My Name Is Bruce by Bruce Campbell (2008)
18 March 2009Thanks to Netflix I got to check this out, because I have wanted to see it since I initially heard about it. I mean a new Bruce Campbell horror film directed by him, and which also parodies him and his career! That sounds perfect, and honestly for it was, it really was. This film is fun as can be, and a must for any Bruce Campbell fan! And it was great to see Ted Raimi having such a big part (well parts really). Fun Fun Fun! And I love the musical elements with the townsfolk singing about what is going on in the movie (well two of them) and Ted Raimi playing his 3rd party as the guy who paints the sign, changing the number of people in the town as people get killed, and eventually getting killed.
In the small town of Gold Lick, Oregon, a boy named Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) who is a horror and especially Bruce Campbell nut, goes with his friend to an old Chinese cemetery to meet up with some girls. They go through smashing graves and stuff, and Jeff picks up a gold amulet, which releases the Chinese God of War Guan-di (Jamie Peck) who protects the dead Chinese, and their Tofu after a bad mining accident. The God with glowing eyes kills his friend and the two girls before he escapes. We then see Bruce Campbell playing a sleezy version of himself, with a horrible career doing Z movies. He goes to meet his agent Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi) at a strip club, and he wants to fire him, but keeps him when he gets promised something special for his birthday. Bruce gets totally wasted, and barely makes it back to his trailer, where he drunk dials his ex wife, and gets his dog drunk, before getting knocked over the head, and stuffed into the back of a car by Jeff.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Bruce wakes up in the back of the car, being left some smashed twinkies, and a bottle to pee in, and when he is released in Gold Lick. There he is treated like a hero, and when he hears from something about his agent and his birthday, he assumes it is his birthday present to do this movie for the town, where he will defend them from Guan-di. The town though is actually expecting him to battle the demon, as Jeff has talked him up so much, and no realizing that he is just an actor.
Bruce tries to romance Jeff’s young mom Kelly (Grace Thorsen), though he doesn’t do too well. And a local Chinese, the last descendent of the dead Chinese named Wing (Ted Raimi) shows up to scare the town.
Bruce is just about to kiss Kelly, when the town shows up to get him to go to the gun shop and grab guns, before they head out to battle the God. Bruce is all bravado until the realizes the demon is real, and starts running, and shooting town folk behind him as he goes. Bruce runs and steals a bike, then the car of an old lady, before finally getting home to his trailer.
Bruce wakes up to his gift from an agent, a singing transvestite, and scripts to 2 more sequels to the crappy sequel he was making (and missing because of his kidnapping), but right then he gets a call from Jeff, who is going to fight Guan-di himself. Bruce has a change of heart, and decides he must save Jeff, so he hires the hooker to drive him to Gold Lick.
Bruce gets there and fins Kelly burning Jeff’s collection of Bruce Campbell merchandise, until he tells her what is going on with Jeff, and they go to stop him. They find him at the Chinese Cemetery and old Mine, and go to fight Guan-di. Bruce goes to distract Guan-di, as Kelly and Jeff set up dynamite in the mine, and then he uses his standee to get Guan-di to go in, but they both end up in the mine, and Kelly blows it.
Of course Bruce is OK, and they walk away together, but then Guan-di awakens to attack, and Bruce steps back a step, now watching the film, and he stops the ridiculous ending, wanting a happy ending. And they show a silly happy ending with him married to Kelly and Jeff as their kid going to Harvard, but then Guan-di comes through the screen and attacks!
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Ridiculous fun! Just a crazy, low budget horror comedy, and with Bruce “The Man” Campbell, it has to be silly fun, and is. Sure much of the gore is now digital heads coming off instead of physical effects, which I always thought looked better, but you get to see badly done physical when we see the scenes of the film that Bruce is supposed to be starring in, with wires and all.
This film is just plain fun!
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