Book Review: Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way

Written by Steve

Thursday, 30 July 2009 03:58

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way tells the story of Bruce Campbell, a B-Movie actor known for his major roles in countless low-budget movies and failed television serious and his bit parts in every installment of a very successful super-hero franchise. Once day, Bruce gets a chance at his big break: the opportunity to audition for a Robert Evans production of a Mike Nichols movie called Let’s Make Love!, starring Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger. Despite his iffy filmography and less-than-impressive audition, Bruce manages beat out Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, and several other actors with actual talent, mainly because Mike Nichols wants to give the guy his shot at the A-List.

Bruce is selected to play the part of Foyl, a genteel southern doorman who is an expert on relationships. Not wanting to let Mike Nichols down, Bruce begins to meticulously research his character, working as a doorman, visiting the south, and even spending some time as a wedding planner (to get a handle on the relationship stuff). Along the way, he gets added to a number of government watch lists due to wacky misunderstanding involving then-Secretary of State Colin Powell.

When not researching or running afoul of federal agents, Bruce does a lot to help the production. In an attempt to make a mugging scene a little more exciting, Bruce teaches Gere how to fight. When the actors show Evans the scene, he’s so impressed that he starts adding more and more action to the romantic comedy. Bruce also suggests ways to improve other aspects of the production, from costuming to camera work and special effects.

Eventually, Bruce begins to suspect that someone is sabotaging the film, turning it the biggest-budget B-movie in history. Realizing that this might be his only chance to escape the drudgery of life as a B-grade actor, Bruce takes it upon himself to put a stop to such nonsense. As he tries to root out the perpetrator, Bruce finds himself in the middle of a web of revenge, betrayal, and madness.

If you’ve read If Chins Could Kill, you already know that Bruce Campbell is a very good writer. His writing style is very casual and easy to read, and his humor runs the gamut from almost imperceptibly subtle to laugh-out-loud wacky. Campbell makes the switch from biography to biographical fiction very well, grounding the more outrageous aspects of the story with lots of very realistic-seeming scenes. The writing is supplemented by tons of fake book covers, movie posters, newspaper articles, websites, and other graphical gags, all done very well by Craig “Kif” Sanborn.

Unless you hate books that are fun and entertaining, you’ll probably enjoy Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way.

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