My Name Is Bruce Movie Review

*repost from 11/30/2008

Directed by Bruce Campbell

Starring Bruce Campbell

Available on dvd Feb 10, 2009

When I first heard of this project I was pretty damn excited. Then when I first saw the trailer that excitement level went down to about a 3. Well the good news is that the movie is definitely better than the original trailer that was cut. The bad news is that unless you are Bruce Campbell fan or expecting a lot of action/horror then you will be disappointed. The movie is first and foremost a comedy. On that level its pretty funny with some great one liners throughout. I was slightly disappointed that there wasnt more crazy ala evil dead.
The movie is about a Bruce Campbell fan that accidentally unleashes a Chinese demon that starts killing the towns people. Bruce who plays himself in the movie, is on a movie set making another crappy stdvd monster movie. When the day is over he hands out some signed pictures to his fans and begins to berate them for being losers. He then meets his agent, gets drunk and goes home and calls his ex wife while drinking more liquor from his dog's bowl. In the middle of the night he gets kidnapped by his fan and taken in a trunk to Gold Lick, Oregon. His Agent played by Ted Raimi had promised him a great birthday present so Bruce thinks this is all a set up joke. He befriends the geek and his hot mom and promises the town to kick the demons ass but little does he know that the Demon is actually real.
The demon is protector of the bean curd, and looks pretty cheesy looking. He kinda reminds me of a power ranger baddie. All he does is appear in front of people and chops the head off with a single swipe of blade. The final encounter is a very short battle and reminds me of a scooby doo episode. I think this will leave a bad taste in some people's mouth.
The movie is a great self aware parody that Bruce handles with class. There is no heartfelt monlogues like in JCVD but there are some very good one liners and comedy situations. I understand what he was going for but I was hoping there would be flying demons, eyeballs popping out, or even some funny falls or stunt work like in the Evil Dead movies. But alas this Bruce is a lot older, wiser and still can kick some demon ass. On a scale of 1-10 I give this a transvestite hooker nurse 7.5 out of 10.
Trailer