The King and JFK, ready to rumble!
And that’s no typo.
Elvis Presley. Jack Kennedy.
In a nursing home together.
Menaced by a possessed mummy.
Sounds awful. It’s not. It’s Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). Bruce Campbell, real life author of a memoir of B-movie acting, portrays The King, who, in a complicated deal, jettisoned his life style burdens without jettisoning his life. But he awakens in a nursing home, weak and hurt, the victim of an accident – and now the small town hearse is making more than frequent stops at this nursing home as something, heralded by scuttling scarabs of monstrous girth, has begun harvesting the simple souls who have gathered here for their final years.
But Elvis and his buddy, JFK, are a hobbling step faster than whatever it is chasing after them, and soon they’re in full investigative mode, discovering what it might be – and what might best deal with something that can disappear and reappear in its nightly quest for sustenance.
Even this plot summary may sound ghastly, but intertwined are the realizations and regrets that come with 40 or more years of the bigger-than-life living that both men ventured upon – lost connections to loved ones, the relentless chasing after desires vs the responsibilities that could have been their’s to bear – and how those responsibilities might have enhanced their lives. Add in the random humiliations of nursing home living, and this moves from a trite caricature of a plot to an off-beat story that captures one’s interest, makes one think about the choices to be made before the end comes for you – and what you’ll do if that end is a shambling, soul sucking mummy from Egypt.
In the middle of Texas.
Not quite recommended, but chances are you’ll enjoy this if you chance upon it – and give it that chance.
