If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor
Just in case my biases weren't clear up front, I'm a big fan of the Evil Dead series (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness) and by proxy, the gents who worked on it (the Raimi brothers and Bruce Campbell). Bruce is known as THE MAN by fans. Watch Evil Dead 2 and you'll understand.
This is not to say that everything Bruce produces is gold. Indeed, he's slogged through a lot of crap to get where he is. Unfortunately, where Bruce is at this time does not involved huge piles of money, and if the returns on Bubba Ho-Tep are any indication, it's not going to happen any time soon.
But as Bruce would say - so what? If Chins Could Kill gives us an insight into Bruce's philosophy on life and his long, hard struggle from Michigan to Hollywood and back again. I was able to identify with much of Bruce's childhood because my wife grew up in the same area and I lived there for three years. Heck, I went to Michigan State University too (where Sam and Bruce first aired "The Happy Valley Kid").
That said, this book is a breezy read, chopped into chapters only as long as they need to be. Bruce talks about his life in such a way that you suspect he's not telling you everything - certainly, most of the personal stuff is left out except for the divorce from his wife. Even that is vague. Bruce wants us to think he's a well-meaning doofus, but he seems too shrewd and committed to his craft to have just stumbled into his career.
Fans who are familiar with the Evil Dead commentaries will find some of the recollections repetitive. Yeah, we all know about the locals who stole the power saw but not the thousand-dollar camera, or the Ram-O-Cam, or the reaction fans had to Evil Dead. On the other hand, there are little gems hidden here and there, most specifically when Bruce encounters a fox (the animal) and plays with it in the afternoon sun for a few hours. That chapter seems to sum up Bruce: a good-natured fellow who is nevertheless capable of taking advantage of the right situations at the right time.
Bruce's voice comes through in the narration, sometimes so informally that it's difficult to follow. He will often reference an acquaintance without any backstory and then talk about someone else in the next sentence. There's also a lot of pictures with supposedly funny captions - they're not that funny and since they're all in black-and-white, they're all very fuzzy. On the other hand, the (we can only presume) actual emails of various fans that start of each chapter are hysterical.
When Bruce isn't talking about his life (and some of the book does talk about his life, despite Bruce's disclaimer), he talks about the movie industry in a way that's valuable and informative. Here, we learn about movie etiquette, about movie stars who suck (hint: Tom Arnold) and just how capricious the casting process is.
Finally, the book has an addendum covering Bruce's "Chins Across America" tour. As a regular convention attendee myself, this part of the book was by far the most entertaining. It's also the least edited. Still, the fans are at least as entertaining as Bruce himself, and given that Bruce has worked in a variety of genres (fantasy, horror, westerns) his fan base is quite diverse.
Ultimately, Bruce's book is like his movies - it's a little rough around the edges but charming because of it.
This is not to say that everything Bruce produces is gold. Indeed, he's slogged through a lot of crap to get where he is. Unfortunately, where Bruce is at this time does not involved huge piles of money, and if the returns on Bubba Ho-Tep are any indication, it's not going to happen any time soon.
But as Bruce would say - so what? If Chins Could Kill gives us an insight into Bruce's philosophy on life and his long, hard struggle from Michigan to Hollywood and back again. I was able to identify with much of Bruce's childhood because my wife grew up in the same area and I lived there for three years. Heck, I went to Michigan State University too (where Sam and Bruce first aired "The Happy Valley Kid").
That said, this book is a breezy read, chopped into chapters only as long as they need to be. Bruce talks about his life in such a way that you suspect he's not telling you everything - certainly, most of the personal stuff is left out except for the divorce from his wife. Even that is vague. Bruce wants us to think he's a well-meaning doofus, but he seems too shrewd and committed to his craft to have just stumbled into his career.
Fans who are familiar with the Evil Dead commentaries will find some of the recollections repetitive. Yeah, we all know about the locals who stole the power saw but not the thousand-dollar camera, or the Ram-O-Cam, or the reaction fans had to Evil Dead. On the other hand, there are little gems hidden here and there, most specifically when Bruce encounters a fox (the animal) and plays with it in the afternoon sun for a few hours. That chapter seems to sum up Bruce: a good-natured fellow who is nevertheless capable of taking advantage of the right situations at the right time.
Bruce's voice comes through in the narration, sometimes so informally that it's difficult to follow. He will often reference an acquaintance without any backstory and then talk about someone else in the next sentence. There's also a lot of pictures with supposedly funny captions - they're not that funny and since they're all in black-and-white, they're all very fuzzy. On the other hand, the (we can only presume) actual emails of various fans that start of each chapter are hysterical.
When Bruce isn't talking about his life (and some of the book does talk about his life, despite Bruce's disclaimer), he talks about the movie industry in a way that's valuable and informative. Here, we learn about movie etiquette, about movie stars who suck (hint: Tom Arnold) and just how capricious the casting process is.
Finally, the book has an addendum covering Bruce's "Chins Across America" tour. As a regular convention attendee myself, this part of the book was by far the most entertaining. It's also the least edited. Still, the fans are at least as entertaining as Bruce himself, and given that Bruce has worked in a variety of genres (fantasy, horror, westerns) his fan base is quite diverse.
Ultimately, Bruce's book is like his movies - it's a little rough around the edges but charming because of it.
Labels: Books, Non-Fiction
posted by talien | 8:13 PM
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