BUBBA HO-TEP A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
"Ask not what your rest home can do for you," Elvis says to fellow octogenarian Jack Kennedy, paraphrasing the president's most famous quote. "Ask what you can do for your nursing home." Elvis, who changed places years ago with an Elvis impersonator, is played by Bruce Campbell, and Jack, whose skin was dyed black to hide his true identity, is played by Ossie Davis. Don Coscarelli's BUBBA HO-TEP -- I can state unequivocally -- is the best comedy ever made about Elvis, JFK, a soul-sucking ancient Egyptian and giant cockroaches. It sets a new standard for wackiness, while managing to come up some good laughs.
Spending the end of their lives at the Shady Rest convalescent center in Mud Creek, Texas, Elvis and Jack don't have much to do, so it's probably a good thing that the soul sucker they named Bubba Ho-tep (Bob Ivy) shows up to give them a little excitement. And speaking of excitement, the King's sexual organs haven't worked in decades, but, when a short-skirted woman comes into his room, Elvis finally gets a little excited. When she bends way over to pick up something, he tells us in voice-over that his private part "fluttered once again like a pigeon having a heart attack."
Bubba Ho-tep is a naughty boy. Besides killing nursing home guests by extracting their souls, he also writes in hieroglyphics on bathroom stall walls. Using a dictionary from his room, Jack translates the graffiti for Elvis. It says something on the order of "Cleopatra does the nasty."
Although it is quite funny at first, the film can't sustain the humor. Weirdness has its limits, and BUBBA HO-TEP starts dying before the story gets into its second half.
BUBBA HO-TEP runs 1:32. It is rated R for "language, some sexual content and brief violent images" and would be acceptable for teenagers
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 10, 2003. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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