Bruce Campbell's Bubba Ho Tep Review

[Aylmer]

Saw "Bubba Ho -Tep" last night at the local theater. Let me tell you if your a Bruce Campbell fan or love tongue n cheek horror comedy, this is a fine example of both. Bruce Campbell had so many great one liners it rivals "E.D.2". Ossie Davis was a wonderful funny straight man as JFK, opposed to Campbell's 70's jumpsuit Elvis. Reggie Bannister of "Phantasm" fame also had a memorable cameo as the Administrator. Anyway from open to close this movie is a riot I would give it a 9 out of 10.

Also last night was the Pittsburgh premier of the film and I was fortunate enough to attend a one hour dissusion of the film afterwards with director Don Coscarelli of "Phantasm" fame. He was such a personable guy I was shocked, he answered questions for about 1/2 of the hour discussion and didn't seem to want to stop. He talked about the Roger Avery script for the next "Phantasm" calling it "Epic", but seemed to have no hope in "raising a $30 million dollar budget in Hollywood for another Phantasm sequal." His hopes were for a future graphic novel of the story. He also gave a May 4Th DVD release for "Ho-Tep" and says that Bruce Campbell did audio comentary in charcter as Elvis on the whole movie, Coscarelli says "Bruce does every thing from eating lunch to answer telephone calls as The King". Coscarelli also sited "Beast Master" as his least favorite of his films and talked about influences from The Three Stooges and "It's a Mad Mad World" to Sam Raimi and "The Eye". Coscarelli also said his favorite horror film is "Night of the Living Dead" '68 and he thinks the most underated horror film is "Day of The Dead". Well I've rambled about my experience enough on a final note GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

I drove four hours to see this movie and was completely disappointed. Sure, it's fun--but it's not a genre classic like Phantasm--hell, even Beastmaster, for that matter. Don is a horrible dialogue writer, and whenever he strayed from the source material to lengthen the movie, it just became silly. If this was a STV movie, it would be good, but it did not deserve a big screen release or the hype it received in indie circles simply because Bruce and Don were involved,

And what was the joke about the chocolate Ding Dong? It was so bad I cringed. Off-color penis jokes, much like old people cussing, lose their shock value out of grade school.

[Aylmer]

I thought the dialog was great! I was in a sold out theater of about 500 people and the audience laughter was as loud and as frequent as I have ever heard in a movie theater. Everybody needs some good dick and fart jokes sometimes. Funny while I was sitting there I was kind of in shock that Coscarelli wrote it because I too think his dialog is a bit weak and that was totally whitty. Oh well different strokes I guess.

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

Different opinions are what make the board fun. I heard Don now owns the rights to Lansdale's Cold In July, and while I don't know if he's the guy t bring it to the screen, I would LOVE to see that movie.

[Aylmer]

In deed opinions do help the mix. I'm not familiar with that guys writing. What genre does he write? I see he did some writing for the Superman and Batman animated cartoon.

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

Lansdale's the best. His early stuff like Bubba Ho Tep was mostly extreme horror, then he started writing really odd crime novels. Unfortunately he's now been given a huge book deal and gone mainstream. His best stuff is Dead in the West (a zombie Western) The Drive-in 1&2, the short story collection High Cotton, Cold in July, and the Hap and Leonard novels.

He did write a few of the Batman and Superman cartoons. He did a Batman with Jonah Hex but it was deemed to weird to be aired and will supposedly be released on video someday. And speaking of Jonah Hex, he did three great Hex mini-series for Vertigo. The first one is exceptionally cool.

[Aylmer]

Yeah that "Dead in the West" sounds kickass, thanks.

[abbycomix]

I really enjoyed this, but it wasn't the rolicking wacky film most people expected it to be. It had some wacky moments, but also some genuinely sad and touching ones as well. Probably the best movie I saw in the theater last year.

...i really really really REALLY! wanna see this flick! they say ot will be released on DVD in May? woowoo! :)

...paramour.

[massacre man]

what is it supposed to be about?