2 in brief

Infinitely better and more sophisticated, both in plot and in cultural implications than Princess Tam-Tam (strangely enough, since this was the year before), Zouzou is another Josephine Baker star vehicle that has improbable musical numbers with outrageous costumes (Baker as a bird in a cage!) and a hidden love story. Baker and Jean Gabin play orphans who were raised as brother and sister by a circus barker, and have stayed close ever since, even though Baker has fallen in love with her not-brother. Problem is, he falls for a friend of hers, and then he's arrested for murder (wrongfully, of course). It's nothing remarkable, but is really a pleasant yet surprisingly deep (a few moments of real moral quandaries) way in which to watch Baker in her element. Plus, her Parisian cheapie vogue style of the happening 30s is one of my new style icons. 7/10 The award for most inventive plot ever definitely goes to Bubba Ho-Tep. Perennial awesome guy Bruce Campbell plays Elvis who, years after trading places with an impersonator, is living in a Texas nursing home where an Egyptian mummy is sucking the souls from fellow residents and shitting them out. Oh, and he has to team up with Former President Kennedy, played by Ossie Davis, to defeat the mummy. I have no idea how one would even come up with that story, but it's both a fun and funny, yet oddly touching movie. The first half of the movie lays out the premise, but also has some real truth and poignancy to it about aging and the meaning of life. The second half is a gross, funny, ass-kicking Campbell spectacle. Fans of b-movies have undoubtedly already seen it, but if my description piqued your interest at all, there are far worse ways to spend 90 minutes. 7/10

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