Bubba Ho-tep (DVD)

The King is alive and he is fighting a 4000 year-old mummy alongside "JFK". That's right Elvis has been spotted and at the age of 69 with a cancerous growth at the end of his penis he isn't letting anything stop him from becoming the hero he so desperately desires to be.

Bubba Ho-Tep is Don Coscarelli's adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale's short story of the same name and it tells the "true" story of what actually happened to the King of Rock and Roll. Elvis (Bruce Campbell) has managed to slide under the radar of the public eye and finds himself in a rest home in East Texas. Along with his new friend Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks he is President John F. Kennedy, they must battle an evil mummy that has been sucking the souls of the residents at Shady Rest.

Sounds silly right? Well it is and is one great time as Bruce Campbell never takes his role as Elvis too far over the top and Ossie Davis keeps you laughing with his straight faced depiction of a black man who thinks he really is John F. Kennedy and explains the skin change by saying, "They died me this way." Gotta love it.

While the special effects of the film aren't exactly stellar you have got to remember that it was made on a small budget and you will just have to roll with the punches.

The makeup they used to turn Bruce Campbell into the King and bring the mummy to life was more than enough to help me forget about anything that looked cheap. I also loved that they steered clear of using any Elvis music, and made him a real man, with real problems, without delving into his music, since I am not a huge Presley fan.

As far as the DVD goes, along with the film you also get a slew of special features, all of which are worth a view.

Starting with the audio commentaries they are everything you could ask for as the first is with director Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell and the second is with THE KING. That's right the second commentary is The King reporting to you from a secret location and it is great. You will love quotes like "Well that was a pretty cheap special effect" and "Hey look man there was a mummy." I am laughing just writing it.

Next you have four making-of featurettes all of which are excellent going into everything involved with production of the film from the actors, the sets, the makeup and so on, but the best of the best was the feature on the music of the film.

Bubba Ho-Tep has one hell of a soundtrack and the segment devoted to composer Brian Tyler is fantastic as Don Coscarelli sits down with him and discusses the creative process after which you are treated to a short music video showing Brian in the studio as he puts the entire soundtrack together himself looping instruments on top of one another. The man definitely deserves an applause.

Besides that you have your usual deleted scenes (skip 'em) and trailers and photo gallery, all of which are typical but not what you are going to buy this DVD to see.

Obviously the storyline tells you right away whether or not this is the film for you, you will either find it silly and want to see it, or you will find it silly and decide this isn't the one for you. I can tell you right now Bubba Ho-Tep is sure to become a classic as Campbell fans I am sure already own a copy.