Review of "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2003)

[Amelie]

"Bubba Ho-Tep" (2003) - Director: Don Coscarelli - Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis. Review contains spoilers. [details]

Hey there, Robert here, one of the former 3 Idiots, ironically posting a movie review to the new horror.com :).

The 3 Idiots went and saw _Bubba_Ho-tep_ at a local art-house theater last night. We primed ourselves by first having dinner and drink at a nearby micro-brewery, but limited ourselves to just 2-3 beers so we would be at our best for the viewing.

I had high hopes for this movie. So much in fact that I violated my basic rule of having high hopes for movie viewing. I figured I was justified in my high hopes: the director is Don Coscarelli, who created _Phantasm_ and later directed _The_Beastmaster_, both famous genre films. Bruce Campbell is well known for his efforts in the _Evil_Dead_ film as well as his physical comedy in the _Xena_ series. The movie was based on a story by horror author Joe Lansdale, who did "The Drive In" and many other fine fine stories. Finally, special effects were done by the famous KNB group, who've done billions and billions of memorable effects movies. With all that, how could this movie not Rule?

Well, sadly, it does not fully Rule. It's definately worth seeing, not just for the horror completist, but for anyone who's even remotely a fan of anything I mentioned in the paragraph above. Bruce Campbell is brilliant as an aging Elvis. Contrary to what I expected his portrayal is not over the top or overdone. Bruce portrays the aging King with skill and restraint, but still with a bit of whoopass and bug-fu. The makeup on Campbell to give him the slightly wrinkled, dried leathery skin look is excellent, and Bruce backs it up with the appropriate physical portrayal of infirmity. The sets and filming are also excellent. The sort of hazy surrealness of _Phantasm_ is present here, as is an homage to the killer fly from that movie. The script/dialogue is straight out of a Joe Lansdale book, right down to the Elvis' introspective comments, and the sub-titled insults from Bubba Ho-tep. But therein lies the problem I think. A short story can be read and appreciated on its merits. But a movie is judged by the formula of content vs time/length. This is a 92 minute movie. Now I didn't time it, but the feeling this movie left me with was that maybe 70 minutes of that was buildup and character definition, and at most 20 minutes was action/activity. At most. The actual decision to deal with the threat of Bubba Ho-tep, and the planning and execution of the attempt to deal with it, seemed even shorter. Sure there were some earlier parts that were action oriented or dark humor: the death scarab scenes. the running gag of the two mortuary attendents taking away bodies from the rest home. But really that's about it. The rest of the time was Elvis flashing back on how he got to where he was, wondering if he ever was going to see his daughter again, etc. Interesting, but much of it unrealized in the rest of the movie.

Good parts of the movie: the numerous scenes of dark humor, in both action and dialogue, that we've come to expect from a _Phantasm_ or _Evil_Dead_ type movie. Makeup was excellent. Acting was very good to excellent. Dialogue was hilarious. Filming and sets were very good. Story overall was very good with great writing.

What could have been better: more character put into Ozzie Davis' role. Bood/gore. Any blood/gore actually: there's essentially none. The R-rating of the movie is apparently due to references to penis's, bodily functions, and a good dosage of cussing. Naturally I'm for all this, but some gore in addition would have been welcome. Maybe they just couldn't work it in and still stay true to the Lansdale story of an undead creature who sucks souls, rather than sucking blood or strangling/dismembering people. A more prolonged interaction with Bubba Ho-tep would have been REALLY desireable. I point to the under-rated movie _The_Frighteners_ by Peter Jackson as an example of the kind of whoopass I sort of expected more of in this movie. Finally, more involvement of the ancillary characters in the movie: Kemosabe, Elvis' roommate, the rest home nurse, are all there, but really lend very little to the final product, despite their apparent importance as the story unfolds (and the inclusion of at least one of them in the movie trailer in a scene that promises more than it delivers).

In conclusion, well, you gotta see this. It's a much needed flashback to the glory days of horror before _Scream_69_ and other such movies pimped out the genre to death. You need to support this to show Coscarelli, Campbell, and others that there's still a crying need for inventive horror movies. But this is not an over the top roller coaster ride like _Evil_Dead_ or _Phantasm_. It really is a Joe Lansdale story brought to film, rather than (IMHO) a movie which was first and foremost concieved as a movie. The feeling I left the theater with was sort of like I felt when I saw the 2nd _Back_to_the_Future_ movie: it was fun, but I was left feeling like there should have been more. Hopefully the next movie in the series, Bubba-Nosferatu, if it's made will deliver a bit more content.

[Ash]

I pretty much agree with both previous reviewers.

The movie had way more potential than was realized. Why didn't more go on with the nurse? Why did the bending over girl have so much screen time? What about his daughter, why didn't she come into play, even at the end in a vision or something?

There was so much more that seemed possible. I liked the movie, and I'll buy it on DVD, but it wasn't quite as good as it should have been.

As the second review says, make sure you support these kind of movies at the theater and on DVD so they can make more of them!

[Amelie]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hey there, Robert here, one of the former 3 Idiots, ironically posting a movie review to the new horror.com :).

Glad to know the original Idiots are still checking out new horror releases. :)

The sort of hazy surrealness of _Phantasm_ is present here, as is an homage to the killer fly from that movie.

Yeah, totally - especially in the scenes where Campbell's laying on the bed, time's passing, and people are whizzing past him. What made the ending not-Rule as much is lacked that surreal, off-balance quality - it was sort of a straightforward chase scene. It would've been nice to see that carried through.

What could have been better: more character put into Ozzie Davis' role. Bood/gore. Any blood/gore actually: there's essentially none. The R-rating of the movie is apparently due to references to penis's, bodily functions, and a good dosage of cussing. Naturally I'm for all this, but some gore in addition would have been welcome.

I agree - and I'm not totally sure why they didn't add in more gore. Splatter would've made sense in the movie - they could've bloodied up several scenes easily. The mummy's first kill (the candy-stealing lady), for example, is nearly bloodless. I don't understand why, in a movie where Elvis talks at length about his penis pustule, they couldn't have made put in some more gore.