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'Bubba Ho-Tep'

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Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Bob Ivy, Reggie Bannister, Heidi Marnhout
Director: Don Coscarelli
MPAA rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief violent images
Running time: 92 minutes
Release date: October 24

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Too Much of Too Little ... Too Bad

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By Karen H.
Austin360 Staff

Originally Posted: During SXSW March 8, 2003

Joe R. Lansdale wrote an award-winning short story that became the basis for the movie 'Bubba Ho-Tep,' which made its regional debut at SXSW 2003.

In a nutshell, Elvis Presley is alive, but not well, at an East Texas nursing home. John F. Kennedy, with a tiny bag of sand in his head replacing part of his brain that was removed in the 1963 assassination attempt, also is a resident. He's African-American now too, his entire body dyed as part of the elaborate plot to make sure no one knows he's alive. There's also a cowboy boot-wearing mummy lurching around the halls of the Mud Creek Shady Rest home, sucking the small souls of the terminally ill and long-forgotten.

Elvis and JFK team up to dust the mummy (the titular Bubba Ho-Tep). Before that, during that, and after that are Elvis' meditations on life, fame and his penis.

Bruce Campbell does a good cranky old Elvis, although he occasionally sounds a lot like Ash from the 'Evil Dead' movies (who always did have an Elvisian swagger about him). Ossie Davis, as the man who believes he's Kennedy, is quite good as the wide-eyed, wise and mystical-minded former president.

The capacity audience I saw it with was mostly ambivalent, really wanting to like this movie but not having much to grab onto to enjoy without reservation. There are definitely some funny moments in what is essentially a one-joke movie, but those moments are not enough to sustain 92 minutes of Elvis' repetitive ruminations.

If you have time, you could check it out. But there are less all-around disappointing movies running, too.

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