As played by Ossie Davis, this JFK is regal and staid, but he’s also something of an ass kicker. There’s no way that some dead dusty guy covered in bandages is going to take over the home. So JFK and Elvis team up to prevent just that from happening.

Sure, it’s a bit thin for a plot of a movie – at least it appears that way – but there’s a large chunk missing from the description. Because in a very real way, Bubba Ho-tep is about growing old, being forgotten, and being discarded like human refuse. The strange thing about the film is that it’s not just another instant cult film. The film has an emotional resonance that goes beyond silly action-horror. Although you won’t exactly cry during Bubba Ho-Tep, you’ll feel a connection with an old, fat, Elvis punching a mummy, and you’ll understand the anger and excitement in growing old.

Bruce is really great and gives a more nuanced performance (despite the fact that he’s playing a huge, Elvis with giant be-dazzled aviator glasses.) His longing for his life left behind is actually tangible, and it definitely leaves you to wonder if maybe this is indeed the way that Elvis is living now, because he was tired of his life and tired of his life of luxury.

But if the movie was all contemplation and reflection, I don’t suspect that I’d be too interested in such a weird thing. Because at it’s heart, it’s a movie about kicking mummy ass. The two men triumph over their own infirmities in order to conquer evil. There’s not much more joyful than that.

Movie Grade: A-

Video: 4 out of 5
It’s nice, but purposefully grainy. The colors run from deep browns to bright yellows, with little play in between. A very monochromatic looking film.
Widescreen Anamorphic – 1.85:1

Audio: 5 out of 5
A great grade, especially considering the indie roots. The surrounds get plenty of workout, with no scarab beetle scurry left unheard.
English (Dolby 5.1)

Extras: 4 out of 5
The commentaries: the track with Bruce and director Don Coscarelli is not to be missed. They cover all the bases of making an independent film, and in that way is a perfect companion to the Evil Dead commentaries. The “Bruce as Elvis” track isn’t great, but I guess it’d be hard to Vamp as Elvis for an hour and a half. The Making of Bubba Ho-tep is 25 minutes of pretty good behind the scenes, and gives some great information about the genesis of the project. Next are three featurettes which run about 20 minutes total, and cover the mummy creation, Elvis costumes and the music in the film. One of my favorite extras has the writer of the short story (Joe Lansdale) reading his very graphic (and funny) first section of Elvis vs. The Mummy. I’ll never look at Elvis’s twig and berries the same way. Finally, there are a few scattered and short deleted scenes, and some galleries.

Overall: 4 out 5
Bubba Ho-tep is the perfect combination of a film with some great work by Bruce and Ossie, and culty-action-horror. Recommended for all die-hard horror fans, and those who love to see Campbell camp it up.

City of God

Rocket’s family and friends are easily drawn into the violence, even though he’s trying not to be part of it – He wants to be a photographer; it’s his way of escaping and detaching himself from his world. But try as he might, it’s a inevitable that he’s somehow going to be involved, even in the periphery.

City of God is one of the most electrifying films I’ve seen in a long while. This director* is like the demon spawn of Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarentino, Guy Ritchie, PT Anderson and Martin Scorsese. That’s not to say that the film is in any way derivative or a copycat of styles, because it certainly isn’t. It’s a cohesive cinematic language that makes sense given the subject matter of the story. The cast of City of God (almost completely made of non-actors) couldn’t be better. It’s amazing that they got so much acting talent out of kids that are essentially picked off the streets of Rio.

City of God hits the viewer with a blast of imagery and story which at first has little cohesiveness or narrative. It’s hard to keep track of who’s who. The movie does that thing where it switches narrative, time and skips over years in a single burst of film – something that we’ve come to love and enjoy from the directors that I mentioned above, but it’s really a breath of fresh air to see in a film so steeped in foreign narrative.

But it’s not just a visual explosion of crime and violence. There’s a story of crime families, rising to power, losing power, that’s worthy of any comparisons to Goodfellas or The Godfather. Of course, there is one glaring omission in all of this: it’s a film that stars children and young people almost exclusively.

Yes, thanks to the rise of drugs and crime, the street and poverty stricken children of Brazil are the ones who took to the street, formed crime families and roving bands of armed murders. These are YOUNG children. As young as seven, picking up guns and committing atrocities. In this way, City of God doesn’t at all elicit the same kind of reaction that The Sopranos does, the elevated view of crime as something cool. No, it’s rather sickening, seeing the way that these children’s lives

City of God is one of those films that you’ll just have to watch over and over again for some of the amazing sequences and heartbreaking material. I can’t wait until you see it.

Movie Grade: A+

* In all fairness, there’s been a bit of controversy about the real director of this film. It seems that Lund directed the actors, and Meirelles did the other, visual stuff and editing. When he was nominated for an Academy Award, but she wasn’t, there was a bit of uncomfortableness. After seeing the film, and the performances that these kids give, I think it’s fair to say that authorship is a 50 / 50 split of 100% fucking awesome.

Video: 5 out of 5
A foreign film looking kick ass? This transfer is very solid, with the colors balanced quite well. Of course, like a good film nowadays, there’s lots of post-production bleach bypass, purposeful grain, and other visual tricks that hit you in the gut.
Widescreen Anamorphic – 1.85:1

Audio: 4 out of 5
A really, really strong audio track that once again had me surprised. The effects are used almost constantly, but never become gratuitous. Lots of grand sweeps, gunfire, screams and music enter and swirl around your head.
Brazilian Portuguese (Dolby 5.1)

Extras: 3.5 out of 5
It’s surprising that I’m giving this grade to a film with just one extra, but it’s a damn good one. “News from a Personal War” is an hour long look at Brazil’s poor favelas in 1997, more than 15 years after the events in the film. Sadly, not much has changed. The camera crew goes with both the police and drug runners in Rio, following them and trying to get to the root of the problems there. It also features some fascinating interviews with the Police Chief, who’s surprisingly forthcoming and intelligent about his fight against crime.

Overall: 5 out of 5
If you’re a fan of films (and even if you hate reading subtitles) I couldn’t recommend City of God more highly. It’s a great crime-action-drama with a great South American twist. Disturbing and exciting.

Year: 2002
Written by: Bráulio Mantovani /
Based on the book by Paulo Lins:
Directed by: Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen and Douglas Silva
Details: 130 mins / Miramax / Rated R

Lucky for the film viewing public, this second installment of the Spider-Man franchise takes everything right with the first movie and improves upon it. The first Spider-Man was a great movie – a competent and exciting film, deftly directed and finely acted for a superhero movie. But it almost seemed like it wasn’t big enough.

Even though the film has some serious caliber acting talent (I’ll get to that in a second), the real star of the show is director Sam Raimi. We all know and love the man’s low budget movies, most especially Evil Dead. But with the first Spider-Man, he was forced or chose to tone down his signature style for a more straightforward blockbuster-action oriented approach. With Spider-Man 2, Raimi brings back his unabashedly frenetic style. In one tremendously exciting sequence, Doc Ock’s arms madly attack doctors in manner lifted directly out of Evil Dead 2. With no music in the background, we see huge optical zooms, blood and shaky-cam as the horror-hag screams of terror fly through the soundscape.