Alan Rapp

I was lucky enough to be on a stop for the Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way book tour.  Being the naturally curious sort, I went out and grabbed both books to sneak a peek at how Bruce Campbell’s mind works.  Both are worthy of some serious, well not too serious,  readin’!

Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way / If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Star
4 Stars

I was lucky enough to be on a stop for the Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way book tour.  Being the naturally curious sort, I went out and grabbed both books to sneak a peek at how Bruce Campbell’s mind works.  His first book is the insightful autobiography If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor which tells the story of his childhood and his early work on films (Evil Dead) and television (Briscoe County, Jr.).  His new novel Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way effectively demonstrates why Campbell hasn’t worked on more A-list projects.  Both are worthy of some serious, well not too serious,  readin’!

Shhh…nobody tell Nichols, Gere or Zellweger!

Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way

Campbell’s new book is a self deprecating novel about his chance of getting out of B movies and moving onto the A-list.  Although many of the characters in the book are real this is a book of fiction, or as our author states, “everything in this book actually happened, except for all the stuff that didn’t.”  Our lead character Bruce Campbell is given an Oscar caliber supporting role in the new Mike Nichols film Let’s Make Love!  Problems start to arise on the project when despite his best efforts Campbell begins to slowly influence the movie, its director, and its stars with his B movie sensibilities.  He gets Richard Gere interested in doing his own stunt work, he gives some rather humorous suggestions to Rene Zellweger and the costume director, and turns Mike Nichols’ dramatic project into an overspending, cheesy, special effect nightmare of a movie.  The studio of course blames all of this on our hero infecting the project with a “B movie virus.”

Any book that makes me laugh out loud I have to endorse.  The most comical scenes involve Campbell’s preparation and research for his character Foyl Whipple.  A stint as a doorman (Foyl’s profession) is not only disastrous but gets the unwanted attention of the US Secret Service.  Learning about relationships and how to give advice leads him into Lester Shankwater’s van which produces some of the funniest lines of the book as we watch how not to pick up women.  We also get a look at the gentlemen of the South, a stint as a wedding planner, an attack on the movie studio, and some hilarious interaction between Campbell and his co-stars Richard Gere and Rene Zellweger.

Finally an autobiography worth reading!

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor

Usually in biographies of actors you get tales of studying in college or with renowned theatrical types.  What makes If Chins Could Kill so unique is it’s about an average guy who grew up enjoying film and theater, found friends who had similar interests, and set out to make a career as a working actor and would eventually become the B movie king.  None of that method bullshit here.  Campbell gives us some terrific memories of growing up in Detroit and about his early attempts into the world of Super 8mm films such as It’s Murder and The Happy Valley Kid.  He also stops from time to time to allow others to share their remembrances about specific events, including Sam Raimi.  Not too much mind you, this is his book after all; let those other guys get their own book deals!

We get a look at the torturous process of making Evil Dead, which after you read you may wonder how it ever got finished, a look at the sequels and Campbell’s work since then on projects such as Brisco County, Jr. and The Hudsucker Proxy.  For me though the best parts of the book were the anecdotes about his experiences and friendships made through growing up and Detroit and his early filmmaking days.  My favorite of these has to be the gag Campbell plays on his old friend David Goodman that involves a lemon of a car, a mechanic, a few phone calls, and the US Department of Justice.  Folks, friendship can be torture as Campbell himself learned from the evil glee Sam Raimi gets putting him, his friend, in some very hazardous situations while filming.

 

I’d recommend both of these books to fans of Bruce Campbell and fans of movies in general.  The novel is a very funny take on the difference between the A-list and B movies.  The autobiography I would also recommend to anyone interested in how to raise money, make, and market a movie or just how to make some great looking fake blood.  If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor is available in trade paperback for $13.95 and Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way is available in Hardcover for $23.95.  So what are ya’ waiting for already?  Get your butts to the bookstore and pick them up, or I might have to get out my Boomstick!

A compilation of Maher’s New Rules from the closing segment of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher such as “Country music stars can’t be authors,” and “If you can’t get drunk at a fraternity, it’s not a fraternity.”  Great stuff!

New Rules
3 & 1/2 Stars

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:  I freakin’ love Bill Maher.  New Rules is a collection of Maher’s weekly musings from the closing segment of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher.  Although I don’t always agree with his take, I will constantly stand up and cheer him for having the balls to put it out there without apology.  So sit back kiddies; it’s time for New Rules.

I DON’T CARE IF YOUR PHONE TAKES PICTURES. IT’S A PHONE, NOT A SWISS ARMY KNIFE.

Okay, you know I’ve going to recommend this so let me start of with some of the things that bothered me about the collection.  Except for the introduction there is no new material here.  If you have watched the show you will have seen and heard all that the book contains.  Also, some of the rules do not have the same impact taken out of the context in which they originally aired.  These are small gripes however and although it comes with a steep price tag (Hardcover is priced at $24.95) I still believe it’s a nice addition to a collection, or as Maher says in his introduction many, many times “it makes a great gift.”

So what are New Rules?  They are observations Maher has made about people, activities,  groups, and our society.  For each one he creates a “new rule.”  His rules have a certain liberal slant, but it does not stop him from voicing his displeasure at the both the left and the right.  He also comments on observations and troubling trends of our society.  Each rule is stated as a simple fact and then explained in greater detail.

Maher attacks the evil of fast food, parents who are incapable of disciplining their children, and the spinelessness of the Democratic Party.  He examines the hypocrisy of the small government party, Republicans, invading privacy in the home and even going so far as to try to regulate love and marriage.  He rails against interest groups power in Washington, especially the Christian Right.

He spends time ranting against pharmacists who refuse to fill medical prescriptions for birth control on their own personal moral objections.  He voices his displeasure over Hollywood’s ineptitude to put out a quality product, but spends some time defending his home state of California.  He attacks pop culture; he criticizes the idea of people being famous for nothing and makes a quite humorous suggestion for the name of Brittney Spears’ baby.

In two of his more entertaining spiels he looks as the sexually active youth of America.  In the first, he examines how abstinence pledges have caused teenagers to have exactly the same amount of STDs as teens who do not take the pledge.  Also it seems girls who have taken the pledge are six times more likely to perform oral sex and four times more likely to perform anal sex.  The kids signed a contract, but as Bill points out, “they found loopholes—two of them to be exact.”  In the second he examines a rather strange phenomenon at local malls.  It seems many young suburban white girls have begun prostituting themselves at the local mall in order to buy clothes from the various shops.  Sigh, to be sixteen again. 

I’d recommend this look to anyone that likes political and observational humor; this is well researched and well delivered.  Maher provides a sharp wit, an uncompromising gaze, and a certian flippancy at the world in analyzing what is wrong with all the rest of us.  I’ll leave you with a few more rules I paticularly enjoyed:

If you can’t get drunk at a fraternity, it’s not a fraternity.

Country music stars can’t be authors.

The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole.

Bob Dylan must stop denying he was the voice of a generation.

The people in America who were the most in favor of the Iraq war must go there and fight it.