Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death," then missed his chance to switch back. He must team up with JFK and fight an ancient Egyptian mummy for the souls of their fellow residents.
28 Sep Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
The Singing Detective
For those who don’t know it, ‘The Singing Detective’ was the only decent thing I know that TeeVee has produced. It was one of those longish movies they call a miniseries. It featured a man in a hospital who imagined himself to be a famous singer.
We follow his fantasies and remembrances that merge with the present. Odd and mystical things happen. The present reality features a malady that requires his nurse to grease his privates daily. He is obsessed with the female ‘love muff.’ The war hero next to him hacks humorously and dies. There is a scarecrow that haunts him. He kills an insect that ’causes’ everything else.
All of these things are imported here. If you know the source, you can really appreciate the harmonics in the story. The original was a meditation on the fictional properties of life and a self-referential annotation on how we the observer, the writer, the actor and the subject can overlap.
It played against ’30s music. Here we have something more cinematic: playing against horror films, with references far and wide within the genre. But also without as well. That business about JFK registers with me, especially with the head of sand reference, and the noir narrative.
You owe it to yourself to see this. I recommend it, but only after experiencing the original.
Campbell’s performance was influenced I think by Robert John Burke, especially his monster in ‘No Such Thing.’ Consider this film as having that theme and tone, and it all comes alive.
Posted in 2004
Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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