My Name is Jerk

Recently, I was down at the Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica watching the debut of My Name is Bruce, the new quasi-indie film from actor Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead and Spider-man franchises.

It goes without saying that before I was in the theatre I was already pumped due in fact because of some silly fanboy desire for all things Bruce Campbell for quite sometime. I think at one point he was one of two people I wanted to meet on my MySpace page. Ahhh... myspace.

The movie was a parody on the public glorification of Bruce Campbell as the "King of B-movies." Our hero, Campbell, fines himself at the end of the road, questioning his validity as an actor. In particular Campbell shines a light on the notion that glamor is a word only used for actors while on the screen.

Bruce's agent, played by the venerable talent of Ted Raimi, promises him a birthday surprise. But when a boy in a small town unleashes an evil supernatural force and comes to Campbell for saving, the actor mistakes the cry for help as a staged event to relive the "glory days."

The film has several great moments, reveling in past moments of Campbell's career and parodying several others. The acting isn't top-notch, but it is the typical kind of engagement one would find in a film that could be surmised as something for the fans. Raimi himself shines in it portraying several characters throughout the film that on any other script wouldn't have made sense, but shined nevertheless.

Overall the movie was a huge success. I enjoyed it, and anyone who has enjoyed but one Bruce-film (hell even just his Old spice commercials) can appreciate the style of humor and content this film slaps on the table. I'd recommend buying the DVD when it hits shelves in late February-March. It was a great joint venture by Dark Horse Comics and their is talk of more similar style films to come in the future from the fledgling movie company.

That being said, I do have to make a side note. As it was the initial screening of the film, Bruce made a special guest appearance for Q & A after the screening. Several actors were also present including Ted, Ellen Sandweiss (best known as the girl raped by the tree in Evil Dead) and others.

However, for as farcical as Bruce might come off in his abrasiveness towards fans in the movie, it shone right through in the Q & A. In his defense, there were some morons there asking the unavoidable questions about Evil Dead 4 and Bubba Ho-tep 2, to what kind of music the actor was listening to. Each question was received with a mocking asinine answer back. Some valid questions about production, cost, sequencing ended up being treated the same.

Sure this is just something personal, but when fans come to see you, especially for a heralded appearance, promote something other than being a jerk. After all, you're an actor.