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madlucas
tv casualty
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: on the move
Posts: 1266 |
bubbaho-tep - must see
Bruce Campbell plays Elvis (elvis never really died, you see) and fights an ancient egyptian entity who haunts his retirement home
http://www.bubbahotep.com/
or skip the flash/trailer intro and go straight to the site
http://www.bubbahotep.com/main.html
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Bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They fucking charge your ass.
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05-13-2003 07:52 PM |
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Aydin
Rice King
Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795 |
Anything having to do with Elvis is an abomination and a sin in the eyes of God.
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05-13-2003 08:03 PM |
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buddha's penis
mourning wood
Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355 |
i've been waiting for this for a while. i don't think i'll be able to watch it for a while longer. come on, national release!
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05-13-2003 08:08 PM |
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CRSR
°Hits Moi!°
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Montreal
Posts: 3002 |
fantastic!
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05-13-2003 11:14 PM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
Did you see it, Lucas? WastedP and I were talking about this several months ago. I can't fucking wait, but I suspect living in the boonies I'm going to have to wait for a video release on this one.
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05-13-2003 11:52 PM |
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madlucas
tv casualty
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: on the move
Posts: 1266 |
no, I haven't seen it yet, but I want to. I did a quick search but couldn't find any sorts of dates for release for public consumption in the US. granted, I didn't search all that hard .. any idea?
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Bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They fucking charge your ass.
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05-15-2003 03:22 AM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
Bad-mojo, THIS is what AICN is good for.
Lucas, according to what I'm reading, the movie has already been made but is having trouble finding a distributor. Meaning, nobody wants to buy it, but at screenings, it's getting real good word of mouth.
(From March 13, not sure on where, as I mostly just skimmed down to the Bubba-ho-tep part).
To close the evening off, I finally got the chance to see Bubba Ho-Tep. It seems like everyone at SXSW had already seen it, but I was psyched as hell to check it out. Good lord it did not disappoint.
What pitch sold the premise of a black JFK and aging Elvis Presley fighting against a mummy that sucks the souls of elderly out of their buttholes??? This movie was so incredibly badass that I found myself just laughing at myself when I got caught up in it. I mean, I was watching a movie where JFK and Elvis are fighting a mummy for Christ sakes!
Bruce Campbell defines cool. My god this man is a living legend. He was perfect as the King. Ossie Davis was freakin’ great too. I can’t imagine anyone doing it better.
For the love of crap, someone buy this film and give it proper distribution. I met Don Coscarelli at a panel and he was an incredibly nice guy, shy even! He has made an amazing film here and it will easily earn its share.
From the Brussels Film Festival of Fantasy Films, where it was screened. (from March 28)
13. BUBBAHOTEP (Don Coscarelli, USA)
Well, I have to say I was expecting more. Bruce Campbell is fantastic, and giving him the chance to portray Elvis seems like perfect casting right? Well, he does perform well, but the surrounding film is not as exciting or interesting as it could be. There is too much pondering self-reflection going on, when what the audience wants (from a film about a reincarnated Mummy killing OAPs in a retirement home at least) is action, comedy and gore in the style of the EVIL DEAD films. Director Coscarelli (PHANTASM) seems to be deliberately holding back to give Campbell a chance to really act, but I don't think this is the right kind of material to do that with.
Those are the two most recent ones.
Harry, however, sums up the potential future of this film, as only Harry can:
"BUBBA HO-TEP unleashes in Hollywood and Sam Raimi 'Loved it!', but what does he know, not like he made a hit recently..
Hey folks, Harry here... Ya know.. there are times where I just get very frickin' pissed at studios. Dimension Films doesn't think twice about dropping 20 million on a shitty genre film. Revolution and Sony pictures often drop 10s of millions on bad genre films. Same with Warner Brothers, Artisan, Disney and the others. For significantly less than that, they can pick up the rights to BUBBA HO-TEP... Put a strong advertising commitment in place selling the concept of ELVIS PRESLEY vs a MUMMY... Ads that sell the idea that Elvis is alive and well in an old folks home in bumfuck Texas. Selling the concept that John F Kennedy is alive at the same home dyed black and forced into hiding by his enemies. Put Ossie Davis and Bruce Campbell on STERN talking about dripping diseased growths on their peckers and sucking the souls out of anuses... Put em on Letterman, Leno, Conan and the rest. The concept is a helluvalot more fun than any of the comedies we've seen being sold to the public. It is intense originality and the film ENTERTAINS AUDIENCES! We've been running reviews from audiences at festivals all over the world for nearly a year now.... WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION? Pull your head out, let go of the X-BOX control and get this movie released WIDE! It will play like crazy. On top of it being a great movie... Bruce Campbell is entertaining as hell in interviews, in front of audiences and take a look at the home video sales on the EVIL DEAD series.... DO IT! Go look em up! Why does McFarlane Toys CONTINUALLY Make ASH toys... same with SIDESHOW? There's a big bunch of people that love him and are just looking for an excuse to drag friends to discover him. Here's a bunch of reviews from the screening at the Egyptian tonight...
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14598
Moriarty, the second in command of AICN, calls it the 9th best film of last year.
Don Coscarelli and Joe R. Lansdale are the sick, silly minds responsible for this deep-fried monster movie featuring excellent work by fanboy fave Bruce Campbell and a surprisingly affecting appearance by Ossie Davis.
When you try to describe the plot to someone, they look at you like you’re farting the National Anthem, and for good reason. An elderly Elvis Presley, who didn’t die thanks to a late career PRINCE AND THE PAUPER-style switch of lifestyles with his best impersonator, is serving out his last days in a miserable Texas retirement home, where he’s friends with an elderly black man who believes he is JFK, the victim of extensive plastic surgery after a failed assassination attempt. Together, they have to stop a mummy that is killing the other residents of the home. Coscarelli doesn’t go for the easy joke, and he seems to have been given a real kick in the seat as a filmmaker by the Lansdale source material. He invests these characters with a peculiar dignity, and the actors give it all they’ve got. This is shameless fun, the kind of film I’d have to call a guilty pleasure if it wasn’t so damn good.
And, as Harry mentioned, there are a ton of reviews of the movie posted at AICN, which, apparantly, is second only to the site you linked (Lucas) in terms of spreading word of mouth about this movie.
www.upcomingfilms.com doesn't have it listed, so to this day, the movie still has not found distribution.
DAMN I'm good.
And by the way, it is, apparantly, BUBBA HO-TEP
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05-15-2003 04:18 AM |
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WastedPotential
sociotard
Registered: Aug 2000
Location: the heart of an awl
Posts: 3692 |
I looked up the release date for this last week and was disappointed.
I don't know how much it would cost to distribute this, but if you combined it with the broadcast and home video rights, you could retire off the steady stream of revenue it would produce.
Jesus Christ, i think Superstation would be morally obligated to show this twice a week, as would every Campbell fanboy to purchase the dvd.
but most importantly, i have been waiting for this movie for two years. this is ridiculous.
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05-17-2003 05:56 AM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
Cost to buy the rights to it is a million and change, I hear.
Studios are run by pussies.
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05-17-2003 06:00 AM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
Oh, which of course doesn't include however much it would cost them to actually distribute and promote it, which would be significantly more, but still.
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05-17-2003 06:02 AM |
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WastedPotential
sociotard
Registered: Aug 2000
Location: the heart of an awl
Posts: 3692 |
it would make it all back and then some.
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05-18-2003 07:31 PM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
Another AICN review.
Any review with this line, deserves to be included:
"This movie is not your typical Elvis and JFK vs. mummy in a nursing home movie, and that's what really impressed me about it."
Here.
Dear Harry,
Like I promised I'm back with more incredibly insightful and well Written SIFF coverage and last night I went to the midnight show of BUBBA HO TEP. I know you guys have already reviewed the shit out of this movie but personally I never read any of those reviews because I was waiting for me to review it. And I sincerely doubt I was the only one. So here it is folks, your very first look at BUBBA HO TEP.
The first thing you have to know about BUBBA HO TEP is that it is the director of PHANTASM and BEASTMASTER doing a movie where Bruce Campbell plays an elderly Elvis Presley in a rest home who teams up with Ossie Davis who thinks he's JFK and they fight a mummy wearing a cowboy hat who tries to suck old people's souls out of their assholes.
Actually, that's the only thing you need to know about the movie. I trust that I have sold all of you. The end.
Now some of you may be asking, who the hell is Bruce Campbell and why should I care? Well, Bruce Campbell is a phenomenon that hasn't quite hit the internet yet, but I predict that some day he will have a bit of a cult following here. You would probaly recognize him if you saw him, he was in the opening scene of CONGO and one time he was on an episode of X-FILES. Also he did a remake of one of the Herbie the Lovebug movies for TV and a ripoff of TWISTER. It's hard to explain but some day you will see some of his movies and like his delivery of oneliners so much that you will become embarassingly worshipful of him, saying "Bruce Campbell is GOD!!!" and going on every talkback demanding that Bruce Campbell play every character in every movie ever, especially if that character is Spider-man, Super-Man, Bat-man or Daredevil-man. And then you will remember that it was ol' Vern that turned you onto Bruce Campbell and you will thank me.
No don't worry I'm just shitting you, I know you people are obsessed with Bruce because of EVIL DEAD. But apparently the Seattle International Film Festival doesn't know that because BUBBA HO TEP is one of the few movies they only scheduled one show of. Of course it was one of the first screeningss of the festival to sell out and there was a long line of optimistic hardcores waiting outside failing to get rush tickets.
When I first heard about this movie I thought two things:
1. How in fuck's name did they get Ossie Davis to do this movie and
B) What a goofy ass idea for a movie.
What I didn't realize is that this wasn't just some silly high concept b-movie idea, it's actually an adaptation of a short story by Joe R. Lansdale. Now I never heard of the dude before but maybe you have Harry because he's from Texas and he invented a martial art. Most ofl the great horror pictures of the classic era are based on literature, from DRACULA to FRANKENSTEIN to THE INVISIBLE MAN and this is the same kind of deal. The only difference is that it has Elvis and alot of it is about him being sad that he can't get a boner. There's alot of internal dialogue in an Elvis voice. It feels very literary like it must be very faithful to the original short story. Still I wouldn't be surprised if years down the line we get a highñminded big budget Francis Ford Coppola produced remake called Joe R. Lansdale's Bubba Ho Tep.
This movie is not your typical Elvis and JFK vs. mummy in a nursing home movie and that's what really impressed me about it. It doesn't really take as much of a silly slapstick approach as you might expect. For starters, it has kind of a languid pace and low key action that is appropriate to a movie where the heroes are in a nursing home. Elvis spends alot of the movie in bed, and when he does decide to go out and take on the mummy he does it with the aid of a walker and a wheelchair.
I gotta be honest, I am not a fan of mummies. All that Egyptian shit is great and Boris Karloff's makeup was incredible. But then the mummy sits most of the movie out and when he's there he's just this crumbling old corpse that walks slower than Jason Voorhees and without the ability to magically catch up anyway. Even the Hammer mummy movies are boring and of course I don't need to tell you that the more recent mummy movie with whatsisname, Harry's co-star from MONKEY BONE, was one of the most moronic and ineffective pieces of big budget garbage and filth that any of us have ever had to sit through that was not directed by Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich.
That's part of the genius of this movie though because a) the suckiness of mummies allows the film to center on the heroes instead of the villains, which is rare in horror. And second of all, some slow walking mummy asshole is a pretty good physical match for a fat old man who can barely walk. It's a fair fight.
The direction is solid and they treat the subject with a fairly straight face. There are some pretty good atmospheric scenes of the rest home at night where they make rest homes seem creepy like empty hospitals or abandoned insane asylums or haunted slaughterhouses. As you'd expect, there's plenty of pop iconography type of crap, lots of little jokes about Elvis and JFK, like Elvis working "thankyouveramuch" into conversations or JFK keeping framed mugshots of Lee Harvey Oswald in his room. These were the crowdpleasing moments. I liked how Elvis feebly puts on his trademark gold glasses in order to see, and how he still knows karate.
But what impressed me most about the movie was that it was less of a caricature of Elvis than you'd expect. This is definitely going to be remembered as one of Mr. Campbell's great roles outside of Ashley in the EVIL DEAD pictures. We all love him because of his great physical acting in EVIL DEAD 2 and his cocky delivery of one liners. But usually he's playing the same character. Here he tries to actual transform into Elvis and he ends up with a more multi-layered performance. On the first layer it's an Elvis impersonation but on the next layer he has to convey his loneliness, his guilt about leaving his family and his embarassment about the pathetic state of his body and/or penis. He is also playing a character that is much older and fatter than he is, and has to do action scenes as a feeble old man. He manages to pull all of these things off. Elvis has been an old joke since before most of the newsies were even born, but by making him a sympathetic character first and the king of rock n roll second Mr. Campbell turns him into a great screen character.
And let's be honest, as much as we all love Bruce the guy hasn't had that many truly good roles. There's Ash, and I thought the bank robbery picture RUNNING TIME was pretty good, and he was funny in those crappy tv shows he used to do, and then there's uh... I mean he was on HOMICIDE once. That's about it. Most of his movies there's no fuckin way any of you guys would watch them if somebody else was starring. It's not his fault, he does a good job but let's just be frankly honest here. And as long as we're doing that let's admit that EVIL DEAD 2 is the best of the trilogy and ARMY OF DARKNESS is the worst, and the theatrical cut of ARMY is way better than the director's cut. Please agree in talkbacks below thank you.
So Bruce makes this movie but almost as important is Ossie Davis as the guy who thinks he's JFK. I thought the idea would be that JFK's brain was implanted into a different body, but no, this character believes that he is the body of JFK but that his brain has been replaced by a bag of sand. And that Lyndon Johnson is chasing him. Ossie Davis plays the character with all the conviction you would imagine from Ossie Davis and that makes it hilarious. Elvis knows this guy's a nutcase but he's the only guy who believes that he's actually Elvis, so there is a bond that is pretty sweet.
One thing I noticed, there is no Elvis music in the movie. I guess they probaly couldn't get the rights, just like KURT AND COURTNEY. The Elvis estate did not want people to know the truth.
The way the movie ends it is hard to imagine they would do a sequel, which is kind of too bad. It leaves alot of unanswered questions, like why the hell is the mummy wearing a cowboy hat, and how in fuck's name did they get Ossie Davis to do this movie?
Anyway, this is a little more serious and thoughtful than you might expect but the kids at the SIFF midnight show behaved themselves and seemed to love it. So when you go see this movie, on my recommendation not because you were already planning to, I don't think you will be disappointed.
thanks
Vern
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05-27-2003 09:07 AM |
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Fiend
batshit crazy
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Bangor, ME
Posts: 10202 |
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/bubba_ho-tep/
The trailer is here! (damn you paint, you haven't been doing your job, the trailer has been out since July 27th)
and if you live in these cities, you are a lucky bastard.
September 26 - NEW YORK CITY - Angelika Film Center
October 3 - LOS ANGELES - Landmark's Nuart Theater/ Irvine - University 6
October 3 - SAN DIEGO - Landmark's Ken Theater
October 10 - SAN FRANCISCO - The Castro Theater
October 17 - CHICAGO - Landmark's Century Centre Cinema
October 24 - AUSTIN - (tentative- not yet confirmed with Tim at the Alamo)
November 7 - ATLANTA
September 19 - SEATTLE - Landmark's Varsity Theater
September 19 - PORTLAND - Cinema 21 Theater
aintitcool link
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08-14-2003 12:31 AM |
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mmmtravis
T-Raz w/ the freaky freak
Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 9089 |
wow, i think me's taking a road trip to the nyc.
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Fuck the Red Sox. Fuck the Patriots. Fuck the Celtics. Fuck Vegas. Fuck You. Fuck Boston.
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08-14-2003 03:11 AM |
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Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26506 |
quote:
Originally posted by Fiend
(damn you paint, you haven't been doing your job, the trailer has been out since July 27th)
So have I!
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08-14-2003 05:06 AM |
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Fiend
batshit crazy
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Bangor, ME
Posts: 10202 |
quote:
Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
So have I!
You've come out since July? Even though I've seen you since then, and experienced those uncomfortable advances since then, I'm happy for you.
Just stop looking at me that way.
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08-14-2003 05:39 AM |
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cw
cuntacular wench
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: . o O
Posts: 6497 |
The movie ROOLS!
Bruce did a Q&A after the showing for us too. He said it had been difficult to get the script past Ossie's agents and they had had several rejections before Ossie was given the script to read.
He spoke a bit about the difficulties in finding a distributor for the movie and how he had wanted it to be produced without changes to the original story. He called the movie "a redemptive elvis movie", not a horror movie, and jokingly apologized for the lack of body count.
The movie was very funny (and not in a cheesy "groan" kinda way) and more thoughtful and sincere than I had anticipated.
Here is the back of my souvenir t-shirt.
 Attachment: picture 35.jpg
This has been downloaded 143 time(s).
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10-06-2003 01:35 AM |
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DevilMoon
passive stalker?
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477 |
They gotta show it here. He's FROM here damn it. C'mon Campbell!
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10-06-2003 02:20 AM |
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cw
cuntacular wench
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: . o O
Posts: 6497 |
I wanna see it again. Who knows how long till a dvd release? 
News on the website reports "Due to the terrific box-office success of BH-T, the film will be opening soon in theaters near you."
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10-08-2003 01:49 AM |
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