"Even a big bitch cockroach like you should know...never, but NEVER, fuck with the King."

Thusly warning, an aged Bruce Campbell with geriatric cancer of the penis shoves the impaled cockroach into a light, causing it to fry and explode.  The King back in true form..we may have had to wait a long time since Army of Darkness, but Bruce Campbell is back, baby.

The story is a simple one:  An Elvis impersonator with a strange growth on his manhood resides in a retirement home, every day having his genitals lubed up by a young black nurse.  His only friend, it seems, is JFK..with a bag of sand in his brain and his skin died black.  But strange things begin to happen.  Slowly, our heroes realize that the residents of the retirement home are slowly having the life sucked out of their..well, anuses..one by one.  And I do mean that the life is sucked out of their anuses.

The visuals are what we think of when we hear the name Don Coscarelli..the man responsible for Phantasm, a strange mixture of horror and science fiction.  The cinematography in this film is phenomenal, as well as unique.  At one point, there is a shot which I've never seen in a movie before..and for Phantasm fans, don't worry..there are more strange bugs flying around.

The acting is brilliant, truly brilliant.  I never would have had Bruce nailed for a more dramatic role, but here we have him, and he is great.  Fans need not worry, however; there's more than the Man's share of ass kicking to be done.  The Man sticks it to the big bitch cockroach and the real threat, and he does it with style.  But amidst these moments, there is far more quiet character development than one might have guessed, and the movie manages to be truly touching at points..between the jokes about male genitalia, at least.

Some moments of the film are actually extremely tense and scary, something which I hadn't expected after reading the fairly ridiculous plot.  Watch it at night alone with the lights out, you might be a little spooked.  At the same time, however, there were many instances where my friends and I were laughing out loud for a while after the joke was done..a strange blend of humor and comedy, but one which is pulled off nicely.

Though this movie was extremely low budget, money constraints did not detract from it one bit.  This is a solid night's viewing, and, for me, something to be watched over and over again.  If all movies coming out anywhere near this good, we wouldn't have time to write movies for watching them.

Rating:  **** stars out of ****.  One hundred percent giv'er.

*spoiler*

He was the real Elvis! I love the king reference Elvis-Ash.

This one always seemed to call to me, but I could never quite make sense out of it. Was it a parody? Was it a zombie flick? It just looks like such a disparate mish-mash of genres, I assumed it couldn't be coherent.

Your review has intrigued me to get off my arse and figure out this mystery. Thanks.

It really has nothing to do with ZOMBIES and the comedy in it is vauge at best. It's more of a "WHAT IF" kinda movie.

I didn't like it and I didn't hate it. I thought the aged Bruce fit the roll of the KING very well... however the hole JFK thing was darkly over looked. I didn't really care for the bugs in the movie either, they got to much on screen time.

The mummy himself was a letdown, kinda scary, but kinda lame. The end was very deep... to deep for the theme of the film actually.

Overall, the movie was little more than a snooze fest.

However, I did like how it opened up LOL!

Haha I did love the opening..good call Baltis.

Rumors of Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires.  Hee hee.  And supposedly, if that gets made, next up would be Bubba Sasquatch.  But I'm not sure how reliable Coscarelli will be.  I think he's making another Phantasm as well.

The idea was better then the actual film.
The only thing that really stands out is Campbell's performance as Elvis.

Bruce Campbell was the best thing about the hole thing. It was good but not a good as I would have hoped.

I love this movie, it has been a while since I was able to watch an entire movie then watch it again right after. I also love the theme song to the movie, so great!

"Hail to the King Baby" - classic Campbell.
I still say the concepts better then the film, though.

I find it upsetting that Bruce Campbell isn't a bigger name than he is.  The guy's hysterical.  I did see him in a dramatic role about a bank robber.  Wasn't his best role, butv he was still good to watch.


Phil

It is really a shame, though he seems perpectually stuck in the "Ash" role, you know.

I thought that Sam Raimi liked him, but he gave him only bit parts in Spiderman 1 and 2.

Let's stop throwing the dog a bone here.


Phil

So did I.
Unfortunately he's stuck in either getting bit parts in Hollywood films or recycling his "Ash" role in numerous b-movie's.

I thought that reading the summary of the movie was the best part, there were some funny parts, and the plot was okay, but I didn't relly like it that much.

ye the theme songs, man i have to dl them.