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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The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

This murder mystery is set in post World War II Vienna. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American writer arrives in Vienna to hunt down an old croney, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find that he has arrived on the day of his friends funeral. He is determined to find out what has happened to Lime and is soon embroiled in a murder investigation that keeps getting murkier and murkier.

That post war law:

1. Post war Vienna is cut into four segmants and each one is administered by a different state (UK, US, France, and Russia). The center of the city is run an international coalition of all four.

2. There was an inquest (not shown only mentioned) over the death of Harry, but evidence was not heard from the porter and a third unknown man. The Porter is told by Martin that “it was his duty to give evidence,” but the porter adamantly did not want to testify.

3. Search and seizure. A member of each police force show up to search Anna Schmitt’s (Alida Valli) room (as it is in the center of the city). They give her reciepts for everything confiscated.

4. Ms. Schmitt is found with a forged passport. We are told this is because she is a Czech and “the Russians could claim her.” We later see a police interrogation of her.

5.SPOILER WARNING: As it turns out Harry is still alive, but the police are after him for some nasty crimes. He is living in the Russian part of the city, because (for political reasons) he is safe from arrest there.

6. Harry claims crime money is “free of income tax.” He should consult with Al Capone on that one.

7. Harry also claims that while the government “talks about people and the proletariat,” it doesn’t care about the people. This is a statement both of a political nature and one used as a justification for Harry’s criminal acts.

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