First published in 2001 and later in 2009 in the United Kingdom, If Chin’s Could Kill is Bruce’s story of his early life and his involvement with wunderkind Sam Raimi and co.
Written an awful lot like his acting style (not sure if that is actually a good thing or not) the book is entertaining and features a lot of memories from Bruce about: Growing up in Michigan, going to school in Michigan, discovering girls in Michigan, et al.
Yet amazingly the book is not about Michigan. Who’d have thunk it? The book is very entertaining as he relates his relationship with the Raimi family, which includes mom and pop Raimi plus Ted and Owen as well as Sam.
He also talks about filming all those Super 8 films in high school and their timorous expedition into “real” film making; or filming in 16mm and getting it blown up to the requisite 35mm.
Mr Campbell takes us on a ride on the ‘B’ side of the street and explains as humorously as possible about what it takes to be a ‘B’ movie actor and find your self a star as a result. This is a man who has made more independent movies than Carter’s got little pills and he’s only just able to make a living at it.
*At least, that’s his story and I don’t know, call me a sucker; but damn it, I believe him.*
The book has been “shot-gunned” with pictures throughout (not stuck in the middle like all those “other” phoney-baloney “star” books) and there are a lot of the young folks who started out on the entertainment road with Bruce.
I enjoyed reading the book that took me literally years to finally purchase. It was only after watching the pilot episode of Burn Notice that I remembered that he had “written” a couple of books on his career.
Since I’ve been a fan ever since watching Evil Dead in an Arkansas drive-in on dollar night, I could not wait to read it. I couldn’t find it anywhere to buy and my local library kept refusing my suggestion that they buy the book just so I could read it.
*A quick note to the author Bruce Campbell.*
Sorry Bruce, but the whole world’s a critic and my arguing that this was an obviously important story that needed to be read by all Bruce Campbell fans everywhere, seemed to fall on deaf ears. To my chagrin they still do not stock your first or even second book, Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way. So I had to stumble upon it completely by accident in my local Waterstones bookstore. I am still hoping to stumble upon your second book the same way.
Right, groveling done, I can go onto the rest of my review, Bruce takes us through his marriages and the birth of his children. He also takes us behind the scenes with Kevin Sorbo (aka Hercules) and what it was like working in New Zealand on the show (and on Xena Warrior Princess).
If you are a Bruce Campbell fan, you’ll love this book. I’ll give it a 5 out of 5 stars because if I concentrate I can hear Bruce reading the book in my head. That’s pretty damned entertaining, I can tell you.
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- Still Evil, Still Dead? (mrmovietimes.com)
- Here’s the short film that gave Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell the chance to make The Evil Dead (io9.com)
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I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award
(Great book by the way)
LOL!!
LOL
You’re right, he looks pretty good in Burn Notice. That’s what made my friend fall for him, ahah.
He hasn’t aged too badly either! LOL
One of my best friends is obsessed with Bruce, I’ll send her this link. He’s quite a looker back in his prime.
Yeah it seems that they went through their fair share of boxes and Shemp’s!! LOL
loved his book, very entertaining, especially the parts where he explains how they made movies before they “made it”, crashing cars through boxes and using fake bodies… love that stuff!
Yup, saw it and loved it! 🙂
Hey Mike, I did not even realize that he had written any books. Gonna have to try and grab those on Amazon. Have you ever seen Bubba Ho-Tep?
Hey, no problem! 😀
Thanks for all the Raimi and Campbell related links!
He’s the king of the ‘B’s’
Haha love Bruce Campbell 😀
Thanks mate of course without Bruce there’d be no book. lol
I read a copy a few years ago without seeing any Bruce Campbell films back then. Nice review, I really enjoyed the book.
Ahhhh. I was hoping you met him! Still your friend did (I hope you’re still friends) and that’s pretty damn close! I really enjoyed the book as well, it’s…just…not…signed…*sob* 😉
My friend went to a signing at a book store and she picked a copy up for me. I wish I went and actually met him though. The book was great.
If you could see me, you’d see that I just turned a horrible shade of green…from envy. Although…could it be…that you got one of the books signed in the warehouse by Bruce?? Just kidding! Seriously though, I am green with envy… *grumble*
I actually have a signed copy of this book. 🙂
Amen and hallelujah… 😀
If Chins Could Kill is on my Kindle and ready for me to dive into. It has now been bumped up to the next book on my reading list. Well, it would be the next book if I had a reading list, but I don’t have one. But it is the next book I’m going to read. Hail to the king, baby.