Bubba Ho-Tep



Bubba Ho-Tep is about Elvis and JFK fighting a mummy that's preying on the residents of the nursing home in east Texas where they both live.

If that sentence alone isn't enough to make you want to see this film, nothing will.




Elvis is played by Bruce Campbell, the casting equivalent to shooting fish in a barrel. Campbell's natural swagger allows him to impersonate the King uncannily. Or at least impersonate the King if he were a barely mobile 67 year-old with some very embarrassing personal problems.

Jack Kennedy, on the other hand, is played by Ossie Davis, which is obviously not quite so obvious a bit of casting. when we saw Bruce Campbell speak about this movie a while ago, he described the character by saying that he was black man who claimed he was JFK, that his death was faked by the CIA and he was dyed black and part of his brain removed and placed in a jar in Washington D.C. "And the thing is," Bruce said, "He's right." But in the movie I saw last night there was at least one scene that I think proved Jack was delusional.

There has to be more to the film that just a one sentence pitch, and luckily Bubba Ho-Tep is pretty good at filling the time. There are some pretty funny flashbacks explaining how Elvis switched places with one of his impersonators to avoid the downside of fame, a few mummy attacks, and some neat scenes where Jack tries to educate Elvis on the basics of soul sucking. The only thing that felt like padding was an attack by a giant scarab beetle, which, like the mummy's predilection for wearing cowboy garb, is never exactly explained. But who cares? Bubba Ho-Tep may be the most perfect cult film I've seen in a while.

Posted: Sun - November 23, 2003 at      

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