Bruce Campbell is a horror icon who won over horror fans as the coward turned hero Ash in the EVIL DEAD films. Recently he can be seen on the USA network in the series BURN NOTICE as well as in some Sci-fi channel original movies. Sure he had his cameo appearances in the SPIDER-MAN movies, but he has also been in plenty of other b-movies thought the years that have helped him develop a cult following among horror and sci-fi fans.
MY NAME IS BRUCE is a story which involve Bruce himself as a low level b-movie actor making cheap sci-fi films, living in a trailer and drinking a lot. He has his hardcore fans that swarm him at conventions and on his movie sets, but one fan in particular has dome something bad, and needs his idol to help him solve the problem. The kid has released a ancient Chinese protector of the dead called Guan-di. Guan-di kills anyone who crosses his path and is treading though the town Gold Lick killing off all the town folks one by one. Needing help Bruce’s number one fan goes to his trailer and kidnaps Bruce. He brings Bruce back to Gold Lick where he is greeted by the town folks as their savior. Bruce thinks that it’s something set up by his agent for his birthday. Little does Bruce know that he is going up against a real demon of the dead, and only he can stop it.
The deal with MY NAME IS BRUCE and it’s script is that it was simply written by a fan of Bruce for fans of Bruce. I first thought that Bruce himself wrote the script, but then found out that it was writer Mark Verheiden who best known for writing and producing television shows. Aside from the EVIL DEAD films and notable movies such as BUBBA HO-TEP and MANIAC COP I never really followed Bruce’s career unless he was in a horror film that was notable. I have seen him in a few Sci-fi films like CONGO and ESCAPE FROM L.A., but besides them I really don’t know much of his work outside of those films enough to really be able to get all the inside jokes that flooded the script. To be honest, this is a script for the hardcore of the hardcore fans of Bruce Campbell. If your just a fan of his work, but are not obsessed with Bruce, or you don’t really know much about him, then your going to look at the plot as being just plan stupid with an overall ridiculous script. I for one didn’t really care for the story, although I did pick up on a few one liners from other films used in this movie, as well as some of the scenes that were kind of stolen as a wink-wink type joke to the fans. But the overall script is very B-movie like and is nothing special at all.
When you look at the acting and the production value, everything screams B-moive. The acting, with the exception of Bruce whom is kind of playing himself, but not really is pretty good. Then you also have Ted Raimi in many roles playing everyone from Bruce’s agent to a sign painter. He was probably the best in the film because you know it was Ted and he was the comic relief for the film, even though the while movie was essentially a comedy. The rest of the cast is just alright, I mean really the supporting roles were kind of lame and full of bad acting, but the people in the more serious roles were alright. The production value was very similar to that of a higher budget B-movie. Seriously it looked more like a better budgeted Sci-fi original movie or one of those direct to video movies from the 1980’s that I’m always talking about.
Overall, I was kind of disappointed with MY NAME IS BRUCE, I thought it would be more of a BUBBA HO-TEP, EVIL DEAD kind of Bruce Campbell movie, but it seemed more like Bruce Campbell thrown into a horrible B-movie role where it felt like he was not even playing himself. The script is what I think really killed it for me. I think the only people who are really going to enjoy this film are the ones who really nerd out when it comes to Bruce Campbell. I’m a fan of the man, but I’m not so overly obsessed with him that I know every little thing about him. He’s a great actor and has done a lot for the horror and sci-fi genre. Even though he did direct this film, about himself. I just wish he had a better script to work with.
The DVD has a few special features such as commentary with Bruce Campbell and producer Michael Richardson. A documentary called Heart of Dorkness – The making of MY NAME IS BRUCE. There are also a few featurettes about Bruce on the DVD as well as your basics like trailers, poster art, photo gallery and much more.
– Horror Bob
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