THEY CALL ME BRUCE? is a silly American comedy about a noodle chef who bears an uncanny resemblance to deceased kung fu star Bruce Lee, which leads to everybody mistaking him for the action icon. Thus you might call it the ultimate in Bruceploitation movies, even though Johnny Yune looks absolutely nothing like Lee. Where he differs from the rest of the Bruceploitation actors is that he's actually a gifted comedian, and this is an out and out comedy.The absurd storyline of the film sees Yune working for the Mob before being shipped off to America for a tour around the big cities. He thinks he's delivering special Chinese flour for noodles, but in fact it's cocaine. Inevitably he soon falls foul of both the police and rival gangsters who take issue with him muscling in on their turf. It's straightforward enough, and a pity that the majority of the laughs are so racist in nature; I couldn't enjoy them. There are a few fight scenes which are fun but since every character in the film is a huge walking stereotype I really think this film's overrated, even though Yune is very good.

"Bruce" (Johnny Yune) is a hapless cook who just happens to work for the main mafia boss on the west coast. But things aren't going good for the mob because of a series of drug busts by the feds. So the boss of the west coast named "Lil Pete" (Bill Capizzi) decides to use an unsuspecting Bruce to deliver his cocaine throughout the United States by fooling him into thinking that it is flour from China. Naturally, Bruce doesn't know any better. He also doesn't suspect that his new girlfriend, "Anita" (Pam Huntington) is a federal agent who has planted a bug on him to track his movements. Meanwhile, another mobster on the west coast named "Big Al" (Martin Azarow) is seeking to discredit Lil Pete and has his girlfriend, "Karmen" (Margaux Hemingway) follow Bruce to inhibit his deliveries. Anyway, rather than detail the entire plot I will just say that for a low-budget comedy this wasn't too bad. Johnny Yune was absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, the action scenes and everything not centered on him fell completely flat. In addition, the middle portion of the film really seemed to drag. All in all then I rate this film as about average.

This is one of the most inept films in terms of craft I've ever seen. It is so poorly filmed that it makes an Ed Wood, Jr. movie or one of Oscar Micheaux's later films that are plagued by continuity problems seem masterpieces of craft in comparison. "They Call Me Bruce?" makes Wood's GLEN OR GLENDA? seem like Eisenstein's POTEMKIN. The acting was atrocious, yet the film was strangely compelling -- as compelling as watching a car crash. I'm not joking. It takes some kind of negative panache to pull off a film that is so GODAWFUL. I just kept watching and watching, appalled yet fascinated. The scene in the Hair Styling salon, where Johnny Yune is wearing a blonde wig and a mumu and is posing as a mannikin (a mafia torpedo, looking for Yune's character in the shop, keeps stabbing the mannikin next to which Yune stands, never once noticing that Yune keeps moving to reposition himself down the line of mannikins to avoid getting stabbed himself; the torpedo's partner, holding a pistol to the shopkeeper's head, never notices the moving "mannikin" either, distracted as they are by the shouting of the clever shopkeeper) is just unbelievable. Talk about suspension of disbelief! The scene that preceded this one, where a group of African Americans hold Yune and his partner at knife point and Yune speaks to them by using a HOW TO TALK JIVE dictionary, is also simply unbelievable. Yune's wooing of the African American "gang-members" with jive, who comport themselves with much eye-rolling, "jive-talking" and "soulful" body movements (imitated by Yune's character) that make the late Stepin Fetchit's shtick seem to ne as dignified as Paul Robeson in comparison, is one of the landmark moments of the cinema in the sense that it likely would wind up in some TV documentary about racism if this movie wasn't so damn obscure! If there ever is a TV doc about Asian-African American racism, this could be exhibit #1!

I had read the short review of this movie in "The Video Movie Guide" over and over, thinking it would be bad; but by luck, it was on T.V. one summer afternoon, so I watched it. Well, they were wrong (again).This movie was good. It at least did its job in making me laugh like crazy at times, which is tough for anything coming down the pike these days.Johnny Yune, a now forgotten comedian, plays Bruce, so-called because people mistake him for Bruce Lee (he looks nothing like him). Bruce gets himself involved with the Mafia, who use him and Ralph Mauro as unknowing guinea pigs to deliver "Chinese Flour", which is really cocaine, to various bosses from L.A. to N.Y. When things go sour, the late Margaux Hemmingway tries to off the heroes.The film is very cheap-looking and dark, but there are some absolutely funny lines delivered by Yune.When he's in Las Vegas and he's asked about gamblingBruce: Ah Gambling! In China, I knew a woman who made her husband a millionaire through gambling. Only thing was, he used to be a billionaire.When he's at a black church and asked to testify.Bruce: We were so poor that when a thief broke into our house, we'd rob him!Early in the film, his adventures at a dojo are pure slapstick, as well as a scene where Yune and Mauro are in a Texas jail, and they use the Chinese Flour to cause a jailbreak, then when the cocaine is on the clothes of the prisoners, they start sniffing at the clothes to snort the coke! Hilarious.You won't find this on DVD, but you'll find this hidden gem somewhere in a video store. See it.