Weekly Cinemeh

Welcome, once again, to Weekly Cinemeh. This week's theme was Bruce Campbell, one of our favorite actors. With his trademark roguish charm and his badass chin he makes B movies that should be bad amazing. He has a great sense of humor and likes to show it off (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and his foil-y character Sam Axe in Burn Notice as well as myriad other parts he has played) and is proud to be in many "bad films" The difference between him and other actors in B film is that he owns that shit. He has fun with it instead being pompous, and that's what makes him great: He loves what he does.

1: Mindwarp
This movie is about a woman who is tired of her life in a world where people live the bulk of their lives in a simulation and wants to see the real world. She eventually gets her wish when she is expelled from her home and is thrust into a world filled with cannibals and Bruce Campbell's chin. Shit goes down when they get captured by cannibals and need to escape. This movie was way better than I was expecting it to be. Marta Martin did a good job as the fish out of water "Judy" and Bruce Campbell was great (especially when he goes insane). Angus Scrimm was a surprise for me, I always like seeing him in movies, but I never knew his name until I watched this one. A couple of the twists are easy to spot, but the story is also surprisingly good, and more than a little fucked up. This movie is in the vein of my favorite type of movie: good bad movies. I have a feeling we will see more of them in this list. Good fun, watch it.

Eshi: Bruce Campbell holds a place in my heart that approaches even that of His Abnormally Tall Holiness, so this week was a fucking delight. Mindwarp is exactly what I expected it to be; a terrible, terrible, sci-fi flick made grand in its camp. Angus Scrimm is, as usual, wonderfully creepy, and Marta Martin plays the lost and wandering Judy well. But really we came here for Bruce and he does deliver. The man goes from suave and charismatic to balls-to-bumper fucking crazy like someone flipped a switch and it brings me a joy that borders on troubling.

2: Terminal Invasion
This was a TV movie that was campy from the very start. Aliens attack an airport by posing as humans. Attack is a bit of a stretch as most of the aliens only attack people after being found out as aliens, though shit eventually goes down for reals. There are some pretty great twists that play on the audience building connections for themselves, though the rest of the movie kind of plays out like The Thing. Bruce Campbell is great, although the rest of the cast isn't terrible just kind of mundane. Jason Jones, of The Daily Show, was a surprise that I was not expecting, though he wasn't in the film for long. Its another good bad film, and fun to watch with your buddies making fun of some of the bad decisions the cast makes (seriously maybe explain what is going on rather than just threaten everybody with a gun >_<).

Eshi: Terminal Invasion has a pervasive sense of "fuck it", that I approve of wholeheartedly. The writing is pretty much what you'd expect, with a few noted exceptions. The casting seemed almost accidentally brilliant and the chemistry would have been surprising if Bruce Campbell hadn't been a primary role. Its on Netflix, you have no excuse for not watching this movie.

3: Man With The Screaming Brain
This movie proves to me that Bruce Campbell is the master of the good bad movie. He wrote, directed, and starred in this movie, and it is great. It is a movie about a man who gets a head injury and has part of his brain replaced with another persons brain. Antics ensue as the two have to work to get along. Its funny, irreverent, and knows what it's all about. The story is something that has been kind of done before, but this was a great take on the possessed body part trope. If you like Bruce Campbell, this is a movie for you.

Eshi: "I'm on FIRE!"

Honorable Mentions: Everything Bruce Campbell has done that I have seen is good. The Evil Dead trilogy, My name is Bruce (in which he plays himself in one of his type of movies), Bubba Ho-Tep, Jack Of all Trades, Alien Apocalypse, and everything we have mentioned here. Don't go in expecting high art, go in wanting a good time.

Eshi: Bruce Campbell is fucking amazing, full goddamn stop. I will straight up kung fu fight any mother fucker says otherwise.