My Name Is Bruce
My Name Is Bruce
R | 01 October 2007 (USA)
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B Movie Legend Bruce Campbell is mistaken for his character Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and forced to fight a real monster in a small town in Oregon.

Reviews
Jackson Booth-Millard

I remember seeing the DVD for this film, the title pretty much tells you what to expect, starring and directed by the star I know best as Ash from The Evil Dead trilogy, I knew this was going to be terrible, but I had to see why. Basically in the mining town of Gold Lick, Oregon, young Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) is a big fan of B-movie star Bruce Campbell, he is out with his friend Clayton (Logan Martin) to meet Big Debbie (Ariel Badenhop) and Little Debbie (Ali Akay) in the nineteenth-century cemetery. Jeff unintentionally removes a medallion off the mausoleum, unleashing the Chinese god of the dead, Guan-Di (James Peck), it kills Clayton and the girls, while Jeff flees, he panics and knows that the town needs to be saved, and he can think of only one person to help, his movie hero. Bruce Campbell is filming his latest naff looking science-fiction , blood-filled B-movie, Cave Alien II, with his drinking habits and rude nature he is not popular amongst the film crew, but his agent Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi) has promised a birthday surprise. Next thing he knows Bruce is knocked unconscious and wakes up inside the trunk of Jeff's car, Bruce assumes he is a mad stalker-like fan, he arrives in the town of Gold Lick and listens to the townspeople talk about the trouble with the ancient ghoul, he assumes this is his birthday surprise, a new movie, and despite no scripts and cameras in sight he agrees to "help". While "preparing" himself Bruce is trying to get in the good books of Jeff's mother Kelly Graham (Grace Thorsen), who initially finds his behaviour irritating, and he gears himself up in the town gun shop. Bruce joins some townspeople brave enough to venture into the woods and take on Guan- Di, he assumes it is all still just a movie, he then finds out it is all real and flees the town, a running gag is an Italian painter (Ted Raimi) constantly repaints the population sign every time someone dies, including himself. Returning to his own movie set Bruce, everyone on the set hates him, including his own dog, and his ex-wife Cheryl (The Evil Dead's Ellen Sandweiss) has a restraining order placed upon him, but the real birthday surprise does show up, a singing prostitute named Kasey (Janelle Farber). Bruce gets a call from Jeff, he informs him he is going up against Guan-Di, so Bruce goes back to Gold Lick, he is treated with contempt and tries to reconcile with Kelly, but ultimately he is back to save the town. Bruce and Jeff set up dynamite at the mausoleum, they try to lure Guan-Di inside, eventually Bruce sacrifices himself and the dynamite is blown, and the medallion is returned into the wall of the mausoleum to ease the spirit. But Guan-Di ha survived and comes out to attack, at the very last minute however, it turns out that this whole scenario is a movie, Bruce argues with Ted he doesn't want clichés, he wants a happy ending, so it is changed to Bruce marrying Kelly, and Jeff accepted into Harvard University, Bruce is pleased with this new ending, but again, this is not real, and Guan- Di appears and attacks Bruce. Also starring Ben McCain as Mayor and Timothy Patrick Quill as Frank. The whole is geared by Campbell parodying his own persona and movie roles, there are many in-jokes and spoofs based on The Evil Dead and his many other movies, but the story of the actor going against an awakened Chinese demon is silly, it hardly made me laugh, and the quality of special effects was low, the whole thing is just an awful mess, even for fans of Campbell, I would not bother with this boring and ridiculous comedy horror. Poor!

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Jack Higginbotham

Bruce Campbell is the man. A guy who has embraced his B-movie actor title and wore it with pride. Being the leading man of B-movies and having small cameos in big budget Hollywood films like 0Z, The Great And Powerful and the Spiderman series (all directed by frequent collaborator Sam 'Evil Dead' Raimi). My Name Is Bruce is a love-letter to the B- movie, a fun, over the top thrill ride starring none other that 'Famous' movie actor, Bruce Campbell.The film is so chock full of references to different B and horror movies that its hard to keep track of them all. From references to Campbells back catalog of movies to music from the likes of Psycho, the film always feels like a tribute and its a very loving tribute, with Bruce Campbell also directing, I expected nothing less.I think liking this film really has to do with how much you like Bruce Campbell as an actor. I love the guy, I like his humour, I like his style of acting, he's right up my street but then again I also like B- movies. So ask yourself, do I like Bruce Campbell? and do I like B- movies?. If the answers to those questions are yes then you are going to have a blast with My Name Is Bruce.

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Phil Hubbs

Directed co-produced and starring the main man Bruce Campbell, judging by the title and the whole premise of the film would you say this is a vanity project?. Well I kinda think it is really and whether you actually like the film or not depends completely on your personal preference to Mr Campbell.The plot is as old as the hills, a parody comedy on Campbell himself. BC plays an over the top unlikable version of himself, a big movie star fallen from grace and eking out an existence in B-movie trash, but not popular B-movie trash. He is brought to a small town to help them defeat a supernatural problem involving a Chinese demon. Of course everyone thinks BC is the brave hero he is in his movies, but alas he's a selfish coward.The concept is nice but overused, it really is. The idea that Bruce plays a narcissistic big headed coward who is nothing like his film persona is also a nice idea...but again totally overused. The majority of this film is merely showing how much of an idiot Bruce's character is, mocking what he obviously goes through in his daily life with fanboys and movie producers plus parodying his schlock horror film career. So yes BC can have a laugh at himself it seems which is good but at the same time you do feel the whole thing is a tad of an ego trip. You may as well of called the film 'Bruce Campbell: The Ultimate B-Movie Action Hero'...as that's almost what its implying. Yep its probably true but really?.The other thing is nothing really happens in the film, its not really very exciting or fun. Sure there is some decapitations and blood and the odd bit of amusing dialog but its really quite dull. Its not helped by the unadventurous sets and location which all seem so...not eerie. Its obviously meant to be along the lines of previous BC films with a low budget and cheesy effects, mocking the Evil Dead franchise mainly, but it just looks so bland. All you get is the odd swirl of mist here and there.Then there is the demon, a big samurai demon even though he's suppose to be Chinese?. This guy looks like a ghostie from the Scooby Doo live action films! really he just looks lame. Yes again he's not meant to be a top of the range boogeyman with excellent makeup and costume but I just feel more could of been done to up the anti a bit. I mean it really does feel like a live action Scooby Doo flick half the time, could of at least had some more harsh language guys. It really feels like they wanted the project to be done by Raimi, but he didn't, so they tried their best to make it as close to that as possible.The finale of the film does show us why everything does look as it does this is true, but I don't really like that twist honestly. Feels like a cop out when it could of been a straighter parody with BC being the douchebag and having a real adventure to cope with. In the end it just kinda feels like a waste of time with nothing much happening and another cult franchise for Campbell to lap up and take all the glory with. I do like the guy but this film just feels too self indulgent for me truth be told, regurgitating all his best one liners over and over. I know that's part of the parody but it feels excessive. Could of been a great spooky comedy but its very tepid at best.4/10

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donmunk321

I loved every moment of this film! Massive horror and Campbell The storyline is pretty simple but yet something different, playing himself is a nice touch. Mocking himself and his career, even his fans is quite amusing and nice to see he's not taking himself too seriously. The monster is all right, didn't blow me away but cool enough. If you're looking for scares, try a different film it's not really a horror film even though that's where I would imagine I would find it amongst that genre in a shop, it's more like a black comedy. Quite silly at times but with lots of laugh, you would probably have to be a fan of Bruce Campbell or at least horror movies to enjoy this too its full potential, i'm not sure if it would be everyone cup of tea. The slapstick violence and cheesy one liners from Campbell with the added Ted Raimi cameos make this a great watch for the majority of horror and Campbell fans.

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