My Name Is Bruce
The quaint little town of Gold Lick, Oregon, has a problem. After a group of horny teenagers trying to get laid in a cemetery accidentally let an ancient Chinese spirit of war and bean curd loose upon their homes, Gold Lick's small population (339) gets a little smaller every day. Thus, a local Bruce Campbell fan named Jeff decides to do the logical thing: recruit the man himself, presently shooting his latest film masterpiece, Cave Alien 2, to fight the demon off.
Mr. Campbell makes soup. My name is Bruce. |
Sadly for him, Bruce is hardly the fearless action hero Jeff remembers from Evil Dead; he's a narcissistic, nervous wreck with a failing career and love life who spends his evenings drunk-dialing his ex-wife. Unaware of the danger at hand, believing instead that he's performing in a top secret movie project, Bruce meanders through Gold Lick, arming himself to the teeth in preparation for his confrontation with the demon Guan-Di. Little does he realize, of course, that shit is about to get way too real.
Just another ordinary day in the life of a hero.
There's a sequel on its way, titled My Name is Still Bruce: Bruce vs. Frankenstein. Groovy.
This film contains examples of:
- Acting for Two: Ted Raimi plays three roles.
- Adam Westing - Bruce Campbell plays himself as a drunk, surly, borderline broke B-actor living in a trailer.
- Almost Kiss - Mercilessy played with Bruce and Kelly.
Bruce: For the love of God man! I can smell her chapstick! |
- Awesome but Impractical: "You know Jeff, I've gotten a lot of use out of chainsaws over the years. Killed a lot a zombies, saved a lot of lives, but at the end of the day when push comes to shove... they're just too damn heavy."
- Genre Savvy - Jeff, except his choice of heroes turns out not to translate well into real life. Bruce later plays the trope straight when he finally snaps into hero mode.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel - Bruce gets these when thinking about returning to Gold Lick.
- Jerkass - Bruce Campbell himself. In his Q&A screenings, he went out of his way to state that this is a highly fictionalized version of himself.
- Large Ham: Bruce is like this in person as well as on the screen.
- Magnificent Bastard: Invoked by name by Bruce after Jeff mentions Bruce's agent, Miles.
- Odd Job Gods - Guan-Di, the Chinese spirit of war... and bean curd.
- Shout Out:
- Several of Bruce's movies get mentioned frequently. Mostly Bubba Hotep and his films with Sam Raimi.
- The brand name of the liquor that Bruce drinks is "Shemp." The Sam Raimi films in which Bruce stars coined the term Fake Shemp.
- Jeff drives an Olds Delta 88, a beige one, natch. This car is a trademark car of Sam Raimi films.
- Stock Scream: The famous "Wilhelm Scream" was used when Bruce accidentally shot a little kid's father.
- There's No B in Movie - All of Bruce's films.
- Town With a Dark Secret - Gold Lick
- Villain Song - Guan-Di Is His Name
- Weaksauce Weakness - Guan-Di cannot hurt anyone who eats bean curd, or allow any bean curd to come to harm.
- Your Cheating Heart/Anything That Moves
Bruce: Why did we ever break up? |