I was sitting today and thought to myself “Hey, why not watch movies with the same actor, for a week and get to know his career better”. And since I watched The Evil Dead (1981) two days ago, so I thought, that Bruce Campbell would be a great choice. I already saw Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-18) and loved it, also I like his facial expressions.
I’m gonna *SPOIL* of course, because most of these movies are old, so if you haven’t watched them already, you probably won’t do it anyway.
Day 1: The Evil Dead (1981)
Wow. This looks like a movie made by some friends, that had a good idea and made a timeless horror classic. It’s actually pretty dark and still fresh after all these years. I mean, you have to ignore the fact, that it’s an old and cheap movie because it looks rough around the edges and aged a little. But the tension is built really well. I was a bit surprised because I was expecting a comedy-horror, but this was a full-on horror, which turned out to be a fun surprise. The worst thing was, that I was waiting for the whole movie for his hand to be chopped off, and sadly, that didn’t happen. The scene with the decaying dead ones, was so gross, that I almost vomited, and I loved it! So yeah, the final verdict is, that I liked it, it was a great movie and I’m glad I got to know where the series started. Also, it’s very impressive, that a 350k $ movie gathered almost 30 million in the box office. Just wow.
My favorite quote:
Ash: Shut up, Linda!
Day 2: Evil Dead II (1987)
What was that? A great movie! (Yes, I answered my own question) I had a lot of fun on this one! It’s started with the retcon, which I wasn’t a fan of, but it’s okay, at least they changed some things for the better. As I said before, Bruce’s facial expressions are amazing. I mean, the laughing room scene was so funny. The hand thing, just great. I also had fun to watch, how uncanny this movie was shot, it was weirdly entertaining in its way. Seriously, especially the scene, where they all gathered around in the big room and started to chase the noise with their sight. What else can I say? It was still fresh, to see a good parody movie. It still looked very cheap, but had a lot of magic in it, probably because of the cheapness. And I love, how the movie teases the third one in the middle with the pages and then starts it in the end, so good. And OMC, it was directed by fucking Sam Raimi! I didn’t know that! The director of the best (and only for now) Spider-Man trilogy created Evil Dead. I’m even ashamed, I didn’t know that earlier. Good job Sam. You already delivered me 3 hours of good cinema, can’t wait to watch Army of Darkness (1992) tomorrow.
And this quote:
Ash: *for no apparent reason* … Groovy.
Day 3: Army of Darkness (1992)
I was too hyped for this one. But come on, Ash traveling in time, to fight a dead army with some knights. That sounds awesome! I’m a little disappointed tho. For a comedy-horror, there was no horror, not even a little, not even any gore. It’s not bad, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Well okay, it’s not that good either. There were a lot of jokes, most of them weren’t too funny in my opinion. The little Ashes scene was a good idea but made just okay. The skeletons were okay, like cartoon Clone Wars funny, not minions funny, so that’s good. The movie… it was just lazy writing I guess. The story wasn’t so fresh and new, like the first two, and it was very rushed. It’s a good 2-hour material, compressed to 1:20h. They could cut the budget a little in some scenes and make it longer. In some scenes, I thought it was a little inspired by The Mask (1994), but it came out two years later, so maybe Sam Raimi read the comic or something. I don’t know, it was a good movie to watch once, as the end of this trilogy, but nothing else.
Favorite quote:
Ash: *upon getting the powered glove in place of his right hand* Groovy.
It just gets me every time!
Day 4: Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
What a bizarre concept for a movie. Old Elvis Presley (played by The Man Bruce) and a black “JFK” (he’s literally called that in the IMDB description) fighting a mummy in a nursing home. Odd, huh? But it had a good rating, so I picked it. Cthulhu, was it slow. When I complained, that Army of Darkness was too rushed, then this movie is too slow. It’s not just slow, it’s actually pretty boring, for a bizarre concept like that. I would really like to see this movie with young Elvis and young John. Maybe it would get a little kick. (It actually is coming, but I get to it in a moment) But this? They were moving as slow, as the movie was going. Elvis at least had an interesting backstory. John had an even funnier theory. The jokes weren’t bad. And the nurse was actually my favorite character. So much charisma I guess. The movie, sadly, was a little below average, and that’s disappointing. I don’t know, what else to say. Don’t watch it. It’s not even worth it.
Favorite quote:
Elvis: No offense, Jack, but President Kennedy was a white man.
JFK: They dyed me this color! That’s how clever they are!
Also, they making a prequel to that, whaaat? I’m surprised, that they want to get back to a buried franchise (if you even can call it a franchise).
Day 5: Running Time (1997)
It’s nice to see a solid Bruce Campbell movie again. It wasn’t great, it was just solid. A 60 minutes experience, just for the actor. The movie as literally 60 minutes long, so I didn’t even feel like I wasted a lot of time watching this. The movie is filmed to imitate real-time, which looks pretty good. So in 60 minutes he gets out of prison, gathers some people, performs a heist, runs away, and gets the girl. The heist was also well made. Because of the real-time experience, it was actually pretty stressful. I mean, after like 10 minutes you just enjoy watching, like the perfect plan slowly goes to shit. And it’s also made good. That’s why the heist scene made me feel tension because I hoped for a good ending for Bruce. Surprise, it all didn’t go as planned, they got out, but just half of the team. It’s not a complicated story, so after a while, you could guess how it goes. It wasn’t destroying the experience tho. I only wish the dialogues were better because most of them were a little shallow. But hey, it could have been a lot worse. And the black and white actually add a little “color” to this movie. Good choice from the makers. The movie was also very cheap, it had a 130k $ budget. I’m surprised that Bruce, after playing in an 11 million dollar movie, decided to play in this. Maybe it was a project that impressed him and the money wasn’t so important. Who knows.
Favorite quote:
I didn’t have one sadly.
And I actually saw the blooper, which they also wrote on IMDb. I was like “wait, was that the cameraman?”, went back a few seconds and yeah, it was, in the window of the police car.
And sadly the post ends here. I really wanted to watch Going Back (1984), but I couldn’t get my hands on it, not even illegally. Also, I had a problem to find Man with the screaming brain (2005) or My name is Bruce (2007). So, yes, the week is ending on the fifth day (movie). But yeah, Bruce doesn’t have that many movies with him in the leading role. But I hope the next actoress will have more of them.
Sources:
Pic. 1 Linda possessed by evil, Betsy Baker, The Evil Dead (1981), dir. Sam Raimi, New Line Cinema
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Pic. 2 Laughing Ash, Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead II (1987), dir Sam Raimi, Renaissance Pictures
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Pic. 3 Little Ashes attacking Ash, Bruce Campbell, Army of Darkness (1992), dir Sam Raimi, Universal Pictures
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Pic. 4 Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires IMDb page
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Pic. 5 Running Time (1997) poster, Running Time (1997), dir. Josh Becker,
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Princess with Pancakes 