Entertainment : Bubba Nosferatu?

I just finished watching one of the greatest movie I've seen this year and in fact one of the great movies of all times if you ask me. The movie is Bubba Ho-Tep and it stars Bruce Campbell as an aging Elvis, who must fight a butt-sucking mummy to save his soul from complete elimination.

As the credits end I saw the following phrase pop up on the screen : "Elvis returns in Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires.". I had heard rumors of a Bubba Ho-Tep sequel but I didn't believe it. I mean the story is excellent but very self-contained. But as seeing is believing, I now have to believe a sequel is, if not "officially in the works", at least in the planning stages.

What makes me mad about this, is what makes me mad about pretty much every franchise in existence. It seems that, especially in the US, it's impossible to just let something great be. Bubba Ho-Tep was a great movie, it was great because it came out of nowhere and it stood on it's own, with an original story, great actors, and a clear beginning and end that left absolutely no door opened for a sequel. But the geniuses at Capitalism Inc. smelled an opportunity, an opportunity to do what they do so often : cash-in on the destruction of a great universe. If there's a way to pull some cash out of the audience, who cares if we're ruining the original concept, idea or dream that made the first one such a classic?

The parade of franchise-ruining movies is long and nausea-inducing. From Highlander 2 to Matrix Revolutions to The Phantom Menace. And this concept applies to television shows as well, Babylon 5 : Crusade? Please spare me. There just doesn't seem to be a way to just have something good and original, look at it in awe, remember it with fondness, and not be flooded by derived products and endless sequels that simply squeeze the juice out of the original idea until there's nothing left, good or bad, to squeeze.

Bubba Ho-Tep truly was a great movie. The people, be it Don Coscarelli, Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis and Joe R. Lansdale who wrote the original story, all gave it their best because they believed the story was great, funny and entertaining. I'm sure these people will roll in some dough from the sales of the DVD, and that's great. But instead of pouring this money into a sequel that will only dilute if not obliterate the original concept, why not bring in something new to the screen, as you did so well with Bubba Ho-Tep? It may not be the most financially sound advice you'll get, but is money all there is?