My Name Is Bruce (2007)

My Name Is Bruce: Directed by Bruce Campbell. With Bruce Campbell, Grace Thorsen, Taylor Sharpe, Ted Raimi. Mistaken for his character Ash from the ‘Evil Dead’ trilogy, Bruce Campbell is forced to fight a real monster in a small Oregon town.

“Bruce Campbell is called to Gold Lick to fight the evil Chinese war god Guan-di after one of his biggest fans, Jeff, awakens the demon and mistakenly believes that Bruce would know how to fight such creatures. Campbell accepts, but only because he believes the entire thing to be a movie shoot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot surprisingly, there is going to be two groups of people for this film: the die-hard Campbell fans who love it, and the others. The others might like it, they might hate it, but theyu0026#39;ll be left cold if they realize the jokes arenu0026#39;t meant for them. The film really has no solid plot (itu0026#39;s been done before…) and the acting isnu0026#39;t great… and the jokes are, at best, average.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCampbellu0026#39;s actor friends show up: Timothy Patrick Quill, Ted Raimi, Dan Hicks and even Ellen Sandweiss. Some of the in-jokes are slightly clever (having Sandweiss play u0026quot;Cherylu0026quot;, the same characteru0026#39;s name she had in u0026quot;Evil Deadu0026quot;) while others are just too blunt and insult the audienceu0026#39;s intelligence. Other references such as u0026quot;I worked with Sam Raimiu0026quot; just seem thrown in for good measure. I understand the point was to reference Campbellu0026#39;s past films, but it wasnu0026#39;t subtle at all and seemed poorly thought out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBruce Campbell is Bruce Campbell, so if you like him, you will like this film. Thatu0026#39;s pretty much all there is to say about that. He directed it, he stars in it and he had a strong guiding hand in the writing process. You get the best of Campbell and the worst in this film… and donu0026#39;t forget for every good Campbell film (u0026quot;Army of Darknessu0026quot;) there are at least two bad films.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI had the privilege of catching a screening in Madison with Campbell himself on hand for questions and answers. This really made the experience special, but did not make me feel any better about the film. The audience generally seemed to laugh more than I did, so maybe Iu0026#39;m in the minority. But when Bruce answered questions, he didnu0026#39;t offer any reassurance that he cared much about the film… if anything, his appearance seemed to suggest he felt he couldnu0026#39;t sell tickets without a gimmick.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI received a DVD copy in the mail as part of my reviewing duties, and gave it a second viewing. In all fairness, I en joyed the film much more the second time, having a better sense of what sort of humor and style the film would be going for. My suggestion is this: if youu0026#39;re a Campbell fan, pick up a copy. If not, youu0026#39;ll want to see other Campbell films first to really appreciate this one. Luckily for the people who made this film, there are plenty of Bruce Campbell fans to see this one with a smile on their face.”