YouSeenThat.com: Film Review
My Name Is Bruce
by Jamie - December 25th 2008
“What *would* Bruce Campbell do?”
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Generally most of the films we review here on YouSeenthat.com are new release films currently showing at the cinema, however, as a Christmas treat, our latest review of My Name Is Bruce is a bit of a departure from the norm. This film is unadulterated, straight-to-video schlock starring the one and only Bruce Campbell - arguably the greatest B actor of his generation. Think Maniac Cop... The Evil Dead... The Evil Dead 2... The Army of Darkness... Bubba Hotep... the guy who cameos in all the Spiderman films... the portly alco in Burn Notice. If you don't know the legend that is Bruce, stop reading this review right now! Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Do not attach a chainsaw to your severed hand and slice-up zombies with it.
My Name Is Bruce is definitely a film for the fans.
The plot is simple. When an obsessed Bruce Campbell fan, Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) unwittingly unleashes the Chinese God of War (and bean curds, go figure) upon the small Oregon town of Goldlick, the teenager attempts to enlist his screen idol Campbell into fighting the monster. Of course, in typical Campbell style, our smart-aleck actor is under the impression that the whole thing is just one giant birthday prank set up by his agent, Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi). Hilarity is bound to ensue - at least that would be the plan.
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The film opens with a brief country tune from the mayor and police chief of Goldlick, outlining the legend of Guan-Di, a scene reminiscent of the indie zombie comedy, Dead and Breakfast. From this point we are thrust into the B-grade schlock that is My Name Is Bruce - immediately introduced to our diehard Bruce Campbell fan, Jeff, a guy so obsessed that he can't seem to get laid due to 'the Bruce Cambell factor'. You'll know exactly what that means once the tool opens his mouth... well, that and the fact that he dresses like a emo cockhead. Within the first few minutes I almost wanted to eat a gun - every word that came out of Jeff's mouth was just a rehash of a Bruce Campbell line, lines that had already been rehashed about a million times in popular culture over the last decade. It was 'groovy' this, and 'give me some sugar, baby' that. Christ, it was so bad that I was almost about to reach for the remote control - I knew that it was meant to be a spoof, but man, this was painful. Fortunately I endured.
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Once you make it through the god-awful setup, My Name Is Bruce starts to become a lot of fun.
Jeff finally drops the annoying dialogue, the monster goes about its job of decapitating anyone it can find, our hero Bruce is introduced, the love interest (Grace Thorsen) is introduced, the in-jokes start flying, and even our old mate Ted Raimi pops in to pull his usual multi-character caper. Clearly the screenwriter, Mark Verheiden, has done his Bruce homework. While I'm not sure how much of the final product was influenced by Bruce Campbell's direction, the film has all the trappings of a dodgy B-grade piece of crap - the sort of junk you would embarrassingly rent from your local video store wearing a brown trenchcoat, baseball cap and a pair of dark sunglasses. Yes, that scary bottom-of-the-shelf territory inhabited by the likes of Dolph Lungren, Steven Seagal, and yep, you guessed it, Bruce Campbell. It's all there: bad acting, cheesy dialogue, cheesy special effects, an even cheesier monster, the semi-hot love interest, the reluctant antihero. It's the bread and butter for men like BC.
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Some of the most memorable scenes and lines from the film derive from a sort of Simpsons-style humour. There's an amusing scene where the townsfolk confront Guan-Di in the forest, and once Campbell finally works out that the monster is real, he decides to retreat - fleeing as he fires his gun wildly behind him. In the process he accidently takes out a heap of innocent townsfolk with each shot, often to the screams of 'arg, my ear!' or 'I got hit!'. Worth a chuckle. There's also another classic Simpsons-style scene where Campbell jumps into the back of a random passing truck in order to flee town, all the while cursing the idiots who live there, only to have the truck pull into a car park about ten metres down the road. It's not exactly highbrow shit, but you could do a lot worse. Combine this humour with numerous self-deprecating digs at Campbell, ala, 'and McHale's Navy sucked!', there's certainly enough laughs to fill the running time.
Like I said at the start of this review, My Name Is Bruce is wholly and solely aimed at Bruce Campbell fans. Don't even think about renting or watching this film if you've never seen one of his films - there's just so many self-references and in-jokes packed into eight-odd minutes of running time that at least 80% of the fun will go straight over your head. Sure, it might be a mildly amusing, but really your time is probably better spent familiarising yourself with the masterworks of Bruce Campbell, i.e. go watch The Evil Dead instead.
The A.D.D. Version:
Very ordinary acting, a low budget, cheesy lines, a cheesier monster, lots of decapitations, and no real plot to speak of - just about sums-up any Bruce Campbell film. If you aren't a fan of BC, leave this film well alone.
Random Observations:
See This Film If You Like:
The YouSeenThat.Com Popcorn Rating:
If we weren't Bruce Campbell fans, My Name Is Bruce would have got smashed. However, for what it aims to be, it's actually a lot of fun!
How does the YouSeenThat.Com Popcorn Rating work?
Well, it works on the theory that the more you enjoy a film, the less likely you are to be aimlessly shoving salty corn kernels into your gob, and a little more focused on what is happening in front of you on the big screen. Therefore, the more popcorn in our scorers bucket, the better the film. Pretty simple, huh?. Think of it as an inverse scoring system.