Bubba Ho-Tep
(2002)
Everyone loves Bruce Campbell. He’s eminently lovable; self-depracating,
a natural wit, enthusiastic about his “art” and interactive with his fans. It’s
easy to be seduced into cutting anything he shows up in some slack, just by
virtue of his mighty Bruce-ness. I know, I’ve done it. Unfortunately, not
everything he does has the crazy, slapstick energy of his most famous role.
Most of it doesn’t. Don Cascarelli’s Elvis versus Mummy movie has a
considerable cult following, based as much on the cult of Don as the cult of
Bruce, but its charms are erratic ones. As usual, however, Campbell is the
breezy highlight.
The blames rests with Cascarelli, since he adapted Joe R.
Lansdale’s short story. The premise is a great high concept mash-up; Elvis
Presley, a nursing home resident in declining health, must fight off an ancient
Egyptian mummy. Is he really Elvis, or Elvis impersonator Sebastian Haff? Or
both, as the King claims to have switched places with the real Haff so as to
live a life of relative peace and quiet. Aiding Elvis in his quest is “John F.
Kennedy” (a wonderful Ossie Davis), who claims to have had his skin dyed in
order to ease him into obscurity following the 1963 assassination attempt.
I loved Casceralli’s recent John Dies at the End, and when the director cuts loose with crazy
editing or an action sequence Bubba
Ho-Tep clicks into gear. There’s a scene in which Elvis fights off a scarab
beetle (“I think we got some major bug
problems in this place, man”) fuelled with an irresistible knockabout
energy, but then Cascarelli lets it fizzle out again (he clearly likes his
bugs). Also, for such an oddball concept, it’s disappointing how under-developed
the whole affair is. Cascarelli the screenwriter seems more preoccupied coming
up with crude scatological and sexual gags (Elvis has a growth on his pecker)
than investing in the plot. Elvis is reasonably well drawn – a dispirited,
dried-up deadbeat rediscovering his vim – and Campbell can do a passable
King/old man amidst his usual double takes and undoubted physical flair. But
Cascarelli is stuck in the mode of juvenilia as a writer. I’m sure adolescents
will get a big laugh out of the mummy’s subtitled insult “Eat the dog dick of Anubis you asswipe”. Well, adolescents and
Kevin Smith. But it’s pretty lazy, really.
This is a
threadbare production too, small of cast and cheap of set. It’s atmospherically
shot, and effectively scored by Brian Tyler (now a regular on the Marvel
movies), but ultimately these elements can’t paper over the joins of a weak script.
Too many longueurs of existential gloom punctuated by bursts of crudity. It’s
left to Campbell and Davis, and the occasional witticism, to pick up the slack.
The idea that the retired Elvis became an Elvis impersonator himself (“Look, I was just impersonating myself. I
couldn’t do nothing else”) is quite inspired, and there’s a fun flashback
scene where Bruce gets to act against himself as Elvis and Sebastian. Also
lines such as “Never, never, fuck with the
King” and “Your soul-suckin’ days are
over, amigo”, delivered with a Presley drawl, get an easy laugh.
A sequel
has been in the offing for some time (Bubba
Nosferatu). Campbell dropped out over differences with Coscarelli, which
doesn’t bode well and eliminates the main (only?) reason for seeing it.
Reportedly, Paul Giamatti (clearly a pal with the director, having also
appeared in John Dies at the End) is
set to play Colonel Tom Parker and Ron Perlman has been mooted as the
replacement Elvis. Perhaps it will be
a worthwhile follow-up. On this evidence I’m skeptical it will be more than
middling if Coscarelli is on scripting duties, however.
***
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