Screenhead

It’s not too hard to say that Bruce Campbell’s career has been something of a flaming wreckage for the last few years now.  In fact, that’s almost being charitable.  With a series of horrendous B-movies filmed in far-off places like Bulgaria, and a downright depressing advertising campaign for Old Spice, and even a stint on the worst list a celebrity can occupy, Film Threat’s Frigid Fifty, the legendary Campbell’s career was downright toxic.

Longtime fans even began to wonder if he could ever recover, or if he’d be doomed to pointlessness and obscurity forever.  Well, I’ll tell you this much, folks–the Bruce is back.

It’s called My Name Is Bruce, and it’s a rollicking series of fourth wall violations and monster-battling fun in the grandest Bruce Campbell tradition.  Bruce Campbell plays himself, an out-of-shape, out-of-work, out-of-luck has-been living in a run-down trailer somewhere within driving distance of the town of Gold Lick.  And Gold Lick’s got some serious problems–notably, an abandoned Chinese graveyard protected by the Chinese god of war, death and bean curd, Guan Di.  Anyway, as is the standard for movies like this, a group of horny, promiscuous teens break into said graveyard and accidentally release Guan Di, who promptly goes on a killing spree.  It’s now up to Bruce Campbell, legendary B-movie actor, to bravely sally forth (and I managed to say it first try, too!) and save the town of Gold Lick.

An action-packed laugh riot with lots of blood splatter and jokes, My Name Is Bruce may well be Bruce Campbell’s best movie in the last five years.  That’s not exactly a tough goal to reach, but still, credit where credit is due.  It’s nice to see Bruce back in proper roles again, allowed to reach that old Campbellian standard that he himself created.  There will even be inside jokes for those who remember the really old-school Campbell work.  For instance, when Bruce goes for the quarter, see if you don’t recognize that.  I’m not going to spoiler–just telling you what to watch for.

What’s really interesting about this one is that it’s easily as low-budget as the rest of Campbell’s current body of work.  I seriously doubt they spent a whole lot more on this one than they did on The Man With The Screaming Brain.  And yet they got so much more out of it.  Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that this was DIRECTED by Campbell just as much as him starring in it.  Maybe, with him handling direction, production AND acting duties he got clear of a lot of executive meddling.

Maybe…just maybe…it wasn’t Bruce’s career that went south.  Maybe he was just being misused.

Bruce Campbell’s career has taken a lot of abuse over the years, and mostly from disgruntled fans like myself who got sick of waiting for him to do something ENTERTAINING again while he launched off on a series of idiotic, asinine roles that he was clearly doing for a paycheck.  My Name Is Bruce, meanwhile, watches almost like old Bruce Campbell did.  And that’s a welcome surprise.

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