My Name Is Bruce

Summary: When a Chinese demon protector of bean curd attacks a small town, Bruce Campbell’s #1 fan gets him confused with the heroes he plays in the movies and kidnaps Bruce to get him to fight the demon.

Let me start off by saying I love Bruce Campbell, and that is probably a requirement for truly enjoying this movie.  But then again, if you don’t like Bruce Campbell, why are you even reading this review?  Seriously, go away. Shoo!  Alright, now that they are gone we can get down to some serious Bruce Campbell Appreciation, because that is what this movie is all about.  Some may call it a gratuitous vanity project, and it is, but can’t you just give a B movie legend a break?  It is a hilarious vanity project and that is what counts.  Bruce Campbell presents himself as a cowardly, alcoholic, asshole whose career is bottoming out and necessitating sequels to absurdly shitty movies like Cave Aliens 1 through 4.  While getting tanked to forget his birthday and his life, Bruce Campbell is kidnapped by his biggest fan to come fight a demon terrorizing his town.  Interpreting it as an elaborate birthday surprise from his agent, Bruce goes along with it until he realizes it is real and buggers off.  Then there is a love story and epiphanies and whatnot up to the happy ending.  All the while, in jokes are flying and silliness is rampant.  There is not much to talk about in terms of actual filmmaking; Bruce Campbell gets the job done but it is nothing spectacular.  Although there are a couple good gore shots there is nothing at the level of the Evil Dead films, it does only have a PG 13 rating, but it is more about jokes than gore and I thought it hit that mark dead on.  The one thing I should warn you about is if you haven’t seen the trailer yet don’t watch it!  It does give away a lot of the best jokes in the movie, which is really unfortunate and can’t taint your viewing pleasure.  All in all, it is not his best movie, but I had a great time and would recommend it to any Bruce Campbell fan.

B+

originally posted Nov. 1, 2008

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