Bruce Campbell, star of The Evil Dead films and Bubba Ho-Tep, is working on the set of a particularly bad B-movie called Cave Aliens 2. He has no respect for his fans and, although publicly brash and conceited, little respect for himself, living in squalor and regularly drinking himself into a stupor. When an overly loyal fan turns up asking for his help in fighting a fantastical creature, Bruce is not so much sceptical as rude. However, when the teenage boy kidnaps him, driving him to a remote mining town called Gold Lick, he discovers the boy has convinced the entire town's population that Bruce can save them from Guan-di, the vengeful spirit protector of the dead. Bruce enjoys the attention, taking full advantage of the hospitality, but when an encounter proves the creature to be real his heroic acting deserts him, to be replaced by his baser instinct of cowardice...

Bruce Campbell plays an exaggerated version of himself in what can only be described as an attempt to emulate the format of Galaxy Quest. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; in fact, it's an admirable goal, as the comedy spoof of the Star Trek situation is so well scripted and acted (Alan Rickman is superb) that it hits the mark on every level. The question is how close does My Name is Bruce come in comparison? Well, whilst not in the same league as the aforementioned film, it is full of ridiculous situations and fan in-jokes which do raise the odd smile, if not producing the required laugh-out-loud moments. There are some nice one-liners too.

In producing and directing the film, Campbell brings in a few names he has worked with before, including Ted Raimi, Ellen Sandweiss and Danny Hicks, and it's obvious they are having a good time. For any fans of Campbell's work this two-disc release will come as a welcome addition to their collection. There are more extras than you can shake a Guan-di at, 169 minutes worth - which even includes a spoof 'Making of...' Cave Alien 2.

The marketing blurb cites this as raising the bar from Bubba Ho-Tep. Although a valiant attempt, I beg to differ. His performance as Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep is at once humorous, emotional and poignant. Go get that one first.

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Ty Power