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My Name Is Bruce is the latest film, and second directorial effort, of B-movie legend Bruce Campbell. Perhaps best known for his role as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy (1981, 1987, and, for third installment Army of Darkness, 1992), Campbell has become as luminous a figure in the geek subculture as Mark Hamil or the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, unlike the rest of the nerd pantheon, Campbell can earn a living without posing for photographs in the Jacob Javits Convention Centre with his arm around a 30-year-old dressed like Chun-Li from Street Fighter 2.
Campbell, in fact, has parlayed his cult-cred into roles in almost a hundred films and several TV series, as well as authoring two best-selling books. And My Name Is Bruce, written by comic book scribe Mark Verheiden, takes full advantage of that reputation, with Campbell playing a drunken, washed-up version of himself. Mistaken by a fan as a genuine hero, as opposed to an actor who plays one when he needs money for porn and bourbon, Campbell is kidnapped and brought to a small town under siege from an ancient Chinese war god and a host of Asian stereotypes.
The young fan is played by Taylor Sharpe, and his devotion to his idol is mirrored by horror fans the world over, myself included. But of course, his plan for Campbell to save the town goes predictably off the rails, once Campbell figures out that he’s in actual danger, and not just part of an elaborate prank set up by his agent, played by Ted Raimi. There aren’t many surprises in the film, aside from cameo appearance by many of Campbell's previous co stars, but there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way.
Campbell’s film is silly, to be sure, and it suffers from many of the faults that befall the various b-movies it spoofs. Some of the acting is dim, the effects are sometimes cheap, and the humor is broad, to say the least. But the foundation upon which it stands, the canon of b-movie work that has elevated Bruce from man to God, is so strong, so well-established, that the film cannot help but succeed on many levels. Even if it wouldn’t work as a Hallmark card.
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