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18th Hall of Fame
“Bubba Ho-Tep”
2002
The King's back, baby...
The premise is utterly ridiculous but laid out the groundworks for what could be a campy class-act by Bruce Campbell, going balls out (or cock out) in this insane role of a might-be-might-not-be-Elvis-impersonator fighting a mighty Egyptian ex-emperor. It turned out that the best thing about this was indeed Campbell, as the King of Rock n' Roll, though there wasn't much rocking nor rolling going on in this film; it was more about walkers and rocking chairs than anything... and bed snakes... and beetles... and black guys pretending to be John F. Kennedy.
I liked the premise well enough, crazy as it might be, but to my surprise, the director somehow succeeded in creating something rather boring and uninteresting out of an idea that should ignite on arrival – instead it somewhat ignites in the end though appearing dead on arrival. Campbell's character was either bedridden or trying to get rid of beetles for most of the movie, all the while the other half of the (un)dying on-screen duo was introduced surprisingly late in the movie. The two of them did have some great chemistry but didn’t get to confront their common summoned enemy before the last half hour, where the story finally sort of picks up. Honestly if it wasn't for Campbell, this movie would have been even worse than it already is, but thankfully he has such a great presence around him that he can keep this corpse of a movie alive throughout most of the runtime. But only “just”.
The idea of an evil dead Egyptian mummy acting as a menace for ageing old folks at a retirement home is quite "out there" and you would think the premise alone plays the movie along just fine. But the story would rather use its time on showing us bad b-movie beetles or blabbing about Elvis Presley's limp, lubed up leather-stretcher for a decent length of the runtime. Oh, and when on the topic of stretching and length, I was thinking the whole time how this movie would probably have worked much better as a short film, only to find out in the end that it is indeed based on a short story. So yeah, the short answer is, the runtime contradicts with the “funtime”, because while the premise is fun on paper it comes off as paper-thin when presented in feature length, given the amount of wicked weirdness in this undead pharaoh flick does fare well as a punchline, but can’t keep up the punches for 92 minutes.
I could have done with a successful effort of a more toned-down buddy comedy, which it seemingly tries to be, but can’t help but think about how this would have been if it gave me the whole package of its premise (and not just Presley’s package). Why use so much time on waiting to find out whether Presley can press out a boner than playing with the bone-man meandering around the facility? It’s not that I don’t see what it also wants, but there just isn't enough meat on the bone for this old-guy-vs-ancient-guy concept, and in the end, it stands as a fun time at a retirement home but a pretty boring time at the movies…
+
I’m sorry Miss Vicky! I really wanted to like this; actually, I hoped to love it… It’s not that it downright sucks, though sucking souls out the human anubis kind of does, doesn’t it? Oh well, a zombie pharaoh snorefest to me, unfortunately.
“Bubba Ho-Tep”
2002
The King's back, baby...
The premise is utterly ridiculous but laid out the groundworks for what could be a campy class-act by Bruce Campbell, going balls out (or cock out) in this insane role of a might-be-might-not-be-Elvis-impersonator fighting a mighty Egyptian ex-emperor. It turned out that the best thing about this was indeed Campbell, as the King of Rock n' Roll, though there wasn't much rocking nor rolling going on in this film; it was more about walkers and rocking chairs than anything... and bed snakes... and beetles... and black guys pretending to be John F. Kennedy.
I liked the premise well enough, crazy as it might be, but to my surprise, the director somehow succeeded in creating something rather boring and uninteresting out of an idea that should ignite on arrival – instead it somewhat ignites in the end though appearing dead on arrival. Campbell's character was either bedridden or trying to get rid of beetles for most of the movie, all the while the other half of the (un)dying on-screen duo was introduced surprisingly late in the movie. The two of them did have some great chemistry but didn’t get to confront their common summoned enemy before the last half hour, where the story finally sort of picks up. Honestly if it wasn't for Campbell, this movie would have been even worse than it already is, but thankfully he has such a great presence around him that he can keep this corpse of a movie alive throughout most of the runtime. But only “just”.
The idea of an evil dead Egyptian mummy acting as a menace for ageing old folks at a retirement home is quite "out there" and you would think the premise alone plays the movie along just fine. But the story would rather use its time on showing us bad b-movie beetles or blabbing about Elvis Presley's limp, lubed up leather-stretcher for a decent length of the runtime. Oh, and when on the topic of stretching and length, I was thinking the whole time how this movie would probably have worked much better as a short film, only to find out in the end that it is indeed based on a short story. So yeah, the short answer is, the runtime contradicts with the “funtime”, because while the premise is fun on paper it comes off as paper-thin when presented in feature length, given the amount of wicked weirdness in this undead pharaoh flick does fare well as a punchline, but can’t keep up the punches for 92 minutes.
I could have done with a successful effort of a more toned-down buddy comedy, which it seemingly tries to be, but can’t help but think about how this would have been if it gave me the whole package of its premise (and not just Presley’s package). Why use so much time on waiting to find out whether Presley can press out a boner than playing with the bone-man meandering around the facility? It’s not that I don’t see what it also wants, but there just isn't enough meat on the bone for this old-guy-vs-ancient-guy concept, and in the end, it stands as a fun time at a retirement home but a pretty boring time at the movies…
+
I’m sorry Miss Vicky! I really wanted to like this; actually, I hoped to love it… It’s not that it downright sucks, though sucking souls out the human anubis kind of does, doesn’t it? Oh well, a zombie pharaoh snorefest to me, unfortunately.