When cult film legend Bruce Campbell released his directorial debut a few years ago, fanboys and fangirls rejoiced. Man With the Screaming Brain was a film that had existed on the edges of conversations for years, talked about, but always a work in progress. It seemed a perfect match, a tongue-in-cheek B-movie made by the wise-ass king of the modern B-movie. Unfortunately, reality never quite lives up to expectations, and any screaming brains in the house were more likely to belong to those in the audience. Undaunted, Campbell is back in the director’s chair for My Name is Bruce, in which Campbell, as the title suggests, plays himself.
Well, sort of. The Bruce Campbell of My Name is Bruce is an abusive alcoholic who drives a beat-up Mazda 323 from his run-down Airstream trailer home to the sets of movies even worse than Man With the Screaming Brain. He’s an unrepentant egomaniac who trades on his reputation in lame attempts to bed his costars, and takes out his many frustrations on the geeky fans who mob him when he leaves the studio. One of these fans figures Bruce for just the type of manly hero he plays in the movies, and when an ancient Chinese demon springs up in the woods outside his small town, he kidnaps the star and brings him home to do battle.
Is it an improvement over Screaming Brain? Well, it would sort of have to be. And for the first half hour or so especially, there’s a lot of clever spoofing of both Campbell and fanboy culture that elicits genuine laughs. As the film goes on, it tends to fall victim to that most common pitfall of the action-comedy, sacrificing the funny in order to move the plot along and get to the butt-kicking finale. Even so, it’s always a pleasure to watch the man work, particularly when he’s putting himself out there and mocking himself with such relish.
Bruce Campbell talked to DCist about making his new film, and was surprisingly candid in his opinions of both some of his own past work and of the forthcoming Evil Dead films. He’ll appear in person for Q&As after the 7:45 and 10:15 p.m. screenings of My Name is Bruce at E Street Cinema on Saturday.
