Bubba Ho-tep

The premise for this movie is silly -- and it is a silly movie too, except it turned out to have superb acting by Bruce Campbell, as Elvis Presley, and Ossie Davis, as John F. Kennedy. The premise of the movie: Elvis ain't dead. It was some other guy. Elvis has grown old, and bitter and lives in a convalescence home in Texas waiting to die with JFK, who's now black. It was all a conspiracy with JFK you see. They dyed his skin, replace the part of his brain that took the bullet, with sand, and hid him away. Both old and frail, Elvis and JFK start getting suspicious when giant 'cockroaches' (scarab beetles) start appearing, rude Egyptian hieroglyphs are scratched into the walls of the visitor washroom stall and their fellow residents start dying. What evil is in their midst? A mummy! Bubba Ho-tep! And it's sucking the souls from the old folks via some interesting orifices. That's the premise. Bruce Campbell's portrayal of an aging Elvis however, stole the movie from the prankster shenanigans of the story. Getting old sucks. Especially when you look back on your life and realize the mistakes that were made, the wasted time -- the waste. Despite that, Elvis doesn't give in to wallowing self-pity -- he is determined to be the hero he has been in his fantasies -- even if it's only to save the souls of folks in the convalescence home. This was a nice surprise on DVD -- but I'm surprised that such a quirky story, with such great acting, didn't see a bigger release. In Toronto it showed up a local film festival and a month later it was on DVD.