Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Bubba Ho-Tep

This is topic Bubba Ho-Tep in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Geoffrey Weiss (Member # 882) on 02-02-2004, 01:48 PM:

From Don Coscarelli, director of Phantasm and The Beastmaster , Bubba Ho-Tep features Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley and Ossie Davis as JFK--don't ask, you just have to see the movie.

I saw this at a film festival in Durham, NC. If you think Charlize Theron transformed herself to play Aileen Wuornos, wait till you see what Campbell did with Elvis. He deserved an Oscar for the simple fact that it's easy to play Elvis as a stereotype, but Campbell makes him a fully-developed, three dimensional character.

It's billed as a sort of horror/comedy film about a soul-sucking mummy at an East Texas rest home, but it's really a great actor's movie and a meditation on what it means to age and fall into obscurity in a country that idolizes youth & celebrity. One of Campbell's most poignant lines is, "Why didn't fame and money hold off old age and death?"

Unlike the stuff released by Miramax et. al. , this is a true independent film. There are only twenty prints circulating in the entire country. I heard it only cost about a million to make, but tells a better story and is more engaging than 98% of the major releases.

See this movie & smile all the way home.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 02-06-2004, 03:10 AM:

This movie was so different and weird that I kinda enjoyed it... Makes me wonder who actually thinks of a movie like this... But I wouldn't reccommend paying to see it... Its one of those movies where you accidently catch on late late night cable...

4/10