a movie you will watch time and time again.
P.S. There are rumors of a prequel in the works, and last I heard Ron Perlman was interested in playing the part of Elvis. I Don’t care who gets the part, I just want that movie to be made.
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