My Name Is Bruce (2007)

Instant Favorite.

Beautiful, moving film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Bruce Campbell to me is one of the best comedic actors ever. From The Evil Dead to this film he deserves to become a instant classic. This film is perfect for him because c'mon it's Bruce freaking Campbell!!! Now that I'm done with talking about how cool he is i'll go into the story. The story follows Bruce Campbell as himself in production with another film when a monster appears in a little town 6 or so hours from his trailer. That's when a fan kidnaps him and tries to get him to fight the monster and give the town hope. This deserves grade A movie status and a theater re-release all over again. The only problem was it felt long at some points and didn't go as smoothe as let's say Waterboy. Either way Campbell is equal to Jim Carrey in acting.

Try to swallow this. Adapted from a comic book by Dark Horse Comics, this R rated film sees B-List Movie actor Bruce Campbell being mistaken for a real-like monster hunter and forced to fight a real Chinese monster, Guan-Di in a small town in Oregon. Directed by Bruce Campbell, the movie is freaky deaky. It's not that good of a movie, but it was fun enough to watch. You really have to turn off your brain to get through the movie. There are tons of extreme meta-humor parody, here and most of it kinda works. Some of the in-jokes are slightly clever while others are just too blunt and insult the audience's intelligence. The film was made, cheaply to capitalize on that low budget meta-humor. The exteriors for the town of "Goldlick" were actually shot on Bruce Campbell's property where a back lot was built with the exteriors of all of the buildings. The interior shots were all done on a sound stage. The monster demon looks pretty fake looking, with a lots of unrealistic-looking gore to add to the over the top violence. Still, the plot written by Mark Verheiden & Bruce Campbell, was pretty interesting. It's rare to see actors played highly fictionalized version of themselves. For the most part, Bruce Campbell as Bruce Campbell was very entertaining with all with wits. So, kinda hail to the king, baby! The only thing, I didn't like about his character is how much, he lacks depth and act so mean-spirited. The bad thing about the story is that characters are written, in unsophisticated unlikeable ways that it's hard to get through the film. Most of the characters in the film, are jerks. I really didn't like any of the supporting cast, due to this. Women are written, so shallow-like, that it's a bit degrading. I feel bad, for the women in this film like Grace Thorsen. The Chinese Stereotypes are so offensive, that it's hard to get through. Seeing director Sam Raimi's younger brother, Ted Raimi act Asian was pretty insulting. It's worse than his other role in the film, as a Italian painter. I have to say, Guan-Di was a pretty cool villain. After all, you don't see, many Chinese ghosts haunting an America location. The whole bean curd gimmick was pretty OK for the most part. One thing, I love about the dialogue is all the mentions and references to Bruce Campbell's other films, such as 2002's Bubba Hotep, 1988's Maniac Cop & others. That was pretty much, the highlight of the film. Although Sam Raimi, with whom Bruce frequently collaborates, is not involved with this production, much of the film is in the vein of the Evil Dead series (1982-1992). I just wish, they mention more of his TV show, works like being a recurring characters in both the Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys series (1995-1999). Another good thing about the film is the song, 'The Legend of Guandi', by the McCain Brothers. It's a pretty catchy tune. The DVD extras are somewhat worth, buying the movie for. It was so funny to watch. The hour long Making-of documentary is one big inside joke with a lot of fake-history, awkward moments, and fake trailers for movies that will never, come out like Cave-alien 2. They even went so far, to make a behind the scenes documentary of the making of Cave-alien 2. It was so surreal. The DVD has also tons of Easter Eggs special features that you will have to check out. Lots of them, feature content that isn't worth watching, but it was still fun to find them. Supposedly, there's a sequel, as of this writing, on its way. It is in-titled, 'My Name is Still Bruce: Bruce vs. Frankenstein'. It might be OK, might not. So heads up on that. Overall: if you're a Bruce Campbell fan, you're going to see this movie regardless of what you read here; however, I'll save you the time and say it did has that pure id gonzo that keeps the spirit of 1980s grindhouse film mostly alive. If you like, those films, maybe you will love this. If not, the tiresome old jokes will kill you. In my opinion, it was watchable, but this film could have been better.

MY NAME IS BRUCE is, as the title would suggest, an affectionate B-movie tribute to Bruce Campbell, directed by and starring the actor as...well, himself. It's a cheap and cheerful outing which sees Campbell travelling to a hick town, where he must do battle with an ancient Chinese demon with a penchant for decapitating innocent townsfolk.Whether you enjoy this film or not depends on how much you like the star and how well you know his persona. Because MY NAME IS BRUCE is chock-full of jokes, some of them subtle, many of them obvious. What is obvious is that Campbell has a great sense of humour and is willing to laugh at himself all the while.Fans will spot many familiar faces from the past (including THE EVIL DEAD's Ellen Sandweiss, INTRUDER's Dan Hicks and the ubiquitous Ted Raimi) and references to earlier movies from Campbell's career. As for this film itself, well, it's what you'd expect from a low budget B-flick; lots of cheesy gore, effects and dumb characters. Not a masterpiece then, but it got its fair share of laughs out of this viewer.

Bruce Campbell, the man is a god in the horror fan base. A lot of people just adore this man, he's Ash from The Evil Dead trilogy! How could you not love this guy? But even though he has a huge fan base, he isn't known by everyone. Also he is kind of a has been, it's sad how his career never really took off. So through the indie film called My Name is Bruce, we are given an unoriginal plot with some goofy jokes on the world of Bruce Campbell and what it would have been like if he really did have to face a monster.In the mining town of Goldlick, Jeff, a young fan of Bruce Campbell, and his friend Clayton go out to a cemetery to meet two girls. Jeff removes a medallion off the mausoleum, unleashing the Chinese god of the dead, Guan-Di, who kills Clayton and the girls while Jeff flees. Meanwhile, famed B movie actor Bruce Campbell is promised a birthday surprise from his agent, Mills Toddner. Bruce meets Jeff, who kidnaps Campbell and takes him to Goldlick in hopes that his hero can save the town from Guan-Di. Upon arrival, Bruce assumes it's his birthday surprise from Mills, and thinks it's all a movie, despite a lack of cameras and a script, and agrees to "help". After gearing up at Goldlick's gun shop, Bruce and many citizens of Goldlick go out into the woods to take on Guan-Di, which Bruce still thinks is part of a movie. Bruce then finds out that it's all real and flees Goldlick, angering the townspeople, upsetting Jeff who will now take on the monster himself.This movie I think was made more for the fans as there are a lot of inside jokes. I like the little inside cameos and references, but I've seen Bruce Campbell movies. I don't think if my friends saw this that they would get a lot of the movie. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments, like when Bruce sees his fans right outside his studio and he has the war veteran fan who's just being a jerk to him so Bruce just kicks the fans wheel chair down the hill. Sounds mean, but I can understand what some of these stars would like to do to the fans who have over analyzed their films or have a sick obsession with them. The jokes do get very goofy at times and there are some moments that fall flat, mostly with the side characters who fall flat.There's a love story that just feels so contrived and unreal. I know the whole film is meant to be that way, but Bruce and his number one fan's mom who hates Bruce at first randomly falls for him out of no where. I would've preferred if she stayed consistent and just gave Bruce the rejection to show that he doesn't always get the girl. Also the plot isn't exactly original as we've seen comedies before where an actor thinks that something is a movie but it's real life. It can still be funny if written well. I'm sure that the writers were looking for this movie to be a cult classic and they really put their love and effort into it, it just didn't hit that right spot. It's a good movie, but again it's more for the fans as they will understand the jokes better than the average movie buff.Personally, I still liked the movie, I got what I wanted from it. Bruce seemed to have fun with it and it's important when it looks like at least the crew had fun because the love you put into a film is what the audience could feel. I give the crew credit for trying this out, maybe Bruce will never be a huge superstar, but I think he should be grateful for some of the fan base that he has, because when you lose the stalkers, that's when you're career is really going down the drain.7/10