My Name Is Bruce!

I watched the movie My Name is Bruce, a frothy indy flick starring Bruce Campbell. The story involves a version of the real-life Campbell in conflict with a risen and murderous Chinese demon Guan-Di (war-god of the dead and bean curd).

Mark Verheiden in the behind-the-scenes documentary indicates the idea for the story came to him while reading a vintage DC Alan Ladd comic book in which Ladd was presented as himself and brought into adventures apparently because his screen persona presented him as an experienced fellow in such matters. So it is with the new Campbell flick, he's in monster movies, so he can battle monsters. Clever device.


Bruce Campbell is an engaging actor who isn't afraid to make light of himself or the others around him. His self-made movies are highly self-referential and full of grade-B moments. The movie is a Dark Horse Indie Films project, and features cameos by both Verheiden and Mike Richardson, the publisher of Dark Horse. The version I got came with a tiny comic book version of the Dark Horse adaptation of the movie. It's also loaded to the gills with extras like behind-the-scenes stuff galore and other gags.


There's even a bogus movie in a movie called CaveAlien 2 and that gets a trailer in the extra features along with its own behind-the-scenes video. They seemed to have a lot of fun making this movie and it shows. It's got an Indie gloss for sure, but it watches like a professional film. They do a pretty good job hiding the low budget. I was reminded of the classic Big Trouble in Little China.

Highly recommended.

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