Like most people I love movies. I am starting some movie reviews of films I've recently seen. Last time I reviewed Bringing Up Baby from 1938, a great film. Today I'll take us into a more modern horror movie from 2007. This is a film both produced and directed by Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame. Sam Raimi (first Spiderman trilogy and Evil Dead) has frequently worked with Bruce on many projects, although he isn't involved in this one it's done very much in his style of horror. If you are a Bruce Campbell fan or Sam Raimi fan and haven't seen this yet it is well worth your while, and if you're not it's still hilarious. It was done with mostly unknown actors and on a budget and is a true B-movie but still is a great flic.
Image from IMDB
Bruce plays himself in this movie, well... a version of himself. More of trailer trash version. The film starts with some teenagers from a town called Gold Lick out causing trouble in a historic graveyard where Chinese miners had died in a mine cave in. Jeff is one of them and happens to be a huge Bruce Campbell fan. He steals an amulet attached to the mine and unwittingly releases the Chinese god of the dead Guan Di. Guan Di proceeds to kill Jeff's friends but he manages to escape.
Meanwhile Bruce is filming a movie called Cave Alien 2 (a fictional film.) From what you see it's not even a B-movie it's more of a who the hell would make this? movie. After filming he meets with his agent Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi) who promises Bruce the best birthday surprise present he will ever receive. Jeff then proceeds to kidnap Bruce convinced that he will be able to stop Guan Di. Once Bruce arrives he believes that the whole town setup and Guan Di are all a movie (despite the fact there were no cameras) as his birthday present from his agent. After a town hall briefing they throw him a dinner party where he somewhat successfully woos Jeff's mother Kelly.
Bruce and most of the townspeople arm themselves and go off to fight Guan Di. Upon confronting Guan Di he realizes that the whole situation is real and promptly runs away. When he gets back to his trailer he finds scripts for Cave Alien 3 and 4 to be filmed in Bulgaria and freaks out since the one he was filming was absolute garbage. Then his real birthday present arrives at his door, a prostitute named Kasey. Suddenly Jeff calls Bruce to tell him that he is going to take on Guan Di himself. Bruce then asks Kasey to drive him back to Gold Lick so he can try to stop Jeff from getting killed.
Upon arriving again in Gold Lick he is treated with disdain especially from Jeff's mother Kelly. He then informs her that Jeff is going to take on Guan Di alone, she of course panics and they both rush out to try to stop him. They have a last stand at the old mine with some dynamite to defeat Guan Di. And there you think it ends but then Guan Di suddenly comes back to life and you discover it was all really just a movie. Bruce then argues with his agent that the movie should have a happy ending instead of a standard horror ending. They then create the happy ending with Bruce marrying Kelly and Jeff is accepted into Harvard despite his C average. Bruce is thrilled and asks what could be better than that? Then suddenly Guan Di bursts through the screen to attack Bruce one more time.
If you're looking for A grade Hollywood this definitely isn't it. It's a B-movie making fun of B-movies but a lot of fun to watch. I would rate 9/10 if you're a Bruce Campbell fan and 8/10 if you're not. Have a great day!