Bubba Ho-Tep: A DVD Review

Dick Hollywood | August 18th, 2010 - 4:51 pm

Ho-Tep n.

1. Relative or descendent of the 17 Egyptian Dynasties, 3100-1550 B.C.

2. Family surname of an Egyptian pharaoh (King).

Bubba n.

1.Male from the Southern U.S.

2. Good ole boy.

3. Cracker, redneck, trailer park resident.

“How could I have gone from ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ to this, an old guy in a rest home in East Texas with a growth on his pecker.”

So begins “Bubba Ho-Tep,” one of the most interesting and original films to come along in years. It seems that Elvis (Bruce Campbell) is still alive and living in an old folk’s home somewhere in East Texas. You see he traded places with Sebastian Haff, an Elvis impersonator, years before to get away from all of the fame, fortune and sycophants. He wanted to lead a “normal” life for a while, but never got the chance to switch back due to the fact that the contract he had between himself and Haff, burned up in a trailer park accident and then Haff who had a weak heart and a taste for drugs went and died on him. Now, years later, an invalid due to a broken hip which was caused by falling off a stage, no one believes that he truly is the “King”. His only friend in the nursing is a Black man (Ossie Davis) who believes that he is John F. Kennedy. He says that the government dyed him black and replaced part of his brain with sand. They begin to suspect that the residents at the home aren’t all dying of natural causes, but in fact are being killed off one by one in the middle of the night by some soul-sucking Bubba Ho-Tep (a Texas redneck cowboy-looking mummy.) Since no one in their right mind would believe these two old coots, they proceed to take matters into their own hands. So with walker in hand and electric wheelchair in tow our two unlikely heroes set out on a TCB (Taking Care of Business) mission to rid the their home and save the residents souls from this Bubba Ho-tep.

Directed and adapted from a short story, Don Coscarelli of the Phantasm franchise, deftly moves the story between crass jokes, moody old-school horror atmosphere and a large dose of genuine poignancy. Both Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis give believable and touching performances. Campbell as the aging Presley brings out a quirky inner sadness with his portrayal of the aged bed-ridden King. Elvis, with a past full of regrets, wishes to redeem himself for a lifetime he feels he’s wasted away. His redemption comes in the form of this adventure in which he and JFK go head-to-head and toe-to-toe with a soul-sucking redneck mummy.

“Bubba Ho-Tep” was one of the best films of last year. It is completely different and more original than any other film I have seen in a long time. A film that is not afraid of crossing over multiple genres to create something new and different. The film is funny, bittersweet and genuinely heartwarming. The kind of movie the Hollywood studios would never think of making.

This DVD comes with some cool special features. The audio commentary with Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell is fun and informative. The commentary by “The King” is only for die-hards. Funny for a few scenes, but it gets tiring pretty fast. The four featurettes are really enjoyable, especially “Rock Like an Egyptian” about Brain Tyler’s music score.

Dick Hollywood Says, “Check it out!”

DVD Special Features:

Commentary by director Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell

Commentary by “the King”

Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s)

Joe R. Landsdale reads from “Bubba Ho-Tep”

Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell

“The Making of ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’” featurette

“To Make a Mummy” (makeup and effects featurette)

“Fit for a King” (Elvis costuming featurette)

“Rock Like an Egyptian” (featurette about the music of “Bubba Ho-Tep”)

Music video

Photo gallery

Limited collectible packaging

12-page scrapbook/behind-the-scenes photos with personal comments from Bruce Campbell and Don Coscarelli and a two-page letter from Campbell to his fans

Widescreen anamorphic format

(This is Repost of a DVD Review that first appeared on FilmJerk.com. Some of the Info is dated since this film came out in 2002 -Dick Hollywood)

Near Dark (DVD Review)

Dick Hollywood | August 9th, 2010 - 10:35 pm

The vampire genre is thrown on its gothic head and picks up a couple of spurs and a ten-gallon hat when it gets back up. The filmmakers call it a western vampire story. I like to call it a “Redneck Vampire Flick”, and this epitomizes what is the first, last and finest of the Western Vampire genre. Boy meets girl. Girl is pretty and different. Girl is a vampire. Girl bites boy. Girl turns boy. Boy must join this merry band of gypsy outlaws and make a kill or be killed. He is after all one of the living dead and needs to consume blood to survive.

A mighty purty lookin’ Mae (Jenny Wright) feels alone and wants a companion to spend the rest of eternity with. When she and her band of merry vamps wander through hicksville USA, a young buck named Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) spots her eating an ice cream cone. She sticks out in this sleepy ol’ farm town and Caleb takes an immediate fancy to her. They go out for a ride to talk and make out in his truck. She longs to make him hers and with a bite to his neck, the deed is done. He has been turned, but in order to become a full-fledged card carrying vampire, he must make a kill on his own. Every gang has their initiation rights, even Redneck Vampires. The only problem is that killing does not come easy to Caleb, and there is only so much blood that Mae can give of herself, before she dies. If he cannot step up to the plate to take that first bite and make a solo kill, the rest of the family of blood fiends are prepared to dine on a Caleb buffet.

Near Dark is chock full of rich atmosphere and stark beautiful cinematography. I love those backlit-silhouetted shots of the clan walking over a hill and entering town, looking for some fresh blood to drink. The film has some funny moments of humor of the darkest kind, but this movie is not played for laughs. The film is essentially a love story. You can really feel the longing and loneliness in Mae’s life. Jenny Wright is so wonderful in this role, it makes you wonder what ever happened to her and why did she give up acting. Director Kathyrn Bigelow and Writer Eric Red have created quite an interesting revisionist version of this well-known genre and created a realistic western vampire love story. The characters in this film are so memorable; you will be fondly daydreaming about them for days. Well, at least I did. How can you ever forget these bloodsucking freaks?

1. Jesse (Lance Henriksen): Leader/Father figure of this band of gypsies.

2. Diamondback (Jeanette Goldstein): Firecracker of a gal, with motherly instincts when it comes to her young’ns.

3. Severen (Bill Paxton): Loves to kill, and loves to fuck with people while killing them. Becoming a Vampire was the best thing that ever happened to him.

4. Mae (Jenny Wright): Beautiful, beguiling and longing for companionship.

5. Homer (Joshua John Miller): Turned by Mae as a boy out of lonliness. Now he is a man trapped in a child’s body and none too happy about it!

The DVD is a special edition that comes with lots of extras. The new 45-minute documentary has brought back the most of the cast with the exception of a M.I.A. Jenny Wright. Even Adrian Pasdar shouts out a plea for her to contact him if she sees this or hears of this documentary. The Directors Commentary is slow, but informative. Most fans of the film have been waiting for this disk for a long time, and it was well worth the wait.

Near Dark (1987)
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Length: 94 mins.
Rated: R
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Languages:English, French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Extras: Commentary Track, Retrospective Documentary, Deleted Scene, Trailers, Storyboards, Galleries, Screenplay, Screen Savers