Man with the Screaming Brain: 2005, dir. Bruce Campbell. Seen at Alamo South (July 5).
Poor Beau. He’s so nice about accompanying me to all kinds of films, as long as they aren’t bawdy, advertised as Motion Picture Events about the Triumph of the Human Spirit, or independent films about poetry.
Last month I dragged him to The Forbidden Zone. Last night I dragged him to The Man with the Screaming Brain, a film directed by Bruce Campbell for the Sci-Fi Channel. Bruce Campbell, whom some of you might know from the Evil Dead movies, was at the screening to answer questions and sign his new book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. So you could say it was a motion picture event, but the fun kind, not the begging-for-Oscars kind.
Man with the Screaming Brain is a goofy, intentionally bizarre little movie that I think would probably play better on TV than it does in a theater. It wasn’t bad, but it might be more fun to watch in your living room with a group of Bruce Campbell-lovin’ friends and a case of beer and maybe some pizza.
Man with the Screaming Brain is set in Bulgaria (because it’s cheap to film there), where a not-quite-mad scientist (Stacey Keach) and his not-very-bright assistant (Ted Raimi) are perfecting a procedure for healing brain damage by transferring part of a donor brain. It so happens that the CEO of a pharmaceutical company (Bruce Campbell) is in town, so they plan to approach him with their research. Meanwhile, the CEO is getting entangled with a vengeful Gypsy woman and a borderline-psychotic Russian taxi driver.
Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I realized that the plot is actually an elaborate set-up to allow Bruce Campbell to do the kind of shtick at which he excels, a combination of the most hilarious sequence of Evil Dead 2 and a memorably funny Xena: Warrior Princess episode entitled, “The Quest” (the one where Xena is Mostly Dead).
I am trying not to overuse the word “silly” in my reviews, but Man with the Screaming Brain cannot be described otherwise. This is good silly fun. Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi go crazy onscreen in a manner not seen since their recurring appearances on Xena and Hercules—in fact, this movie made me want to watch a bunch of those episodes again.
I suspect that those shows are where Bruce Campbell learned his directorial style. He doesn’t have the flair and style we associate with his friend Sam Raimi; this is standard capable TV-style direction, nothing too fancy. A little more over-the-top stylishness might have improved the film … but then again it might have made it unbearably campy, which the film certainly does not need. It’s cheesy enough.
Man with the Screaming Brain is what it is: a cheesy science-fiction TV movie with a lot of slapstick. Apart from the antics of Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi, Tamara Gorski plays the dangerous Gypsy woman without getting too vampy and Stacey Keach is obviously having a good time as Dr. Ivan Ivanoff. Everyone else pretty much acts as a straight man (or woman).
The movie oozes with cheese: a killer robot chick, Ted Raimi and Stacey Keach’s Bulgarian accents, Ted Raimi’s attempt to rap with a gramophone record, a chase involving bright pink Vespa with handlebar tassels, a villainess in full bridal regalia … and cheesiest of all, the mustache that Bruce Campbell sports during this film, which makes him look weirdly like John Cleese, especially when he’s doing this silly lurch around the city. (In particular, he looks like Basil Fawlty after the concussion in that Fawlty Towers episode with the moose head.)
Writing that list of cheesy effects makes me truly regret I am not Joe Bob Briggs and cannot give this movie the type of review it deserves. I don’t know if Joe Bob is reviewing movies these days, but this movie is exactly the type he ought to write about. It would be ideal drive-in fare.
If you want to watch Bruce Campbell in a really good, only minimally cheesy movie, rent Bubba Ho-Tep, where he plays an 80-year-old Elvis impersonator (or perhaps Elvis himself? who knows).
But if you have cable and you’re in the mood for a late-night low-budget science-fiction movie, or if you’re a Bruce Campbell fan who hasn’t seen him punch himself out in awhile, check the Sci-Fi Channel listings for Man with the Screaming Brain, which I believe will air in late September.
(Man with the Screaming Brain isn’t going to have a theatrical release apart from the Bruce Campbell tour. However, I noticed Anchor Bay listed on a poster for the movie, so I suspect it will get a DVD release at some point after it debuts on the Sci-Fi Channel.)
The Beau turned down invitations from me to see Sherlock Jr. this week and the Austin premiere of Me and You and Everyone We Know next week, but I’m still hoping to convince him to see Singin’ in the Rain at the Paramount this weekend. It’s amazing he still trusts me on any movie.