The Evil Dead series already made it pretty clear and – after Bubba Ho Tep – there's nobody who should question this statement ever again: Bruce Campbell is one major cool dude! Campbell stars as Elvis. Old, fat and supposedly out of his mind, he's a resident in an East-Texas rest home. An ancient Egyptian mummy that has been stolen from a museum wanders around in the area, soul-feeding on the weak victims of the nursery home. Elvis, tired of his indigent and pathetic life, teams up with a black man who thinks he's former president Kennedy to destroy the mummy once and for all. The story of Bubba Ho-Tep is remarkably simple… Too simple actually, and if it wasn't for Campbell and a few ingenious gimmicks, this would have been an unnoticed and forgettable comedy/horror film. Bruce gives away an outstanding performance and he is the KING in ways you can't imagine. The saddening, self-criticizing monologues he gives while lying on the hospital bed are some of the best lines in recent cinema and his charisma speaks for itself. Veteran Ossie Davis gives great feedback as the 'president', seeing conspiracies wherever he looks.

The comedy aspects of Bubba Ho-Tep show right away, yet it also is a subtle drama, criticizing the way we often mistreat our elderly by placing them in a home and leaving them to their own devices. It is these outcasts that fight back here and save the day! Bubba Ho-Tep is filled with appealing one-liners and imaginative findings. How about the idea of a 2000-year-old mummy writing stuff like 'Cleopatra does the nasty' on a toilet's wall, like we all did in high school? The film also depends on the professional directing skills of Don Coscarelli. He finally found a worthy successor for his classic horror franchise 'Phantasm', even though that premise was a lot more complex and horrific. Recommended to fans of pop-culture flicks and bizarre gems. One of the better genre films since the new Millennium.

Hail to the King, baby!

"Bubba Ho-Tep" has got to be one of the strangest movies I've seen in some time. It has a plot that you won't believe! The film opens in a nursing home in the present day. One of the residents is Elvis (Bruce Campbell)--though everyone thinks he's an Elvis impersonator. Soon a series of killings occur in the home and it turns out it's all due to an evil mummy! Naturally, no one believes Elvis when he tells them what is afoot--so he gets his friend, John F. Kennedy, to help!! Now, mind you, JFK is played by Ossie Davis--a VERY black man! According to 'JFK', after he was shot, the surgeons somehow turned him black and left him in a crappy nursing home!! Considering that the destruction of evil and the future of humanity rests on these two, we appear to be completely screwed! This is just an exercise in bizarreness--albeit a very clever one. Campbell is VERY memorable as a foul-mouthed Elvis and his army of fans (due to his cult-like Evil Dead movies) must have loved every minute of this. Davis is also quite good--and it's a two-man show. Amazingly, the budget was practically nothing and dollar-for-dollar, it is a wonderful film. Well worth seeing--and young filmmakers should see this to see how much film they can make for a pittance.

By the way, at the end of the credits, it announces a new film--"Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires". Sadly, this film has NOT been made--and a decade later there's little evidence that it's coming any time soon.

A man (Bruce Campbell) claiming to be Elvis Presley is living in the Shady Rest Convalescence Home in Mud Creek, Texas. His story is that he switched places with Elvis impersonator Sebastian Haff. He stayed as Haff while the real Haff died as him. Twenty years ago, he fell off the stage impersonating himself and broke his hip. Now something is killing people in the home. His roommate dies and the daughter Callie Thomas (Heidi Marnhout) comes to clean out. Neither she nor the Nurse (Ella Joyce) believe the claim. His only friend is Jack (Ossie Davis) who believes that he is JFK. The two old men has to battle the Egyptian mummy Bubba Ho-tep who is eating the elderly souls.

This is a really fun idea. It has great potential. The comedy is kinda funny but gets a little repetitive after the Elvis reveal. After a great first half, the movie stalls. I'm not sure if Bubba Ho-tep is enough or maybe the twosome needs a third. I thought they played up Callie to be part of the gang but she goes away. I understand the idea of old people fighting a slow mummy. It's not as funny as it sounds on the page and it's not as exciting as a regular horror movie. It's definitely good camp especially in the first half. The second half needs something more.