 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2002 film release Bubba Ho-Tep, which if you're not familiar with Bubba Ho-Tep, stop this video. Go watch it. I do recommend it for people who are into horror Bubba Ho-Tep. I've owned this on DVD for a decent amount of time Been a fan of this for a while Re-watching it. It was even better than I remember it being to be honest because there's a lot going on in this film. So With this there are two forces kind of coming together in this movie that I really really love two people in particular Who I'll talk about that makes me love the film even more than I otherwise would so obviously Bruce Campbell's in this film So many people love Bruce Campbell. He's got such a wonderful following Met him recently super nice guy. I've always loved his work. I think he's just a character actor He's one of those cool character actors who Yeah, I mean if you if you like one of his characters, you like all of his characters pretty much You just like his acting style. He's just got this way about him. He's very like confident. He's snarky Fun times you can tell he has a good time with his roles. So he's in this But I also think that Ozzie Davis does an exceptional job in this. Oh spoilers by the way It's gonna be a bunch of spoilers in this so Ozzie Ozzie Davis as the the man in the wheelchair who says they died Me black. I'm JFK. They took a little portion of my brain out and put a sandbag in there There's like sand in there. I don't know but He does a really good job with that role as well So Bruce and Ozzie do a wonderful job Also, there's a small small role for Reggie Bannister in this which I greatly appreciate because I love Reggie Bannister From all the phantasm films. I'm a huge phantasm fan ph an So that leads me to the other force with this film that I'm all about is Don Cascarelli I really love Don Cascarelli mainly because of the phantasm films that he's given us I I also like he's he's a fiercely independent filmmaker From what I know I've heard an interview with him and he tries to do all his stuff independently He tries to not have too much interference from actual production companies that aren't his own so a lot of the times What he's putting together is severely low budget and it kind of seems that way a lot of times But he does try and go as big as he can on practical effects Which is another thing I appreciate but his stories or what he chooses to use as his story For inspiration for a film are always kind of weird and I and I like the weird obviously phantasm super weird concept Bubba Hotep is also a very weird concept But I like it. I like the weird original interesting ideas and horror This is actually based Bubba Hotep's based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale who is a very established horror writer I actually haven't read any of his stuff But I've seen some films and short films that are based on stories of his so I Will get to reading some of his stuff one that I really want to check out because I heard an interview with him And he was talking about it in depth the drive-in. I think yeah, it's just called the drive-in apparently the concept is like Some like meteor hits hits the earth and and people at this drive-in are then like stuck at this drive-in movie theater And then they start like mutating and there's all sorts of wacky things that happen And then they have to create their own Society because they're trapped there and it gets really weird. It sounds fun. It sounds Nutty and sounds like it's up my alley. So I want to check that out. I have a lot of Respect for Joe R. Lansdale because I know What he's done. I just haven't read any of it yet Okay, so this movie just about broke even when it was released They came out $200,000 ahead. So that's not a whole lot Especially when you're putting a lot of time and work into a film like this So they probably wish they would have made a lot more money than that, but hey, it didn't lose money. So that's a good thing It pretty much hit cult sets cult status out of the gate It got pretty pretty good reviews to be honest and a lot of people liked it immediately they had been putting it on a bunch of festival circuits and Between hitting the festival circuit and doing that as much as they could and Bruce Campbell being in it because he has that star power With people in the horror community People were drawn to it pretty quick as soon as it hit DVD. So it was kind of an immediate cult status film, which I'm glad Sequel was going to happen. It had a script But it didn't get enough interest from investors That is a story that you end up hearing a lot in Hollywood, especially with horror films, although You know, I say that but maybe I don't know maybe it's not especially with horror films I just am more keyed into horror films because that's my thing. So Excuse me. So maybe it's prevalent with everything every genre. I don't know But doing my research. I didn't know about this. We didn't get a sequel, but apparently I need to look into this IDW publishing which does comic books did a five-issue Prequel to this film called Bubba Hotep and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers and Joe R. Lansdale Supervised that project. So I'm gonna need to find that because that sounds awesome Okay, so let's get into the actual film portion of it. This is shot very well I love the way it's shot. It has quick shots where it needs to have quick shots But and that's another thing. It's edited very well, too. The pacing is decent Yeah, I mean if you're familiar with with what Don Cosperilli's done in the past the way he directs the way his cinematography is It's very good. He does it well. He chooses shots. Well, it looks aesthetically pleasing. It's good So this actually immediately puts directly in your face The depression of being in an assisted living home, which actually speaks to a much larger theme Which I'm gonna talk about a little bit more later And it kind of gets you know, it lets you know immediately that like this is a fun movie because The main character as you first meet him at his Bruce Campbell saying that he's actual Elvis that everyone says Oh, you're Sebastian half sir. You're misremembering. You have dementia or something. He's like, no, no No, I am actual Elvis. I switched places with Sebastian half He likes drugs even more than I did had a heart attack and died and now I'm stuck at Sebastian half Even though I am actual Elvis. I'm the king So you meet this character immediately and you're just like, oh, this is gonna be like quirky comedy fun But they do a really good job of also giving you the message that this is also about something else. It's about Aging and it's about what happens to you when you age And I'm gonna talk to talk to that a little bit more So for that reason it is fun and funny, but it's also very serious and has a lot of heart to it And there is impact if you're really paying attention to the film So one of the cool things they did with this is they Did a really good job of portraying that Bruce Campbell's character Sebastian half or Elvis as you want to however you want to put it because it's never really fleshed out like You could see it being either way You could be like he's got dementia and he just thinks he's Elvis or you could see it as he actually was Elvis So choose to believe it how you want. They leave it very ambiguous and I kind of like that about the film So the days just blur together for him and they did a really good job of visually portraying that He's getting like flashes of things happening He's not even sure that he's seeing certain things and it's all just blurring together So I can imagine that that's kind of how it is being an assisted living home Especially when you're not doing a whole lot which they portray with his character He's laying in bed a lot and that's kind of how it seems to be with a lot of assisted living homes Is that they're just kind of hanging out, you know, they're just there Which sucks so Yeah, I feel like that's probably an accurate portrayal So then there's the moment where the daughter of his roommate who passes away comes in and she starts just throwing all these things out including pictures of her father his purple heart she throws out his purple heart and Sebastian half or Elvis I'll just say Bruce Campbell's character Bruce Campbell's character is like can I at least have his purple heart He was very proud of that thing. So this kind of speaks to one of those themes of like what happens as you age Our society in general at least in the United States is very geared towards young people It's all about people who can be in the workforce and contribute in that way It's all about the young It's all about marketing the young people and when you age to a certain level You're just kind of viewed as persona non grata in a sense and that plays out in this film a few ways One way is with this daughter coming in and just throwing out all her father stuff I mean he just died and she's just basically like all right It's over dead and gone and it kind of raises this question of when you get older the appreciation for you Drops significantly because you're not young anymore because Everyone else who is young is so focused on their own lives and other people around their age And you're just kind of looked at is you had your life You're done now go sit in this assisted living home or lay down in this assisted living home and wait for death And on top of that it's kind of this What do you do and and did your life even matter like when you're gone are your memories there did what you do What you did during your life did it matter did it have an impact will people remember you and with this This woman coming in and throwing all her father stuff away. It's showing that she's just kind of like all right That's the end. That's the end of his life Moving on and the memory does not live on really and that's pretty sad to be honest The other thing is sexuality kind of going away, which which plays a lot with Bruce Campbell's character because he keeps talking about how you know back in his day He would he would get erections all the time and and have no problem But now that he's older He has a problem with it and it's very depressing and then talking about how he could get women if you wanted to But now all these women look at him and they just see him as nothing basically and that's kind of what happens You know unless unless it's you're with other older individuals and you know There can still be a sex life in at old age, which I'm sure some people heard that we're like eww gross But hey, you know, it's it's healthy if you want to do it all good, but There is this this Overall idea that you age out of sexuality too and you're no longer looked at that way Which has to be particularly tough for males because you know being a male I know that that sex is a big thing in your life And especially when you're like young that's one of your big driving factors. I mean, it's it's an animalistic Tendency, it's natural. It's not ridiculous. It's an actual Nature-driven thing to procreate to be driven to procreate Although we're at a societal point where we don't have to procreate so we'll actually have sex for fun But that urge is still there. It's still driven by nature and so I can't imagine as a male getting to that point where That's not a thing anymore. Like you can't even engage in that and people don't look at you that way And well, I mean your loved one loved ones females Relationships wouldn't look at you that way anymore really so it's kind of hard to wrap your mind around And I think they do a good job portraying that with Bruce Campbell's character in this film This is what I'm saying. They're like many many facets to the idea of aging and obviously a lot of this Credit goes to Joe R. Lansdale who wrote the short story. I would assume Um Keeps it. Oh, yeah, I already talked about it You know keeps it relatively ambiguous, which I like whether he's actually Elvis or not Bruce Campbell as Elvis is everything in this movie. I wrote down. It is so fun to just watch him chew the scenery It it looks like I mean he could fool me if it's not the case But it looks like he's having a really good time playing Elvis in this role Every time he's on the screen. It's just fun the way he plays it There's so much joy in it. I love it. Like I said, he's everything in this film one of the main reasons to watch it There's a good casual comedy to this that's throughout the entire thing And the action the delivery from the actress actually helps a lot too. So there was a good job writing kind of casual comedy It's not like over the top. It's not too understated. It's kind of like this nice kind of medium level and the performances of Ozzy Davis and Bruce Campbell in particular really helps sell those lines and I love it and their interplay between the two of them It's very believable what's going on between those two and I and it's a lot of fun So the scarab beetles in this that show up initially a lot of people probably don't people just like beetles It's supposed to be scarab beetles since they're tied into the whole ancient Egypt mummy thing So the scarab beetles look Appropriately hokey, I would say like they look like that perfect mix of hokey and realistic And it makes sense because this is a film that has a lot of comedy to it So that fits in some other films like say they look like that for you know The the Brendan Fraser the mummy wouldn't work so well because it's too much on the comedic end They were going for more serious although there is a little bit of comedy But for this perfect love love the way it looks and practical effects once again love that as I've said so many times the scene of Bruce Campbell and Ozzy Davis's characters going to battle at the very end is wonderful in this film that It's like it always sticks out in my mind That is the one scene I remember most from this film when I think back to it It's them coming down the hallway in the assisted living home Ozzy Davis's character in his motorized wheelchair and right next to him Bruce Campbell's character with a walker which my wife was watching this with me and she's an occupational therapist So she knows about walking assisted walking devices and she was just like he's not he's not using that walker correctly and I turned to her I was like Rebecca I I don't think they really cared about that when they were making this film She's like well, I'm just saying if they wanted to make this realistic. That's not and I'm like I don't think they really care and I think your your typical viewer doesn't either and they probably don't even pick up on it They're just like, you know, whatever Because that's not what that scene is about that scene is about These old people who everyone thinks are useless to society at this point pretty much forgotten and left there for dead and It's their badass moment They have a new lease on life and Bruce Campbell's character talks about this in the film when the mummy shows up at the Assisted Living Home and he has something to get involved in something to investigate something to fight against it makes him feel Invigorated again, and he's just like he has something to live for it's not all about just laying there and waiting for death anymore it's about getting involved having some action and Just seeing that moment of them being motivated and they're like Yeah, we're at the end of our lives, but we're still gonna make a difference And we're gonna save the souls of all these other other individuals at this assisted living home It's just a badass moment for these older gentlemen who people look at it and just like whatever their life is over Not so much because they're going to be heroes, and I love I just love that moment The music is great in all such situations in this in my opinion especially at the end when you have the very impactful moments of Both the characters dying basically passing away The heartfelt music that plays is very well done, and it really helps those scenes And it's impactful. It really is because You know they went out on top in a sense the these guys The whole movie is basically a meditation on aging and if life even matters once you've passed away I kind of talked about this a little bit, but it's this kind of it makes you think if you're really watching the film paying attention You know when I age how are people gonna view me when I die are people gonna remember me It kind of plays to those fears I feel like a lot of people have those fears in life is what happens as I age to my body To you know my mind to how people think of me how people view me My interaction with society My ability to do things on a daily basis, but then also when I'm wet when I die Will people remember me while I leave a legacy and I feel like that's why a lot of people have children for that reason, but That doesn't guarantee it as you see in this film with that daughter Throwing all her father's things out because she's just you know, she didn't care So this plays to a lot of fears about aging and dying and these are fears That should resonate with everyone because it will happen to everyone and for this reason It's not just a good movie because it's fun and there's good comedy to it It's a good movie because it has an actual message It really has something to say and it should resonate with pretty much everyone I mean it certainly resonates with me as you can tell and The last thing I just said The last thing I want to say about it is a more simplistic version of what I was saying is this film has a lot of heart Because it has a lot to say and I really like it. I love this film It's it's a really good time and I feel like every time I do watch it, which it's been a while since the last time Every time I do watch it. I'm reminded how good it is Like I always remember liking it and then I watch it and I like it more than I remember liking it So It's the gift that keeps on giving every time you watch it. So thank you Bruce Campbell. Thank you Ozzie Davis Thank you Don Cascarelli Thank you Joe R. Lansdale and thank you to everyone who came together to make the film possible because it is an Awesome cult classic Hopefully everyone enjoyed this review now. I'm gonna do my star rating on this one Five stars out of five stars with half stars in play Four stars I'm gonna give us a four star. I think it's firmly there. It makes a lot of sense. This is a four star film It's a good thanks everyone for checking this out. If you haven't seen this film I would have hoped you didn't go all the way through this because it spoiled a bunch of stuff But go watch the movie anyway. It's totally worth it. Hit that subscribe if you can for me That's your one way to pay me back cost you no money like a second of your life and It can mean a lot for my channel So thank you for checking this out though spread the word if you can until next time keep it brutal