Zachary FenellMy Name Is Bruce
February 13th 2009 17:51
My Name Is Bruce, 2007
Even at that, going into a film knowing that someone was probably trying to make a bad movie (or at least ape a bad movie), and even knowing that the "someone" was Bruce Campbell himself, you have to be a little cautious. I got the story, I understood the motivation for making My Name Is Bruce, but I'm still left wondering what they were thinking in a moment-to-moment way. (Not in a "tragedy of the universe" kind of "what were they thinking" - just as a kind of mildly confused sort of... confusion.)
Maybe it's just that I'm spoiled by Brisco County, Jr or that I've read the autobiography, but I just don't by the swaggering machismo thing from Bruce anymore. Sure, on screen, he plays almost the same swaggering machismo thing every time, but I don't think we've ever really bought into it. The worst part was the ambivalent nature of the characters, including Bruce. You just know that Mike Verheiden cobbled it together as kind of a homage joke, and then it got taken too far, too fast - but at least it wasn't a total disaster.
One of the things that separates bad actors from good actors (and sometimes good actors from great actors) is that great actors don't have any idea that they're acting. You don't realize how hard that is until you get a couple of those very uncomfortable moments towards the beginning of the movie when Bruce just doesn't quite find his groovy. Uh... sorry, I meant "groove".
Just to be totally fair, it really is a fan-gasm. I think we could totally get together with our friends and have a "My Name is Bruce" drinking game:
* One drink for every "Evil Dead" or "Army of Darkness" reference (since they're so well known)
* Two drinks for every reference to a real-yet-lesser-known movie (check IMDB)
* Three drinks for every reference to a made-up movie (except Cave Alien - that's one drink or you'll end up with alcohol poisoning).
* One drink for every time he says "baby"
* Two drinks for every time someone else says "baby"...
You get the idea. (It's in the forum. What? You didn't know we had one of those? You should totally check it out! Or you can go directly to the drinking game rules itself.)
Bruce, I love ya and all, but.... dude.
3 Stars, but only because Grace Thorsen is such an incredible hottie.
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