Review #402: 'My Name Is Bruce' (2007)

In the small town of Goldlick, four horny goth teenagers trash an old graveyard, which is the resting place of a hundred Chinese labourers who died in a mining accident years before. As a result, they awaken the Chinese god Guan-Di (James Peck), who instantly starts hacking them up. B-movie and Bruce Campbell worshipper Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) manages to escape. Meanwhile, Bruce Campbell is finishing low-budget film Cave Alien 2 when he is kidnapped from his trailer by Jeff, who takes him to Goldlick to help fight off Guan-Di. Thinking it's a birthday present from his hapless agent Mills (Ted Raimi), he plays along and tries it on with Jeff's mother Kelly (Grace Thorsen), until, that is, he realises the killer is real.

I really wanted to like this movie. I'm a huge fan of Campbell and the Evil Dead (1981-1992) films, and it's an interesting idea to have the actor playing a fictionalised version of himself in a horror setting, a genre he is certainly no stranger to. But as loveable as Campbell is (here he directs as well as taking the lead role), the film falls flat on its face, and it is as bad as you could ever imagine it to be. Campbell's inexperience as a director is the main problem, with the film never finding a pace or a tone it is comfortable with, and I couldn't quite figure out what audience he was aiming for. It's too childish for adults, too tame for horror fans, and too outright unfunny to appeal to comedy fans.

It is first and foremost a comedy, with Campbell portraying himself as way over-the-hill, complete with run-down trailer, recent divorce, and alcohol problem. It is an amusing performance, but the script is just too damn awful to serve him justice. Add that to the mix of racial stereotypes, homophobic jokes (they're only acceptable if they're funny!), juvenile slapstick, and needle-slipping-off-the-record sound effects, the film ends up being about as funny as contracting AIDS. And I still can't understand why the townsfolk would employ Bruce Campbell, who they know is just an actor, to fight off a god. Reading some other reviews on IMDb by fellow Bruce Campbell fans, it would seem other people actually like this film. The Greatest Chin in Movies can literally do anything and still be worshipped.


Directed by: Bruce Campbell
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Grace Thorsen, Taylor Sharpe, Ted Raimi
Country: USA

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie