About a year ago, before even a solid rough cut had been screened for My Name is Bruce, the film had the highest IMDb viewer rating of all time - a 9.9. If this says anything about the level of want that people have had for this movie, the impassioned anticipation and the incessant spooling over of every minor press release over the last two years, I honestly don't think it's unjustified. Ever since the film was announced—that it would exist, in reality—it seemed to the half of one percent of the film-going public (The Bruce Campbell fanatics, myself proudly included) as a veritable gift from Jesus Christ up above. Short of an Evil Dead IV, there's nothing that really compares to My Name is Bruce to us. We are legion.
Question 1: "Is the movie good?"
"Yes. Very."
Campbell plays an even smarmier version of himself in the film - an impressive feat for anyone who's met him in person. The level of meta humor and self-referentiality in the film is staggering. While titles for nonexistent movies like Death of the Dead and Cave Alien are thrown around, every effort is made to stress that this still takes place in reality, as Evil Dead and Sam Raimi himself are still referenced. All of this end up crossing the line of self-parody (or perhaps self-defeat) and breaking into a world where, really, anything can be accepted as fact.
While Cave Alien is obviously meant as a hate-drenched nod to Campbell's recent [even] cheesier work like Alien Apocalypse, Alien Apocalypse is still mentioned by name, stacking up the stress that Bruce's character has about his career. You really feel for the guy, and I suspect that underneath the gags and mockery, there's a bit of Bruce's real feelings in there. He didn't write the movie, sure, but there's something really relatable in the performance and the writing. Maybe Bruce's drunken rock-bottom spin-out in the middle of the flick goes a bit overboard on the camp, but I maintain that there's truth in the sentiment. Regardless of all of this, the fact remains that My Name is Bruce is an absurdly funny film, if you're in the intended demographic. The humor and story would probably be appreciated by someone unfamiliar with Campbell's work, but the in-joke minutia is peppered in so greatly that watching the film is almost a Bruce Campbell trivia quiz... one that's pretty tough to ace.
Question 2: "Could the movie be better?"
"Yes, definitely."
The film looks great, really; the cinematography and digital effects are quite unique, and for the most part, pretty damned impressive for the minuscule budget the film was shot on. That said, Bruce Campbell as director could really stand to hire a new editor. The slightly off-mark cutting often leaves shots lingering a half-second past funny, hurting the humor immensely. In all honesty, it makes me understand Bruce's sensibilities in comedy a lot more; consider how Campbell and Raimi's preferred cut of Army of Darkness is the Director's Cut, which offers 15 extra minutes of comedic routines that, honestly, do little for me but bog the film down. The 81 minute cut of Army is one of maybe... three films that I could watch—literally—any time, any day. To date, I've only seen the Director's Cut once without the commentary. I really hate it. Campbell comes from a background of the golden age of comedy, which frankly is starting to tarnish.
The editing in My Name is Bruce is, really, my only major gripe with it, and even still, it shows a huge improvement from Bruce's previous directorial effort, Man with the Screaming Brain. After seeing his first film once, I haven't revisited it, and have no desire to. I cannot, in good conscience, say the same for My Name is Bruce, because the material is just too good to be killed by a few seconds of downtime.
My Name is Bruce, for those that are wondering, was worth the wait. And if you can't get out to see Bruce's nationwide tour of it, then the cost of a DVD is certainly worth it.
Let's hope My Name is Still Bruce gets off the ground and out of the gate quicker than this one.
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