Tagline: Nobody fucks with the King, baby!
Curiosity: Set in a Texan nursing home, Bruce Campbell (the “Evil Dead Trilogy”) and Ossie Davis (The Hill, Joe Versus the Volcano) star as two men who may or may not be Elvis Presley and President John F. Kennedy, respectively, and who may or may not need to do battle with a mummy who is devouring the souls of the elderly in this film from Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Beastmaster). EVERYTHING I JUST TOLD YOU IS AWESOME.
Plot: Please refer back to the Curiosity for EXTREME AWESOMENESS.
Thoughts: For all its kitsch value, Bubba Ho-tep is also an emotional portrayal of what it means to get older, and how society mistreats us once we hit a certain age. Oh sure, there are some funny, whacky bits about Elvis’ dick and the fact that Davis, a black guy, is playing “JFK,” a white guy, and some liberal approaches to Egyptian (“Now this top line translates into, ‘Pharaoh gobbles donkey goobers,’ and the bottom line, ‘Cleopatra does the nasty’”). But the film is also downright sad in spots, as “Elvis” laments his lost family and misspent youth. He has existential wanderings and watches his friends die, sometimes from the mummy’s curse, and sometimes from natural causes. This is a movie about insecurity and the meaning, or lack thereof, of the passage of time. This is life’s joys and sorrows condensed into one passage.
Of course, you also get to watch a guy dressed up like a geriatric King of Rock beat the snot out of a killer mummy. How cool is that? [Answer: very – editor].
Reflection: I probably shouldn’t have watched this movie while eating dinner.
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