My Name is Bruce (2007) Review

To begin Bruce Campbell Month I have started with his most recent project, My Name is Bruce. Bruce Campbell plays himself and is absolutely hilarious, as he conveniently quotes his other movies and makes fun of people he has worked with. He pokes fun at his own B movie status and has some incredibly funny lines. The movie is basically just a way for Bruce to use his B movie status as a means to joke around and have control over making his own movie, as he directed it himself. The movie is about a Chinese demon being unleashed upon a small community and Bruce Campbell is asked to help the townspeople fight off the demon. Bruce assumes that its just a joke, but when he comes face to face with the demon he reacts like any other actor and runs for his life. The movie is full of great references and his number one fan has some funny tributary lines concerning Bruce, yet the movie falls flat because of some horrible acting and an incredibly bad ending.

Bruce Campbell delivers his usual camp performance and he's good at it as always, but every other character in the film doesn't work for their roles. The love interest isn't very good looking and all of her lines are incredibly lame and cliche. The townspeople incredibly overact and it is easy to tell that they're just delivering their lines rather than fitting into a character.

The ending is incredibly stupid, as Bruce Campbell decides that he can fight the monster himself and goes to kick its ass. Too bad for the audience this doesn't include any of the usual Bruce one-liners and doesn't even have him armed with his usual boomstick or chainsaw. The ending is also a disappointment because after the demon is defeated we see Bruce Campbell in a studio critiquing the movie we just watched asking for a happier ending, which is then concluded with the demon shockingly grabbing Bruce. It takes the viewer out of the film and is almost as bad as if it were all just a dream. It's a major disgrace to the audience and ruins the film, especially since the climax was lame anyways.

My Name is Bruce is the perfect Bruce Campbell movie, doing a great service to fans of the B movie star. The film delivers some clever jokes and allows for Bruce Campbell to do whatever he wants, which is great since Bruce is such a screen presence. The movie has a lot of flaws, but Bruce Campbell makes the film worth watching. Bruce Campbell is the God of B movies and because of him every movie he's in is instantly a million times better. That's the power of chin, baby.

Rating: 5/10
Fanboy Rating: 10/10