Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Director: Don Coscarelli

What a great flick. Here’s the run down: Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and JFK (Ossie Davis) are in rest home in Mud Creek, TX just waiting to die. People at the rest home, though, are going quicker than natural due to a soul sucking mummy who has been dining on the souls of the elderly. When Elvis and JFK discover this they have to step it up and prepare to do battle with the ancient Egyptian creature. I know that it sounds like a campy thing that someone makes in their final year of film school, but its really good. A must for those of us obsessed with the King . . . and probably for those of you obsessed with Egyptology or JFK.

Hunk a hunk a burnin law:

1. Elvis is in this rest home because at the height of his fame he traded places with an Elvis impersonator Sebastian Huff. They signed a contract that if ever Elvis got tired of being Elvis he would be able to reassume the identity. Unfortunately for Elvis, his copy of the contract burned up in a BBQ accident leaving him devoid of an evidence.

2. More political than legal, but JFK insists that his assasination (an subsequent color change) was part of a Government conspiracy led by none other than LBJ. We should live by his words (later on in life that is): “Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home.”

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Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Director: Larry Charles

Borat, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is pure comic gold. Sacha Baron Cohen, plays the loveable yet offensive Kazak reporter as he travels America searching for love and that cultural piece of apple pie to take back to Kazakhstan. About the time the movie premiered in London I actually got to see the Kazakhstan amabassador to Great Britain speak. With all the uproar coming out of Kazakhstan about the movie at the time, he was of course questioned about it. He replied that he’d gone to see it and found it quite funny. His view was that it made fun of Americans not Kazaks, and he’s right. Of course, I’ve found that alot of people over here think thats whats so great about it, and granted it had great political timing, but it ought to be remembered the same movie could have been made in the UK (complete with the racists).

Law to make benefit:

1. Borat while recieving a driving lesson is admonished that it is against the law to drink and drive and also to yell and cuss at other drivers.

2. Borat interviews numerous law makers in Washington, D.C. including Bob Barr (former representative from Georgia and also a lawyer) and also Alan Keyes a prospective republican presidential candidate and political scholar.

3. Later in this same vein he sees Charles Pickering (House – MS) preaching to a Penecostal revival meeting. In his sermon, Pickering targets, the teaching of evolution in schools.

4. Borat is at one point given advice on how not to look like a Muslim Terrorist. This might be handy in case of some racial profiling.

5. This movie has spawned a lot of litigation. Khazakhstan reserved the right to take legal action against Borat, and numerous people have filed suit claiming damages to their reputation, job etc. Most notably the two fraternity boys (suit dismissed) and the etiquette coach in Alabama. He has even been sued by the Romanian village he used as his home town at the beginning of the film. Poor Borat, he just can’t get a fair break can he.

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Body Double (1984)

Director: Brian De Palma

Struggling actor Jake Scully is loaned a flat by a total stranger who keeps appearing in his life. He sees a strip show in the house across the way and becomes obsessed with the woman. He then finds that a porn star does the same dance, and gets into a film with her. Then he witnesses the murder of the woman that he peeped on in the first place by another peeping tom. Its all very convoluded and slightly stupid, and I’m still upset that I wasted my time.

Double law:

1. It was billed on TV (Film 4 in England) as a movie they tried to ban. I don’t know where or by whom.

2. The whole idea is that the man is set up to see the murder and give evidence that draws attention away from the real murderer. Of course, if you were the killer this would be a ridiculous amount of preparation that might not pay off, but whatever.

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Ed Wood (1994)

Director: Tim Burton

This is a charming little film about Hollywod’s favorite cross dressing B movie director, Ed Wood. Wood, portrayed by Johnny Depp was a film director with a dream: too make movies. That’s exactly what he did too. The movies he made though were so atrocious that they’ve gone down in history as classics (we here at visual evidence certainly appreciate such film). Burton’s biographical film, shot in black and white, captures the manicness of the sets that Wood ran. It’s a definite A movie for B movie fans.

Cross dressin’ law:

1. At one point the crew must stop filming and hit the road because the police are spotted and they don’t have a permit.

2. Bela Lugosi’s unemployment gets cancelled by the government.

3. Bela also includes in his will that he be buried in his Dracula cape.

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Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Director: John Madden

I’ll give it flick this: it is clever. That said it is still a chick flick with all of those miserable moments associated. I think, though, that it should hold something of interest for Shakespeare people (and maybe even a few David Webster fans as well). The story follows Billy (Joseph Fiennes) as he works on his production of Romeo and Juliet. During this production Viola de Lesseps (a young noble woman, played by Gwyneth Paltrow) auditions for the part of Juliet while pretending to be a boy. In the mean time Shakespeare falls in love with the Viola the lady and all the mayhem that one could expect ensues.

This movie is riddled with references to Shakespeares entire canon and it can be rather enjoyable trying to pick all the references out. Unfortunately, the plot is fairly hackneyed and cliched when you get down to its bare bones. But look out for Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth; oh, she is monstrous.

Law in love:

1. It is illegal for women to be in theatrical productions, thus leading Viola to declare, “Stage love will never be true love as long as the law of the land has” boys playing girls.

2. Theaters are closed and reopened by the Master of the Revels. If ever there was a great political position, this is it. If the office comes open, I’m running.

3. The Queen’s consent is required for Lord Wessex to take a wife. This displays the nonseparation of church and state during this time period (a legacy which still hangs on today in the realm of family law). Later, the Queen states that those joined together by God “even I can’t render assunder.”

4. When it is discovered that there is a girl in the play, the theater is closed. The Master of the Revels cites Sedition, Indecency, and Lewdness.

5. A license to have a company of actors must be obtained from the Queen.

6. When the Queen takes the stage she states that they’ll “all be put in the clink.” Interestingly enough the rebuilt Globe in London is just around the corner from Clink Street Prison.

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