“Bubba Ho-Tep” stars the cult movie circuit-appointed ‘King of B Movies’ Bruce Campbell (“Army Of Darkness”, “My Name Is Bruce”) as Elvis Presley fighting the Mummy (Bob Ivy) and it should work but the film is neither a parody of Elvis or movies about mummies and Campbell’s charisma fails to shine through as he’s forced to badly impersonate Elvis.

In “Bubba Ho-Tep”, an old Elvis lives in a retirement home after he switched places with a great impersonator/lookalike (also played by Campbell). He spends his days with a fellow resident: a black man (Ossie Davis “Dinosaur”) claiming to be the assassinated President John Kennedy. They both find themselves up against the Mummy, who wears a cowboy hat and boots as well as sucking the souls out of people’s rectums.

Bruce Campbell is so much better when he’s just playing an arrogant, gun-wielding, incompetent hero but here he plays an old Elvis, who doesn’t put up much of a fight even in the last ten minutes or so when something actually happens. The John Kennedy character would be funny if he acted like John Kennedy and sounded like him but instead, he’s just some guy. The Mummy is also disappointing and we only really get to see him near the end.

“Bubba Ho-Tep” is a movie I thought would be just as funny as “Army Of Darkness” but instead manages to make the otherwise underwhelming “My Name Is Bruce” seem fantastic. The film is so slow and so unfunny that I was shocked that Campbell agreed to do it. In the movie’s defence, I can’t see this movie sticking in my mind for too long but if that’s the best defence I can give it, I managed the prosecution department has won. “Bubba Ho-Tep” is an amusing premise with awful execution so you’re better off having a friend tell you the rough plot and having your imagination work out the rest.