They Can Call Him Bruce...

Bruce is a funny guy.

You might get that from the number of appearances he made in his long career of movie making. His straight-jawed, exaggerated features are perfect for comedy relief that racks up constant laughs in the newest film “My Name is Bruce” finally hits the DVD stands. Not to be confused with the other film of the similar name “They Call Me Bruce.”

But he is still remembered for his iconic portrayal of his alter-ego from the mid-eighties Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy. Such a great performance never left his shadow. Many fans around the world still hope and cling to the possibility of him making a fourth Evil Dead film with him being older, still cranky, wising up with his lame jokes that were more penetrating than the sharpest sword.

We never got there to the fourth movie.

But “They Call Me Bruce” is the closest you’ll get to the fourth installment of the much beloved horror series that still makes great popcorn fun.

Bruce Campbell plays himself. As a jerk, a no good boozer… a pretty self-assured schmuck who only thinks of himself and disregards everyone else as he hogs the spotlight from everyone who crosses his path. He’s pretty smug. It’s a self-parody. He’s an icon now, a popular one. A national treasure. One that reminds you of the recent stints that William Shatner has been doing recently: just having fun with life. There’s even a mention of Shatner in the movie.

This is Bruce having fun.

Basically the film begins with a few teenagers, one being a loyal Campbell fan who refers to him as the greatest actor in his generation, stumbles into a cemetery filled with several disgraced Chinese burials. The surviving boy takes the talisman that rightfully belongs to the cemetery and makes a dash for it—only to awaken a sword wielding Chinese god Guan-di. Who has very red eyes.

The whole town of Gold Lick falls under the constant spells of this very angry god who stops at nothing to get rid of the townsfolk for desecrating the cemetery. So the townsfolk have a plan. They will go find someone who knows about fighting bad-ass demons and force him into helping them defeat this troubled spirit.

They kidnap him out of his trailer park home.

But they find out that Bruce is a bigger jerk than even Shatner is.

There’s a lot of funny scenes with him in it. How he treats the irate, wheel-bound veteran is pretty merciless… but hilarious if you have an evil sense of humor. Bruce gets tired of the fan mucking him about that he makes some snide reference to the old Rawhide shows before kicking the wheel-bound veteran away down the street. Watch him roll. The other scene offers a very funny country square dance involving Bruce and the surviving boy’s mother… as they crash and whirl through the party with their dancing moves. I’ve never seen anyone dance so badly.

But leave it to Bruce never feeling guilty about embarrassing himself. Or anyone else for that matter.

Bruce’s first time reaction to the creature is a terrific one, “Nobody told me that thing is real!” So he runs. And pushes some little girl off her bike so he can ride off with it. What a nice guy.

Yet, like most good-hearted movies, Bruce finds the errors of his ways and comes back to make amends by relunctantly helping the town from being besieged by the Chinese god… who spends most of his time lopping people’s heads off with his sword. And protecting bean curd.

This is a directorial film created by Campbell himself. He made use of his own land in Oregon without having to deal with any authorities regarding property, land use, anything else that can stall the film. In the special feature, Bruce just says in his straightforward fashion, “I just want to make a movie. I don’t want to deal with the hassles.”

Though Sam Raimi, who often collaborates with Bruce in many of his films, does not contribute to “My Name is Bruce,” there is his brother Ted Raimi who shows up in three different parts including playing the movie actor’s agent. It’s actually fun to see him in the film as well. So it’s like old friends coming to crash in on the party.

There’s also a lovely scene which is shot inside the fan boy’s room stashed and stuffed with every conceivable token in honor of Bruce Campbell’s film career. Including, if you watch closely, a nice reference to the old TV show he had done “The Adventures of County Brisco Jr.” It gets the heart rolling with nostalgia.

A prior screening was held the Alamo Drafthouse which has a well known repute. In less than two minutes, there was a complete selling out of tickets that broke records—which was also set by a 1989 Bruce Campbell appearing at the self-same theater.

But the film is very true to form of the sense of humor and game play that is only described as Campbell style. He is still a womanizing jerk in the end of the film, but does win the heart of the boy’s mother’s love. Couldn’t you ask for a better ending? Actually you’ll have to see for yourself. I won’t spoil things here.

There is in the works a second film called “They Still Call Me Bruce.” So stay tuned for that one.

Do We still Keep Loving the Bomb?

The film “Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” is nearly half a century old. Just shy of a few years of making it over the hill. Yet the essence of the film remains timeless… a rare sample of filmmaking that clings to memory with perfection. And it still holds up well to this very day.

The center of the film is basically the possibility of mutual destruction of war on both sides of the globe. It isn’t far from exaggeration. The fear, and dispelling notion, of nuclear warfare comes to the minds who lived through the cold war. As I have during the very tail end of it.

I have woken up every morning in my childhood for many years during the Reagan administration thinking of seeing that mushroom cloud in the sky. With a smile superimposed over it with a balloon saying, "I win." Those fears never went away as I would wake up and look through the window only to find that everything is still okay. My neighborhood was still there. I really honestly thought that Reagan would have pushed the button.

Reagan disgusts me. And there was also the near missile attack with Cuba during the Kennedy administration. Far too mucho of close call. Considering the few miles of distance between the countries. What a set-up.

But you find how ridiculous it was with the United States and the Soviet Union were building more weapons as they tried to outdo one another. It is like a pair of children trying to get the most toys to win the contest. It is a futile gesture and a stupid one at that with both countries. It was an endless quest to see who was the King of the Hill. And it nearly cost us dearly.

Imagine how many people could have been fed around the world instead of the money being spent to make the weapons of mass destruction. It was a ploy that lasted for far too long.

The film “Dr. Strangelove” reflects this callous attitude.

But the film finds ways of laughing at the absurdity of global wipe-outs. It pegs at the dire stupidity of nuclear warfare being the fate of mankind. There are often times when that might have been the case. Those fears were intertwined with the everyday living of people during the cold war. Who would win out? How long would it take? We ended up building enough weapons to destroy the earth six times over. Do we really need power like that?

The first portion of “Dr. Strangelove” begins with an unbalanced, slightly nutsy General Jack D. Ripper orders a first attack strike on the Soviet Union. His way of thinking is peaked during a moment of sexual intercourse when he realizes the possibility of Soviet conspiracy in the transfer of bodily fluids. Yeah, the guy was a little crazy.

And the rest of the film has United States officials scrambling, stumbling over each other’s toes, to save the Soviet from being bombarded by the attack. The call between the president and the Soviet leader is a priceless one as the U.S. leader tries to calm his Russian friend’s nerves down. Only to get overly excited himself in the process.

Yet the film carefully pilots its way through the narrative—the idea of what would happen if there was indeed a world wide attack that could end up in total devastation. The reality of it is very grim. The film also brings the point of view of one of the airplane pilots in Slim Pickens who flies a B-52 with a straight one shot ticket to the Soviet Union. He is the bomber’s commander who tries to rectify the situation when the plane’s bay doors would not open on impact.

There is one of the most chilling scenes in the film. The bit with Slim Pickens riding piggyback on the missile when it was released with him on it. You can only hear the whisper of winds in the background. The silence of the scene with his halloring and galloping like a cowboy still sends shivers down my spine. It’s a remarkable scene.

The screenplay is written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George. The film’s trick points are the inquiry of what would happen if a bomb hit us. And it is a film worth looking into even though we are no longer in the cold war. The film offers us of what could have happened. That there were other possibilities of a horrible future in store for us.

The film is extremely funny one without going overboard. There’s a perfect mixture of political satire and slapstick. Particularly one of my favorite lines is when Peter Sellers, as the president, shouts at the top of his lungs, “Stop… stop fighting in here! This is the war room.” Classic stuff.

Certainly one of the strangest endings for the film… with the famous World War II song “We’ll Meet Again” playing in the background while a horde of explosions repeat itself in a clandestine of destruction. The film’s less than joyous foray into this bleak ending reminds the audience that things are not always hokey dory. That the verge of chaos is always just one button away. All it takes is one screwball to mess things up.

Let’s not forget that it is Sellers’ performances that entangles the sheer poetry of the film with his various numbers of roles as the president, Dr. Strangelove (you can see him in faraway shots in the earlier discussions in the war room) and the British officer. His contributions to the film can’t be ignored.

Neither is this film. It’s there. And it gives us the cold remembrance of the days gone. But threat will always remains as long as there are weapons allowed. It isn’t exactly a hopeful realization. Just a fact of life that most of us will have to live with anyway. With a laugh.