‘Fearless! Unstoppable! Ready for his close-up!’
My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy supernatural horror film, directed, co-produced by and starring cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was written by Mark Verheiden (The Mask; Timecop).
In the mining town of Gold Lick, Oregon, Jeff (Taylor Sharpe), a young fan of B movie actor Bruce Campbell, and his friend Clayton (Logan Martin) go out to a cemetery to meet two girls, Big Debbie (Ariel Badenhop) and Little Debbie (Ali Akay). Jeff removes a medallion from the mausoleum, unleashing the Chinese god of the dead, Guan Di (James Peck), who kills Clayton and both Debbie’s while Jeff flees.
Meanwhile, Bruce Campbell is finishing filming for the fictional Cave Alien II and is promised a birthday surprise from his agent, Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi). Bruce meets Jeff, who kidnaps Campbell and takes him to Gold Lick in hopes that his hero can save the town from Guan-Di. Upon arrival, Bruce assumes it’s his birthday surprise from Mills and thinks it’s all a movie, despite a lack of cameras and a script, and agrees to “help”.
Reviews:
“You’d think that all those years hanging out with Sam Raimi would have rubbed off on him, but Campbell doesn’t cut it as a director, turning in a clumsy comedy-horror, packed with gags both racist and creaking, that squeaks through on the force of his personality alone. For Deadheads only.” Tom Ambrose, Empire
“Fans will embrace Bruce for the lovable genre hero he is; others may wonder whether the godawful ghost of Troma hasn’t risen from the grave. Yet ask yourself – would you rather have Jean-Claude Van Damme moaning about how hard it is to be himself in JCVD or Bruce Campbell merrily celebrating his own chainsaw-wielding ridiculousness? No contest!” Mark Kermode, The Guardian
” … irrepressible, cheap-as-chips spoof that is the very thing it’s lampooning: a late night picture show, straight-to-DVD fun-fest with special FX so cheesy they make Bubba Ho-tep‘s look like Weta on Berocca. But, littered with clever in-jokes and daft slapstick, this is honestly the most fun you can have on a Friday night and I just loved it.” Film Reviews by Elaine MacIntryre
“The script, by Mark Verheiden (who wrote Timecop and multiple episodes of the television series Smallville, the revived Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes, among other things), has its moments, but it’s just too dang dumb. I did laugh a few times, but not often, and sometimes I cringed.” D Gary Grady
“My Name is Bruce is a self-deprecating film made by and starring Bruce Campbell, B-movie icon. For what it is, it’s a really funny movie that makes fun of Campbell’s entire career — save for, perhaps, his cameos in the Spider-man films. It borrows plot elements from a lot of movies he was in previously, and it makes more references than it could if it wanted to include anyone not in the know.” The Escapist
“The script by Verheiden is quirky, fast-paced, and loaded with quotable dialogue mostly given to Campbell because let’s face it, just about every line of dialogue the Mighty Chin speaks these days usually ends up being quoted for the rest of time. There are also a lot of choice quips aimed in the direction of some of Campbell’s more questionable career decisions.” Geeks of Doom
