What does one expect from a Bruce Campbell vehicle? Campbell, who secured a steady base of cult admirers with his efforts in Sam Raimi's first slew of C-quality gore fests known as the Evil Dead trilogy, is no stranger to tongue (firmly rooted) in cheek. 2002's Bubba Ho-Tep is certainly no exception. The film follows two senile conspiracy theorists who believe they are Elvis and (a black) JFK, respectively. As if that wasn't strange enough, they must save their retirement home from a centuries old mummy who has been stealing its inhabitant's souls by sucking them through their assholes. Ass jokes abound, what surprises is this film's compassion towards its thwarted protagonists. Both are reckognized for the kodgers they in fact are and does not valourized them in any way. In fact, as the film draws to a close, you are never really certain there is a mummy, that these two fogies are not merely striking at the dark. You want to believe that there is a mummy and that Ossie Davis is JFK, but the sad probability that this is all for naught causes an inspired tension with a surpisingly empathetic tinge. Everything else is, of course, plastic bugs on strings and bad Halloween costumes with lots of fake smoke. Give the Campbell fans what they want. But director Don Coscarelli decides to do a tad more than, and though it doesn't make the film good, it does defy typical genre expectations in quite a good way.