Bruce Campbell (1) (1958–)

I got the bug to read this when I watched The Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell’s commentary and I thought “man, this guy is witty. I bet his writing’s good.” So I picked up this book and it’s just as funny as Bruce himself. The guy’s too genuine.

Bruce Campbell gives us his memoir/biography of his life up to 2002. That includes memories of growing up, meeting Sam Raimi, doing stupid little Super-8 movies together, and eventually the Evil Dead franchise and what it was like to make show more that. If you care more about Evil Dead than Bruce Campbell, you might want to watch the DVD extra features and documentaries (I especially recommend “Medieval Times – The Making of Army of Darkness“, which is free on YouTube). But if you want to read a biography of an actor who really pounds the pavement for his work (I was appalled he had to make cold calls begging for investment money) and other stories of the life of an actor who doesn’t get the mansions and endorsements, then this is it. This is the story Hollywood doesn’t want you to know.

I think he’s written more, but I’m not sure if I’ll pick up anything else by him. He kinda told the story he wanted to tell. It contained the most important parts–Evil Dead, Brisco County Jr., Hercules–and I wonder what else there is to tell. But we’ll see. show less

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I pulled this off the shelf, but I was too curious to put it back. And now I'm glad for it: this was like reading a novel-length Dave Barry column, filled with absurd situations, hilarious characters, and... strange photoshopped photos? Okay, maybe that last isn't so much like a Dave Barry column. Still, it's surprisingly fun if you're in the mood for something a little ridiculous.

Bruce Campbell's follow-up to his first autobiographical volume, If Chins Could Kill. He originally conceived of this as less of a memoir and more of a travelogue, and there's still a significant focus on different places he's been, including the quirky area of rural Oregon where he bought a house that was half underground; Bulgaria, where he filmed the twin classics of modern cinema, Alien Apocalypse and The Man with the Screaming Brain; Miami, where he spent seven years making Burn Notice show more and sweating heavily in the heat; and Iraq, where he and co-star Jeffrey Donovan spent time entertaining US troops during the second Gulf War.

None of it is particularly compelling, or insightful, or surprising, or anything like that, but it's a pleasant, easy read in a way that was exactly what I was in the mood for. Bruce comes across very much the way you'd expect him to: unpretentious and mildly sarcastic, with a fun, if slightly cheesy, sense of humor. And even though I've always been more of a casual viewer of his stuff than a die-hard fan, I find I've come out of this feeling nicely nostalgic about his body of work. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoyed Burn Notice, really. And now I have a very strong desire to dig out my DVD copy of Bubba Ho-Tep and give it another re-watch. (Seriously, that was a genuinely good movie!) show less

There are, basically, two kinds of people in the world: those to whom Bruce Campbell is Jesus, Schwarzenegger and the Three Stooges rolled into one, and then the rest. (Most of the rest, amazingly, have never even heard of him.) As he observes at one point in the book, the difference between a mainstream movie and a cult movie is that the former might be seen by 100,000 people 10 times whereas the latter is seen by 10 people 100,000 times.

His autobiography is one of the most fun - and funny show more - books on the movie industry I've read in some time, which makes sense considering his career. (There really isn't much to tell by way of drugs, debauchery and swimming-in-champagne when your biggest movie ever gave you a net annual salary of under $50,000.) Instead, this is the movie business as seen from the lower rungs; Campbell goes just as fanboy as everyone else when he finds himself sitting opposite Chuck Heston, and later on he spends an entire chapter on the career of one of his assistants on the set of Brisco County Jr. It's the little guys that keep the business turning, as a b-movie actor from Detroit would know. He got into the business almost by accident – he acted in a movie (Evil Dead, of coursewith a couple of childhood friends and suddenly he was apparently an actor (his account of his first interview with an actor's agency is a hoot). Where his characters on screen are often loud, obnoxious and funny, Campbell himself comes across as a genuinely Nice Guy trying to make a living simply by honest hard work in an industry that doesn't exactly encourage niceness or honesty. But still funny.

He's no great writer, but he can spin a yarn. I'd say reading his anecdotes from movie sets, fan convents and his personal life (man, Sam Raimi comes across as the most lovable utter asshole ever) feels almost like spending an evening just shooting the breeze with Bruce Campbell, but... well, it's such a quick read, it basically IS an evening shooting the breeze with Bruce Campbell. Lots of fun. show less