Fluke_Skywalker Plot; Elvis Presley is alive but not very well, living out his last days in a decrepit retirement home in Texas. When an ancient Egyptian Mummy arrives, it's up to Elvis and a fellow resident, who may or may not be John F. Kennedy, to stop it.Bubba Ho-Tep is a thoughtful, moving reflection on aging and regret. No really. It's also about Elvis and a black man who thinks he's JFK battling an ancient mummy, but that doesn't detract from the pathos of the piece. Bruce Campbell is simply outstanding as Elvis. Not just easy with the quips which have defined his style for decades, he gives a legitimately moving dramatic performance. Teamed with the great Ossie Davis(?!?!) and given some meaty dramatic material, you can almost see Campbell finding the same mojo as the character he's playing.The entire production is a rare balancing act. It's fun, but sad. Ridiculous, but real. Shot on a budget of just over a million dollars, it delivers a bang for the buck that the vast majority of bloated Hollywood productions can't match.

Steve It isn't often that one watches a movie starring Bruce Campbell and thinks to oneself... dang.... dude is actually a good actor. Don't get me wrong, it is still a B movie(and that isn't a bad thing) but certainly not B grade acting.Is it Elvis and JFK vs. the mummy? Or just 2 old timers slipping into dementia? I am good with it either way.Bruce and Ozzie Davis turn in amazing performances. Plenty of chuckles. An interesting story. A quick pace.If you haven't seen it(and don't take my review to mean the Academy was knocking on their doors) and can live without the 200M blockbuster of the week then spend an hour or so with an enjoyable B** flick.

sanchezproductions-74000 This is one hell of a movie.It is based of one of my favorite author's short stories of the same name.This movie finds Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) in a East Texas rest home years after he supposedly died.He tries to explain in vain that he is the real Elvis and traded places with an impersonator who had a bad heart and he died from an overdose not him.Also in the rest home is a black man named Jack who says he is John F. Kennedy and he was dyed black so they could hide him.It gets even weirder when a Mummy who sucks souls out of people's assholes comes into the picture.What can I say about myself when a movie where Elvis fights a ass sucking mummy made me cry not once but twice.It follows the short story closely especially at the final battle.All is Well

ferbs54 It can be a tricky balancing act, coming up with the perfect film in the genre known as the horror comedy; a picture that is hilariously funny while at the same time being truly scary. And while there is no shortage of films with a decidedly uneven ratio of horror::comedy--such as 1960's "The Little Shop of Horrors," 1974's "Young Frankenstein" and 1975's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"--such films usually come off as pure comedies, only with a horror setting. But when the balance is just right, such as in "The Ghost Breakers" (1940), "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948, and still probably the finest exemplar of the horror comedy ever made) and "Spider Baby" (1964), the result can be a timeless and wonderful entertainment. To my great surprise, to this latter category must be added Don Coscarelli's "Bubba Ho-Tep," which has become a deserved cult item since its release in June 2002. I was not expecting overly much from this film, to tell the truth, as I happen to share the minority view that Coscarelli's beloved horror film from 1979, "Phantasm," is an overrated, muddled head-scratcher, and was in no way compelled to seek out its three sequels. But "Bubba Ho-Tep," which was shot in only 30 days in Downey, CA, has redeemed the writer/director in my eyes, and I can say with little reservation that I absolutely love this hilarious, moving, imaginative, one-of-a-kind--and yes, genuinely scary--movie.In the film, the viewer learns two startling facts. One, Elvis Presley did NOT die on 8/16/77, at age 42 at his Graceland home of heart failure and drug abuse, but rather, after having switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff prior to that date, lived on! When we first encounter him, he is a senior citizen, residing at the Mud Creek Shady Convalescence Home in east Texas, recuperating from a broken hip and suffering with what might be penile cancer. And secondly, JFK was NOT assassinated in Dallas in 1963, but rather was kidnapped, had part of his injured brain removed and the empty space in his noggin filled with sand, and then had his skin dyed black. Thus, now an old black man, also at the Mud Creek facility, JFK is one understandably mixed-up ex-president! Fortunately, for the two down-on-their-luck historic figures, some genuine excitement enters their lives when a 4,000-year-old, soul-sucking Egyptian mummy invades the Mud Creek grounds, in search of easy prey. All shook up, indeed! But do the King of Rock and Roll and the King of Camelot, at their advanced ages, stand half a chance against this newly resurrected King of the Undead?Yes, "Bubba Ho-Tep" surely is a sui generis creation, but the wacky conceit is completely successful, thanks to Coscarelli's clever and poignant script (based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale) and the performances of Bruce Campbell (who most viewers will know as Ash from the "Evil Dead" trilogy) as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK. The makeup job on Campbell is remarkable, and the actor at times sounds amazingly like the real deal; he easily steals the show. As the president, Davis brings to the role a degree of dignity and strength that makes us believe that his backstory just might be legit; perhaps this ISN'T just same crazy old geezer! The film features any number of lines that are laugh-out-loud funny, and I found myself grinning happily during its entire 92-minute length, when I wasn't cackling aloud outright. How amusing it is when Elvis thinks to himself, of his pretty nurse (a memorable performance by Ella Joyce), that 30 years earlier, "I could've made with the curly-lip smile and had her eatin' out of my as_hole"! Then again, the film is in parts sad and touching, as when Presley ruminates on the lot of the senior citizen: "Everything you do is either worthless or sadly amusing," and says to himself, while watching an Elvis movie marathon on TV, "Sh_tty pictures, man. Every single one." Yes, the film, at its heart, does have a sweet, sensitive and contemplative soul, as we watch these two magnificent men in their twilight, and ponder the fate of the cast-off senior in this youth-loving society. ("A & C Meet Franky" might still be the best in class, but "Bubba Ho-Tep" is surely the more touching film.) Thus, how wonderful it is to see Elvis and Kennedy come alive, reclaim their dignity (the scene where Elvis calls his nurse a "patronizing b_tch" is priceless), and unite to defeat their common foe! And as to that foe, again, the film boasts a truly impressive makeup job on actor Bob Ivy, the result being one extremely intimidating monster mummy from antiquity. Thus, a horror comedy that gloriously succeeds on both fronts, and one with a melancholy soul, to boot. Oh...I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wonderfully moody, twangy music that Brian Tyler has composed for the film; amazingly, the man plays every instrument on the soundtrack by himself. What a talent! Anyway, at the end of this hugely entertaining film, the following words appear on the screen: Elvis returns in "Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires." And really, I cannot imagine any viewer who wouldn't be thrilled to see a sequel to this priceless picture. Sadly, that sequel seems to have been permanently stalled, but we "Bubba Ho-Tep" lovers can only hope. Hey, if flying scarab beetles can turn into soul-sucking mummies in this world, then anything is possible....