Moofies - My Name Is Bruce (2007)

EXPECTATIONS: I honestly expect this will be nerdy beyond belief and full of awful eye-rolling moments, but I still love Bruce Campbell for no logical reason so I will no doubt enjoy his presence in this film.

REALITY: If you haven't seen a Bruce Campbell film before, don't start with this one.

Campbell is the star of many great films, most notably the Evil Dead series. You may also recognise him from Burn Notice or as that funny usher guy in the Spider-man movies. My Name Is Bruce sees Campbell making fun of his career in a big way, which is pretty enjoyable. What isn't enjoyable is the ludicrous premise of this film; even in a comedic sense this is just completely retarded.

Some kid, a huge Bruce fan, pulls some talisman looking piece of crap from a wooden plank in a graveyard and BOOM!, a cheap looking evil spirit is released and starts killing people.... okay, I'm with you so far. Then, this kid kidnaps Bruce and drives him back to his small home town so Bruce can save the day and defeat the evil spirit. We're talking about a teenage kid who loves Bruce films, collects memorabilia, including scripts. WHY WOULD HE THINK BRUCE COULD SAVE THE DAY??? HE'S AN ACTOR!!! It's so stupid, and it just gets stupider. Bruce thinks the whole thing is some setup prank for his birthday so he plays along. He also has a thing for the Bruce fan's mother (pictured) who is NOWHERE NEAR OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A TEENAGE SON!!!

You may say "Ben. This is a film called My Name is Bruce. Aren't you taking it all a little too seriously?". I don't think I am. If it was a straight forward crappy movie that would be fine, but this is one of those annoying crappy movies that knows it's crappy and thinks it's all a big joke. Those are the least funny crappy movies of all. Great B-grade films are great because you can tell the film makers are really into it and think that they are making cinema gold (i.e. The Room or anything directed by Edward D. Wood Jnr.). If you're making self-aware b-grade films then they need to be better than this.

The worst, most unforgivable aspect of My Name is Bruce is how ridiculously racist it is. Ted Raimi plays a few roles, one of them being an old Asian stereotype, complete with long beard, squinty eyes, and "jokes" about the way he speaks. Seriously, you know those "mee so solly" jokes? They are in here aplenty. Some whiter than white country singers tell the tale of the Chinese demon throughout the film also, just adding to the ridiculous racist nature of the film.

Bruce Campbell fans totally have to see this, because Bruce has some great moments and watching him make fun of himself was pretty great, but for everyone else, this is really painful.

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