Bubba Ho-Tep: 9 Thumbs Up! [spoiler]

From: chip@pobox.com (Chip Salzenberg)
Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2004

According to stang@subgeniusNOSPUMMY.com:
>The two main feeble rest home protagonists are Elvis Presley and JFK,
>or people who think they are Elvis and JFK, except, it really is Elvis.

[ spoiler warning ]

Are you sure? Consider that we never saw the daughter's face.

"This is my daughter."
"I know."

--
Chip Salzenberg - a.k.a. - <chip@pobox.com>
"It furthers one to have somewhere to go."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgeniusNOSPUM.com>

I just remembered another thing that I had forgotten by the movie's
ending. When Elvis is having flashbacks to when he killed the big bug
with the fork, he doesn't look like Elvis or Bruce Campbell or anybody
you've seen in the movie. *I THINK* They're really quick cuts. Which
would indicate that he's as nutty as "JFK."

But the point is, at the end, because he beat the mummy and achieved
Slack, so to speak, it doesn't MATTER whether WE think he's Elvis or
not. It doesn't matter if he IS just a crazy old Elvis impersonator. He
achieves full Elvishood at any rate.

I could go back and look at those quick cuts I suppose.

There is one shot in "Memento" which totally fucks everything up for
you, too, no matter how you've tried to interpret the movie otherwise.
Real quick cut of Leonard Shelby in bed WITH his live, sleeping wife,
WITH the tattoos. REAL quick. Makes NO sense no matter how you try to
figure it. Which in the case of THAT PARTICULAR movie is GOOD.

Movies where you think you're somebody and then find you're somebody
else are so plentiful now that it's about to pass over from cool "Phil
Dick experimental" to STUPID, CORNY and OVERUSED. Just in time for the
SubGenius movie!

--
4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected (Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
PRABOB

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>

"Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:
> Movies where you think you're somebody and then find you're somebody
> else ...

They do that in movies now too? That's like my life every day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgeniusNOSPUM.com>

nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com> wrote:
> "Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:
> >
> > Movies where you think you're somebody and then find you're somebody
> > else ...
>
> They do that in movies now too? That's like my life every day.

For the next year or two that's about ALL they'll do in movies, mark my
words. Handsome guys flying through the air in front of a fireball,
discovering that everything they ever imagined to be true was a total
lie and the whole world is really a _________ inside of a _________
inside of a _______. But with the power of TOUGHNESS they'll triumph
over the conspiracy of __________.

Hey, the new Dawn of the Dead is just like the old Dawn of the Dead --
only new! So far. (I'm watching it "in a theater," but only one reel at
a time, and on my TV.) Couldn't care less about a single character,
but the HELICOPTER SHOTS of SUBURBIA BURNING are 2-CUM-4.

Also saw the first half of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
which started making me feel like I took a shitload of LSD. It's yet
another of those True-Man Stories of Total Recall of the Matrix Memento
in Dark City, where a schlub finds out that "NOTHING IS REAL" and "HE
CAN'T TRUST HIS SENSES" and "EVERYTHING HE KNOWS IS WRONG" and blah
blah woof woof. Jim Carrey is not unbearable in this, surprise, because
the script has him being a QUIET, CLOSED-MOUTHED GUY, and he hardly
says a word. I haven't seen the last half yet, but the first half is
actually loads of fun to watch. One of those brain-teasers for which
you find yourself keeping mental notes of the outline of the story as
it grows, because it's all about memory and perception in the first
place, so you're forced into the protagonist's plight somewhat --
having to WORK to understand WHAT THE FUCK. Yeah yeah, like life every
day, etc etc etc. zzz. But sooner or later, the guy WILL end up flying
towards the camera in front of a fireball -- more like *MY* life every
day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>

Well, tonight Mrs. Nenslo and I watched Hello, Frisco, Hello starring
Alice Faye who is kind of a cute little blonde thing with a wonderful
deep voice, like if that little blonde gal Jennifer Lien from that star
trek show could sing. The "plot" is just a guy/girl formula but the
songs, sets and costumes, especially the luscious appliquéd velvet
shirtwaisty things, were FABulous, and in succulent Wartime Technicolor.
And I defy anyone to watch Jack Oakie sing, dance, and mug it up
without getting the giggles. Like Frank McHugh only with talent. Or if
totally screwed-up and over the top is what you crave, we recently
watched Take Me Out To The Ballgame for the former (screwed-upness) with
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra doing some insanely retarded song and dance
numbers and Esther Williams singing the title song in an irrelevantly
obligatory swimming pool scene, AND for the latter (over the topness) we
saw Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter which is just NUTS. Kind of
irritating but NUTS. The high point of Tony Randall's career, and the
most excessive bit of acting Henry Jones ever did. Weird and
hallucinatory in that 1957 Madison Avenue Grey Flannel Suit way. That
Jane Mansfield was frightening.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgeniusNOSPUM.com>

Ah so. I have heard that about Will Success Spoil RH from other
sources.

Back to the modern day movies. Last night We/I watched the end of
Svankmajer's "Conspirators of Pleasure," which Blackout posted last
week. This morning I woke up mulling over all the events in the last
reel which pointed back to events in the first reel, proving that all
these poor driven sexual compulsives were not strangers exactly but in
some strange sort of cahoots all along. No wonder they gave each other
such "knowing looks" in their "chance meetings" and "telegram
deliveries." God damn, people will do ANYTHING to get their nut. BUT
LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO! The chicken-head-mask dude's ritual
resulted in a miraculous actual real slaying of the fat lady, and you
could TELL the fat lady's ritual was in turn about to have SOME MANNER
of UNFILMABLY HIDEOUS RESULT because that's where they ended the movie.
I'm still wondering if the detective who likes rolling pins studded
with nails and feathers is gonna snip off that kitty-cat's tail.

Not a word of dialog in the whole movie!

We also watched the second half of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind," which turned out to be yet another of those "loop" movies, in
which, by the end, you realize what was REALLY happening at the
beginning, and you feel like you have to watch the movie all over again
immediately just to pick up on and relish all the clues that had been
cleverly planted. In this particular case, you figure that out by the
MIDDLE of the movie. Like "Memento," the actual story events are
extremely simple; it's just the way they're told -- mimicking the
confusion in the protag's head -- that makes it complicated and murky,
like real life only with movie stars and a script.

After Wei crashed, I continued watching and saw the rest of "Dawn of
the Dead" (2004). Wearisome ending. The first ten minutes of the movie
absolutely kick ass, however, SubGenius-Porno-wise. I've watched the
aerial shots over and over. After that it's pretty much standard Living
Dead Movie, very well done generally, but no real major alterations
from the original nor from the basic tradition. What stood out as I was
watching was the SCORE and SOUND DESIGN. Some of these Hollywood folks
have become quite sophisticated at figuring JUST the right level of
constant sinister undertone drone, and faintly heard creepy sound
effects, for building queasiness and sick dread. The fact that I
NOTICED the sound doesn't say much for the story, I suppose, but, as
horror movies go it's definitely a horror movie that delivers what you
tend to expect from a big budget horror movie. It's scary as shit.
Doesn't matter how much I'm noticing the effects, cutting, etc., this
kind of stuff still scares the beejeesis out of me. I couldn't even
finish the new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." But then, I couldn't finish
"Tribulation Force" either.


Up one level
Back to document index

Original file name: Re- Bubba Ho-Tep- 9 #1AD1CB.txt - converted on Saturday, 25 September 2004, 02:05

This page was created using TextToHTML. TextToHTML is a free software for Macintosh and is (c) 1995,1996 by Kris Coppieters