Army of Darkness

Attention S-Mart Shoppers:

I doubt it’s possible to love movies without loving Army of Darkness.  This movie has everything: knights, wizards, skeletons, a princess in distress, and a hero with a chainsaw who isn’t afraid to belt out a lusty “Gimme some sugar, baby!” when he has a damsel in his arms.

The film represents the culmination of Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” series.  The first, a reasonably straightforward horror movie about college kids in a remote cabin, is respectably scary.  Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, mixes horror with comedy, as when its protagonist amputates his own (possessed) hand atop a stack of books that features A Farewell to Arms.  Army of Darkness goes for full slapstick, with scenes paying comic homage to films as diverse as Return of the Jedi, The Seven Samurai, The Three Stooges, The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad, Gulliver's Travels, and The Day The Earth Stood Still.  It’s goofy, it’s silly, and it’s an all-around good time at the movies.

That’s if you’re an adult.

Last Halloween, I saw Army of Darkness with my pre-teen boy and his friends.  They found it much better than a “good time at the movies.”  In fact, the movie had them howling with laughter, frequently rewinding to re-view parts they’d missed because they’d been laughing so hard.  Somehow, this film’s combination of slapstick and horror resonated in a way I hadn’t expected, turning Army of Darkness from a beloved amusement (for me) to an instant Halloween classic (for them).

And y’know what?  Laughter is catching.  The more they laughed, the more I laughed with them.  And when I laughed at the gags specifically directed to the older members of the audience (there’s a whole Chuck Conners in ‘The Rifleman’ thing going on), they cracked up just because they were in the zone.

So this was the Halloween in which I learned to love Army of Darkness even more.  I didn't think that was possible.  Hail to the king, baby!

My Name is Bruce

Ok, let's get this straight from the get-go: MY NAME IS BRUCE is not a good movie. It's cheaply made, poorly performed, and kinda lame.

I liked it.

Here's the setup: Guan Di, the Chinese god of war and tofu, is on the rampage in a small Oregon town that wants to be a small Tennessee town. Then the local misfit kid, who worships Bruce Campbell, comes up with a plan: bonk the washed-up bit player over the head, bundle him into the trunk of the Special, and spirit him to said small town to save the day the Bruce Campbell way. Er, the Bruce Campbell way consists of hitting on the kid's mom and running away when things get dicey with ol' Guan Di.

So what we've got is an hour and a half of Bruce Campbell making fun of himself, his fanbase, and the genre in which he has risen to some kind of prominence. Your enjoyment of the film will hinge on one thing: how much do you like Bruce Campbell? I like Bruce Campbell a lot: he reminds me of my Best Man. For me, an hour and a half of Bruce mugging his way through a silly little B movie is like an hour and a half of hanging out with my friend Joe, and that's an hour and a half I'm always willing to spend. My wife likes Joe, too: she laughed all the way through MY NAME IS BRUCE, but that could've been the post c-section percoset doing its thing.

When it comes to some movies, a picture doesn't have to be "good" to be good. MY NAME IS BRUCE is a fine example of this very thing. Enjoy it with a plate of ribs, a cold beer, some percoset, and a little tofu.