Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on October 27, 2008, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
A director/star vehicle in which the director/star plays himself might be viewed as a vanity project—but anyone who knows Bruce Campbell is unlikely to expect that from My Name Is Bruce. Aimed squarely at the loyal fan base that loves the knowingly vainglorious attitude Campbell brings to both his genre roles and his convention appearances, the movie is a slight but frequently amusing self-deconstruction that, with a 90-minute wink, presents the least flattering portrait of the actor possible. The Bruce onscreen is an alcoholic has-been who lives in a trailer, insults his co-workers on cheesy sci-fi flicks (other than those females he considers attractive enough to mack on) and doesn’t treat his fans any better. Played by anyone but Campbell, he’d probably be insufferable.
Instead, the actor creates a very funny alter ego and, as My Name’s director (working from a script by Mark Verheiden), brings a light, pacey touch to a story that actually has you rooting for the guy. He and Verheiden also find room for humorous touches that have nothing to do with Bruce, like the pair of good ol’ boy balladeers who introduce the audience to the backstory of Guan-di, the film’s villain. An ancient god of war—and bean curd—he watches over and protects the graves of Chinese miners in the little Oregon town of Gold Lick. That is, until a quartet of rowdy teens decide to party in the cemetery one night, and after they’ve desecrated a few tombstones, Jeff (Taylor Sharpe), who’s a major fan of Bruce’s movies and thus really should know better, removes an amulet that has kept Guan-di imprisoned. The angry deity makes short work of the other three kids (though played lightheartedly, the movie doesn’t skimp on the messy decapitations), and Jeff flees in terror, realizing the town will need special help to defeat the demon. Who’s he gonna call?
Once Bruce has been shanghaied to Gold Lick and implored to help its residents send Guan-di back from whence he came, the plot follows the expected trajectory. Believing the whole thing to be an elaborate gag orchestrated by his agent (played with amusing smarm by Ted Raimi, who also takes a couple of silly secondary roles), Bruce goes along willingly if snarkily. He’s further inspired to stick around once he gets a load of Jeff’s foxy older sister—oops, mother Kelly (Grace Thorsen), which allows Campbell to play up the ludicrous lothario he perfected in Army of Darkness. But when he realizes that the menace Guan-di poses is very real…well, you don’t need to have seen as many genre films as Jeff has to figure out how the subplots will develop and pay off.
The true appeal of My Name Is Bruce lies in the way it conflates its star’s real-life career and fictional persona, and will be most enjoyed by those who can differentiate the bona fide tacky Campbell credits it namechecks (i.e. Moontrap, Assault on Dome 4) from those it makes up. The most significant of the latter is Cave Aliens, which on evidence of the scenes we see is truly terrible, but has managed to not only spawn sequels but land on the cover of FANGORIA. Throughout, there are in-jokes in both the dialogue and casting (Ellen Sandweiss, Ash’s girlfriend Cheryl in the original Evil Dead, turns up here as Bruce’s ex-wife Cheryl), and My Name Is Bruce can be seen as the ultimate love letter—with a pen dipped in poison—from Campbell to his die-hard followers.
Those who only know the actor from, say, his recurring part on Burn Notice might be nonplussed by the movie’s shenanigans. The best way for them to experience My Name Is Bruce will be to see it during its theatrical tour, where the man himself will introduce and discuss the film, in his own inimitable way, with what will likely be packed houses of his faithful followers. If there’s anything that will convert the uninitiated to the cult of Campbell, seeing My Name with Bruce is likely to be it.
