Bubba Ho-Tep
05/31/2004 16:06 Filed in: Movies and Television
"A redemptive Elvis mummy movie..."
You know, I met "The Bruce" once (that's Bruce Campbell for the uninitiated). On October 31, 2001, The Bruce was appearing at Hawley Cooke Bookstore (back in the days before Borders ate it) to sign copies of his book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor . The wait in line was excruciatingly long because Bruce asked for a couple of minutes with each of his fans. You got to actually sit down and talk to him away from everyone else. That impressed me. He seemed to be very down to earth, appreciative for what he had attained. Bruce Campbell knows that he's not an actor who commands millions of dollars, but he's a working actor and he has a cult following. He seemed genuinely grateful for that.
When I sat down with him, I said, "Mr. Campbell, I am a Bible teacher at a private Christian school and it just so happens that Army of Darkness is one of my favorite movies of all time." He laughed at that and said, "Well, it's not evil--it's just tongue-in-cheek fun and a lot of people like it." I talked to him a little bit more, but I don't remember what we said. I even had a picture made with him, but unfortunately I can't find it.
Anyway, that night when The Bruce spoke to everyone assembled at Hawley Cooke was the first time I had ever heard of Bubba Ho-Tep . Evidently, the movie was finished and Bruce mentioned then that they didn't have a distributor for it yet. In fact, flash-forward three years later and they never did find one which is why you probably haven't seen this movie at your local theater.
There are lots of good independently produced movies out there that get made without Hollywood funding. They make the rounds of the film festivals and some art house theaters, but that's about it. Incidentally, this was the same situation with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It was not backed by any Hollywood studio, but by Gibson's own funds. Only a few weeks before it was to be released, it was finally picked up by a national distributor (probably due to all the pre-release attention that it received). Had this not happened, it would have been relegated to the festivals and private showings.
Well, Bubba Ho-Tep was never picked up by any national distributor. However, almost any movie can make money through video rentals these days, so MGM picked it up for VHS and DVD release. It was released on March 25. I picked it up at Hollywood Video and watched it over Memorial Day weekend.
If you haven't heard of this movie or seen the trailer , you're not going to believe this plot. Okay, here goes...
Imagine that Elvis is not dead. It seems that before his death, he switched places with an Elvis impersonator with the understanding that they would switch back if Elvis ever wanted to. The impersonator turned out to like drugs even more than Elvis, but unfortunately had a bad heart. He died in 1977. Then Elvis, who was impersonating an impersonator impersonating himself (think about that for a while), fell off a stage, cracked his hip, went into a coma and woke up in an East Texas rest home. This is where the beginning of the movie finds him.
Think that's bizarre? Wait, there's more. Now imagine that one of Elvis' fellow residents at the nursing home is a man who claims to be John Kennedy (played by the venerable Ossie Davis ). The problem is, of course, that he's black. But he claims that he didn't die in Dallas. Instead, the CIA dyed his skin black, replaced part of his missing brain with a bag of sand, and put him in this nursing home.
Wait...there's even more...
In addition to the geriatric Elvis and JFK is an Egyptian mummy who is stalking the halls of the nursing home at night stealing the souls of the residents. He is part of the Ho-Tep Egyptian dynasty, but since this is East Texas, the mummy is wearing a western hat and boots. So instead of being Amen Ho-Tep or something similar, he is "Bubba Ho-Tep." Get it?
I remember seeing Heartbreak Hotel in the late eighties in which David Keith played a fictional episode in the late King of Rock & Roll's life. I thought at the time that Elvis Presley was taking on legendary status because now stories were being told about him that didn't actually happen. I mean what else is the definition of a legend other than when new stories are being made up about that person's life? Then, of course there were the Elvis "sightings" of the late eighties as well. Elvis' status as a larger-than-life legend is pretty well in place. We don't really want to believe greats such as Elvis or even JFK are dead. Bubba Ho-Tep allows us to negate history and imagine what these figures would have been like had they made it to old age. Further, we see them as we would like to remember them--with heroic status.
Bruce Campbell makes a great Elvis. I mean certain people are just cool. Bruce is cool like The Fonz was cool (in the first few years of the show, after the powder blue jacket and before the black t-shirt). Elvis (or at least the public image of Elvis) was cool. There were already Elvis references in Army of Darkness ("Hail to the King, baby"). It's a good fit, a natural fit. In this movie, granted, he is playing Elvis as a senior citizen, but he also plays a younger Elvis in the flashbacks. In the scene where Elvis is walking with the "Memphis Mafia," he's got Elvis' swagger down. And he certainly has the voice down.
You really believe that this is Elvis, not just some guy who thinks he's Elvis. However, you're not so sure with the Kennedy character, although he certainly believes he's Kennedy right down to wearing 60's era gray suits and having a red telephone in his room.
What kind of movie is this? Well, it's hard to say. The whole scenario is a gag unto itself. But is it a comedy? If it is, it's a very dark comedy, but it's also played very straight. Maybe Bruce Campbell says it best in one of the DVD extras where he calls it "A redemptive Elvis mummy picture."
There is an underlying theme about growing old and the value of senior citizens in our society. We ignore their past achievements or we patronize and treat them like children. The Elvis in this movie is an Elvis who is cognizant that he is at the end of his life. He is amazed at how quickly it went by, and how he went from fame and fortune and all the women he wanted to a shell of a man confined to a bed in an out-of-the-way rest home. He is haunted by the loss of Priscilla, and he regrets that he was not there for Lisa Marie as she grew up. More than anything else, he just wants to tell his daughter that he loves her.
Bubba Ho-Tep will not be seen by wide audiences. However, it will have instant cult-status because first, it was hard to see at the theaters without a distributor and a video release took two years to finally be realized. Second, anything with Bruce Campbell automatically has cult-status because he has cult status. When I rented it at Hollywood Video, I was pleased to see that they had quite a few copies. But if you wait a year or two, I would guess that your mainstream video shops won't stock it. You will have to go to the out of the way video stores that specialize in foreign films and cult classics to find it .
Bubba Ho-Tep is rated R for language, some sexual content, and brief violent images. My biggest complaint about the movie is the strong language which I found unnecessary. It seems that often if a movie centers on pre-adolescent boys or male senior citizens, there is an overemphasis upon body functions. This movie is no different. The movie is based on a "novella" by Joe Lansdale. I've never read anything by Lansdale, but in one of the bonus features on the DVD, he reads the first chapter of his story upon which the movie was based. The language of Lansdale's work is even stronger than that in the movie, and I thought the movie was a bit crude in some places. I really regret that Don Coscareli, who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, didn't aim for a PG rating because the R rating comes primarily from the language. But I suppose that Coscareli was aiming to be faithful to the original story, and that's too bad. The concept is both original and clever.
Did I like it? Yes. Do I recommend it? Well, I don't know. It's more up to you and your tastes. When you hear the plot that a geriatric Elvis & JFK duo are battling a mummy in an East Texas nursing home, does that excite you or do you think it's just plain odd and you wonder about my tastes, too? Well if it excites you, go see it. If you think that it's really weird, well...you probably just won't get it.
Thank you...thankyaverymuch...
When I sat down with him, I said, "Mr. Campbell, I am a Bible teacher at a private Christian school and it just so happens that Army of Darkness is one of my favorite movies of all time." He laughed at that and said, "Well, it's not evil--it's just tongue-in-cheek fun and a lot of people like it." I talked to him a little bit more, but I don't remember what we said. I even had a picture made with him, but unfortunately I can't find it.
Anyway, that night when The Bruce spoke to everyone assembled at Hawley Cooke was the first time I had ever heard of Bubba Ho-Tep . Evidently, the movie was finished and Bruce mentioned then that they didn't have a distributor for it yet. In fact, flash-forward three years later and they never did find one which is why you probably haven't seen this movie at your local theater.
There are lots of good independently produced movies out there that get made without Hollywood funding. They make the rounds of the film festivals and some art house theaters, but that's about it. Incidentally, this was the same situation with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It was not backed by any Hollywood studio, but by Gibson's own funds. Only a few weeks before it was to be released, it was finally picked up by a national distributor (probably due to all the pre-release attention that it received). Had this not happened, it would have been relegated to the festivals and private showings.
Well, Bubba Ho-Tep was never picked up by any national distributor. However, almost any movie can make money through video rentals these days, so MGM picked it up for VHS and DVD release. It was released on March 25. I picked it up at Hollywood Video and watched it over Memorial Day weekend.
If you haven't heard of this movie or seen the trailer , you're not going to believe this plot. Okay, here goes...
Imagine that Elvis is not dead. It seems that before his death, he switched places with an Elvis impersonator with the understanding that they would switch back if Elvis ever wanted to. The impersonator turned out to like drugs even more than Elvis, but unfortunately had a bad heart. He died in 1977. Then Elvis, who was impersonating an impersonator impersonating himself (think about that for a while), fell off a stage, cracked his hip, went into a coma and woke up in an East Texas rest home. This is where the beginning of the movie finds him.
Think that's bizarre? Wait, there's more. Now imagine that one of Elvis' fellow residents at the nursing home is a man who claims to be John Kennedy (played by the venerable Ossie Davis ). The problem is, of course, that he's black. But he claims that he didn't die in Dallas. Instead, the CIA dyed his skin black, replaced part of his missing brain with a bag of sand, and put him in this nursing home.
Wait...there's even more...
In addition to the geriatric Elvis and JFK is an Egyptian mummy who is stalking the halls of the nursing home at night stealing the souls of the residents. He is part of the Ho-Tep Egyptian dynasty, but since this is East Texas, the mummy is wearing a western hat and boots. So instead of being Amen Ho-Tep or something similar, he is "Bubba Ho-Tep." Get it?
I remember seeing Heartbreak Hotel in the late eighties in which David Keith played a fictional episode in the late King of Rock & Roll's life. I thought at the time that Elvis Presley was taking on legendary status because now stories were being told about him that didn't actually happen. I mean what else is the definition of a legend other than when new stories are being made up about that person's life? Then, of course there were the Elvis "sightings" of the late eighties as well. Elvis' status as a larger-than-life legend is pretty well in place. We don't really want to believe greats such as Elvis or even JFK are dead. Bubba Ho-Tep allows us to negate history and imagine what these figures would have been like had they made it to old age. Further, we see them as we would like to remember them--with heroic status.
Bruce Campbell makes a great Elvis. I mean certain people are just cool. Bruce is cool like The Fonz was cool (in the first few years of the show, after the powder blue jacket and before the black t-shirt). Elvis (or at least the public image of Elvis) was cool. There were already Elvis references in Army of Darkness ("Hail to the King, baby"). It's a good fit, a natural fit. In this movie, granted, he is playing Elvis as a senior citizen, but he also plays a younger Elvis in the flashbacks. In the scene where Elvis is walking with the "Memphis Mafia," he's got Elvis' swagger down. And he certainly has the voice down.
You really believe that this is Elvis, not just some guy who thinks he's Elvis. However, you're not so sure with the Kennedy character, although he certainly believes he's Kennedy right down to wearing 60's era gray suits and having a red telephone in his room.
What kind of movie is this? Well, it's hard to say. The whole scenario is a gag unto itself. But is it a comedy? If it is, it's a very dark comedy, but it's also played very straight. Maybe Bruce Campbell says it best in one of the DVD extras where he calls it "A redemptive Elvis mummy picture."
There is an underlying theme about growing old and the value of senior citizens in our society. We ignore their past achievements or we patronize and treat them like children. The Elvis in this movie is an Elvis who is cognizant that he is at the end of his life. He is amazed at how quickly it went by, and how he went from fame and fortune and all the women he wanted to a shell of a man confined to a bed in an out-of-the-way rest home. He is haunted by the loss of Priscilla, and he regrets that he was not there for Lisa Marie as she grew up. More than anything else, he just wants to tell his daughter that he loves her.
Bubba Ho-Tep will not be seen by wide audiences. However, it will have instant cult-status because first, it was hard to see at the theaters without a distributor and a video release took two years to finally be realized. Second, anything with Bruce Campbell automatically has cult-status because he has cult status. When I rented it at Hollywood Video, I was pleased to see that they had quite a few copies. But if you wait a year or two, I would guess that your mainstream video shops won't stock it. You will have to go to the out of the way video stores that specialize in foreign films and cult classics to find it .
Bubba Ho-Tep is rated R for language, some sexual content, and brief violent images. My biggest complaint about the movie is the strong language which I found unnecessary. It seems that often if a movie centers on pre-adolescent boys or male senior citizens, there is an overemphasis upon body functions. This movie is no different. The movie is based on a "novella" by Joe Lansdale. I've never read anything by Lansdale, but in one of the bonus features on the DVD, he reads the first chapter of his story upon which the movie was based. The language of Lansdale's work is even stronger than that in the movie, and I thought the movie was a bit crude in some places. I really regret that Don Coscareli, who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, didn't aim for a PG rating because the R rating comes primarily from the language. But I suppose that Coscareli was aiming to be faithful to the original story, and that's too bad. The concept is both original and clever.
Did I like it? Yes. Do I recommend it? Well, I don't know. It's more up to you and your tastes. When you hear the plot that a geriatric Elvis & JFK duo are battling a mummy in an East Texas nursing home, does that excite you or do you think it's just plain odd and you wonder about my tastes, too? Well if it excites you, go see it. If you think that it's really weird, well...you probably just won't get it.
Thank you...thankyaverymuch...