My Name Is Bruce is an indie film, indeed, although it automatically gets distribution considering it's a Bruce Campbell movie. As a filmmaker, I've been itching to review this one, as I am not only a fan of this actor's work, but always study people I'd like to potentially cast in a film if I had the budget and pull. Being a genre filmmaker makes this guy almost a given!
At around $1.5 Million joked around budget, mentioned by using many different amounts in various contexts, Darkhorse Indie (Mark Verheiden) wrote this film for Bruce Campbell and somehow got him to film the majority of the flick on his own property. The story is quite funny, albiet over the top, which is Bruce's typical typecast character. Yes, this is indeed indie, and almost every indie filmmaker would applaud this decision for both budgetary and controlled environment, although that doesn't mean that everything is actually controlled within the production, which they point out. Before I get into the plot, I must say this movie has some of the best behind the scenes you could ever ask for in an indie production at almost more than the actual movie's runtime. Just plain fun, and definitely made for the fans!
Okay, So the movie is about a washed up B actor named, you guessed it, Bruce Campbell, but is rather a fictionalized version or alter ego that is an ultra jerk and lives out of the worst possible old silver camping trailer. He gets sucked into the worst C-D grade movies like "Cave Alien", or rather...Cavahlyen as the "director" of Cave Alien calls it. This is a complete spoof of Bruce and monster movies. When a couple kids unwittingly unleash the Chinese god of bean curd, Guan-D, to wreck havoc on an old mining town called Goldlick, the surviving kid kidnaps Mr. Campbell from his drunken state to vanquish the demon and save the poor town. Bruce thinks that the kidnapping is all a birthday setup from his shady agent and plays along, cutting his jerk behavior to mischiefness and antics as he macks on the kid's mom. Ted Raimi plays 3 characters, being Bruce's agent sleeping with his ex, the town's italian population sign painter, and the old chinaman that gives all the senile warnings about Guan-Di. Ted is quite excellent, as usual, and I don't know why he doesn't get higher lead roles as much as he should, as again he's quite good and versatile. Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong places.
I won't spoil everything here, but want to mention some things that stood out and made me think. The Guan-Di outfit actually works, but it seems based off a shiny stage mask, which you might typically see in a live theatre performance. So, if you are looking for realistic gory monster, it may not work for you. It's perception based and once you see where and why it all comes together, it is very good design for this particular movie. It's facial expressions change and can be quite amusing!
Another thing that stood out is how Bruce Campbell was shot cinematically! Sam Raimi had the best way to capture every nuance of Bruce's gifts of entertaining. This movie only did about 40% of that. Let me expain! There's a scene in Bruce's trailer where he's getting totally drunk and going off on a whole schtick of antics with his dog and his life being trash. For me, the acting was totally fine, but fell weak in how it was captured. The delivery basically fell through where it could have shined. I realize the trailer was probably cramped and limited, but here's what they could have done to pimp Bruce to full force, like Sam Raimi or his cinematographer did. When Bruce makes a crazed facial expression and voice, the camera itself should have followed him in on the moment. I'm referring to zooms, rotating of the camera, and pans/ swoops, etc. Bruce Campbell's best stuff seems not only to be delivering tacky lines, but to actually have the camera be his shadow. Do you remember that Warner Brother's cartoon with the tough dog "Spike", being followed around by the pesky smaller other dog that constantly pestered him? That smaller dog has to be the camera to get the full "Campbell" effect. This doesn't really affect the movie, because it it's very entertaining, but man could it have been maximized through such in camera tricks.
The director was actually Bruce Campbell himself, which is hard to be in two places at once and especially with this being an indie flick. That could affect how he was shot. High Definition cameras were used and I believe is the new super 8 or 16mm when you are talking prosumer grade models. I don't know what they used, but they did have to deal with lens issues as mentioned in behind the scenes, so I'd guess it was a bit better than that. Many past cast from movies that Bruce was in have been imported into this flick, such as the blacksmith from Army of Darkness and the overalls-wearing guy from Evil Dead II, which play gay lovers, whether true or not in real life. It's funny and pleasant to see them, as Army of Darkness/ Evil Dead II are some of my favorite movies.
Joseph LoDuca actually does the music for this film. That's impressive! A side note, Robert Kurtzman has a studio a couple hours away from Cleveland, and he's the one who did a lot of the practical effects and props for Army of Darkness. You should check out and rent/ buy his movie "The Rage".
Gag after gag, My Name Is Bruce keeps delivering. I always come back to Ted Raimi as stealing the stage, especially in makeup, but it's just great to see everything that they put into this movie. I've seen the movie about 6 times already, showing to friends and colleagues. Shot in Oregon, this movie is worth the rent. Hey, they built the front of buildings of Goldlick to make a fake town, right on Bruce's property! Totally cool in my book! He had a great team of people working with him and it looks like it was not only hard work, but a lot of fun! Oh, did I mention that the good angel and devil on Bruce's shoulders was absolutely fantastic and classic Bruce? Totally pimpin!
Best, Kenny
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