Review of My Name Is Bruce (2007) by Alex S — 22 Aug 2012

Okay, first of all, this is not "Evil Dead 4" or "Army of Darkness 2" or whatever else you want it to be. This is Bruce Campbell playing Bruce Campbell in a self-referential send up of his personality, reputation and talents in a low-budget flick about an ancient Chinese force ruining some small town Oregon lives if they do not have bean curd on hand (don't ask).

If you accept that right away, chances are good you will love this. Then again, it also helps if you know who Campbell is since a large chunk of this film revolves around his career and he is the only "star" in this.

But oh man, are there some great moments in this. For one thing, Campbell proves he can competently direct as sparse sets and cheesy players come to life in functional ways (one almost slapstick scene involving Campbell hopping off of and into varying pickup trucks done in one constant shot jumps to mind).

The self-deprecating jokes make this (Campbell is not below mocking himself to the point where he drinks alcohol out of his dog's bowl in the middle of his run-down trailer) as the actual plot leaves a lot to be desired.

Campbell's character thinks his role in ridding the Oregon town of Guan-Di is just some sort of elaborate joke until heads start getting lopped off and at this point, the audience is probably not ready to invest itself much further into a ghost story solved by buying bean curd.

The ending doesn't help, either. But for those looking for Campbell's trademark physical comedy and rapid-fire jokes that hit more often than miss (almost everything involving the town's one token Chinese survivor from an earlier disaster falls into the "miss" category), this is a must-see.