A mismatched marriage of offbeat character study and unimaginative horror riffs.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)
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Reviews Counted:27
Fresh:19
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: The best movie to star both the King and JFK.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, some sexual content and brief violent images
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Sep 19, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Don Coscarelli's BUBBA HO-TEP finds Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) alive but not so well, living in a small Texas nursing home. Although he's preoccupied with his ailments and his memories, the... Don Coscarelli's BUBBA HO-TEP finds Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) alive but not so well, living in a small Texas nursing home. Although he's preoccupied with his ailments and his memories, the elderly Elvis befriends another resident who thinks he's John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) when they both begin to suspect that their neighbors aren't dying of natural causes. Their investigation leads to the discovery of an evil mummy with a fondness for cowboy gear and an appetite for the souls of senior citizens. Armed with little more than a walker and a wheelchair, the King and JFK must take on this ancient evil. Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, BUBBA HO-TEP mixes comedy, drama, and horror to create a remarkably quirky film. As the aged and ailing Elvis, Campbell gives an outstandingly funny and poignant performance, while Davis exudes intelligence and warmth as JFK. Although horror is a key element of the story, much of the movie focuses on the life of Elvis and his new friendship with the former president, leading to many oddly comical scenes and even a few genuinely touching moments. Of course, their embalmed foe and his creepy minions must be confronted, making this the first movie about Elvis and JFK to appeal to horror enthusiasts, or, conversely, the first horror movie to appeal to Elvis and JFK enthusiasts. Either way, it's a highly unconventional tale that no adventurous filmgoer should miss. [More]
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Larry Pennell
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Larry Pennell, Bob Ivy, Daniel Roebuck, Reggie Bannister
Director: Don Coscarelli
Director: Don Coscarelli
Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli
Producer: Don Coscarelli
Studio: Vitagraph Films
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Reviews for Bubba Ho-Tep
Writer-director Don Coscarelli piles on unpleasant details and cynical asides as if they were the stuff of wisdom, though they seem intended to produce guffaws rather than thoughts
This absurdly clever caper is elevated by Bruce Campbell's pensive Elvis into a moving meditation on the diminutions of age and the vagaries of fame.
Fry up a peanut butter and 'nana sandwich, hop in your Cadillac and take one last ride with the King.
In the end, what keeps it going is not the story but the delicious relationship between Elvis and JFK.
Bubba Ho-Tep succeeds as goofy-yet- tender wish fulfillment, offering an Elvis who tries to redeem his self-indulgent persona and become a hero. It fails as the sort of Campbell vehicle that wears out VCRs and haunts midnight-movie houses.
Bubba Ho-Tep offers plenty of tasty warped humor but doesn't have quite enough comic gas to become a cult classic.
Coscarelli, who brought us four volumes of Phantasm, is a surefooted B-movie journeyman, and for Bubba Ho-Tep he's in a generously lunatic mood.
Campbell gives another notable acrobatic performance, which is saying something for an actor who has spent the best part of his career getting knocked around by ghosts and ghouls.
It has the damnedest ingratiating way of making us sit there and grin at its harebrained audacity, laugh at its outhouse humor, and be somewhat moved (not deeply, but somewhat) at the poignancy of these two old men and their situation.
Coscarelli ... can't quite conjure a complete movie out the concept and stretches the material until its humorous conceits repeat ad nauseum.
A low-budget comedy chiller that makes up in dog-eared charm what it lacks in fright.
Coscarelli, writer-director of the logy, fatuous Bubba Ho-Tep, is trying to will a cult movie into existence -- which, of course, never works.
Coscarelli gives this low-rent lunacy an accomplished visual look as well as plenty of B-movie charm.
Writer-director Don Coscarelli, maker of such potent cult films as Phantasm and The Beastmaster, fails to come up with enough incidents and action to make this overly leisurely picture the zany fun it means to be.
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