TedRaimi Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Even the most die-hard Bruce Campbell fans often approach the actor's latest films with trepidation. You never know whether you're going to end up watching something sublime and smart like Bubba Ho-Tep, or something that is ... not, like Alien Apocalypse. My Name is Bruce may be selling out quickly on its tour where actor/director Campbell is traveling with the film to promote it, but that doesn't mean anything ... some people would watch him read the phone book. It was a relief to discover that My Name is Bruce is a bundle of good cheesy fun. The gags tend to work, the storyline is eye-rollingly ridiculous but rarely dull, and Campbell is at his lovably jerky best.

Campbell plays Bruce Campbell -- a less successful and more obnoxious version of himself. This Bruce lives in a trailer that has seen better days, yet acts like a numero-uno prima donna on the set of his latest Grade-Z movie, Cave Alien 2. He drunk-dials his ex-wife, he shares bottles of cheap booze with his dog, he hangs out in topless-dancing bars. Meanwhile, a small town is being tormented by an ancient Chinese ghost, and the teenager responsible for unleashing the spirit is the world's biggest Bruce Campbell fan. He convinces the townspeople that they should kidnap Bruce and bring him to their town to play the hero.

Unlike most releases from Shock-O-Rama Cinema, the cast of Millennium Crisis actually has some familiar faces. Granted, the highest profile actor we have here is Ted Raimi (Sam's brother) along with Ato Essandoh who played Natalie Portman's brother in Garden State (though IMDB oddly credits the role to "Tao Jones") and Olja Hrustic who was one of Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS in Grindhouse. Usually when a Shock-O-Rama film makes any claim to star power it means someone like Misty Mundae has migrated over from their sister company's line of softcore videos, so this is something of a departure for them. In fact the cast of this highly ambitious zero budget science fiction epic is its strongest asset.

Set in a distant future, human civilization is divided into the Terran and Andromodean Empires, who have enjoyed a fragile peace for a century or so. That peace is threatened when a well-armed assassin believed to be a member of Terran Special Forces slaughters several people on Altair IV. Meanwhile on Cassiopeia Prime, a young woman named Aurora is trying to find out who and what she is. She has no knowledge of her ancestry, but she has the uncanny ability to imitate voices and ends up being fired from her clerical job for mimicking the boss. Her friend Lexie quickly finds her a new position, escorting an alien android named Lucretia to Altair IV.

It is quite likely you've never heard of Ted Raimi. If that's the case, I'm sorry for you, because you are missing out. You can probably use your logical reasoning capacities to figure out why a guy named Ted Raimi is connected to the Spider-Man films, but in case you have your cognitive capacities disconnected here is a hint -- he's the director's brother. He's also an actor (on the smaller "B" scale most of the time) and a comedian, and a darn nice guy. He's also buddies with Bruce Campbell (via the Sam Raimi -- Bruce Campbell) connection from their younger years. Like Campbell, Ted Raimi has appeared in both of his brother's previous Spider-Man films; the perks of having a talented and famous director brother.

Although he isn't allowed to discuss any details, Ted recently talked to Comics Continuum about the third film, and confirmed his return to the franchise as Hoffman, the Daily Bugle reporter who has appeared in the previous films. Said Raimi: "I'm definitely in Spider-Man 3."  Even though it is only a small, small part, this makes me happy. I like Ted and I like to see him on screen, even in the little roles.