Review of My Name Is Bruce (2007) by Bhavik T — 29 Apr 2011

My Name Is Bruce stars the big-chinned B Movie Legend himself, Bruce Campbell, playing a washed-up jackass version of himself, reduced to making terrible movies like Cave Alien. He is then taken to the town of Gold Lick to fight the chinese god of war, Guan Di, because the citizens believe him to be an action hero and a bunch of generically stupid teens unleashed said god, but Bruce only agrees to it as he thinks it's all a movie.

How much you enjoy this film pretty much depends on what you think of the Evil Dead star. If you absolutely hate him, you won't enjoy this film, and if you're a die hard fan, you'll probably love this film.

I like Campbell, and believe the best scenes in this film are when he's playing the jackass version of himself. Be it when he pushes an annoying paraplegic fan into traffic, or when his dickish attitude to a teamster on a film set results in his bottle of lemon water being replaced with a full bottle of piss. However, I felt that the relationship with his love interest seemed to be tacked on, and it never felt convincing that they were in love, despite knowing each other for a day or two.

The god itself, Guan Di, looks very ridiculous. I don't know whether this was on purpose, but seriously, the so called God of War looks like the production team just cobbled together whatever they could find in the costumes. It's also seems to change what exactly it is. First, it's the god of War, then it's the protector of the souls who were trapped in a mining shaft, and then it's protector of the bean curd, a popular chinese dish. Make up your mind, writers.

I do like how willing this film is to kill off it's characters. At the beginning, when the generic teens unleash Guan-Di, you get a goth chick being thrown into a car and decapatations galore. I also laughed when the hand that was feeling a girls boob stayed there after it was cut off.

Overall, this film doesn't really cut it as a horror, and only fares moderately better as a comedy. Campbell electrifies every scene he's in, but ultimately, that's not enough to save this film.