MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN (2005)...EVIL DEAD'S BRUCE CAMPBELL IN BRAIN SURGERY MASH-UP

DIRECTED AND WRITTEN by Bruce Campbell (from a story by Bruce Campbell, David Goodman & Sam Raimi).

STARRING  - Bruce Campbell as William Cole,  Tamara Gorski as Tatoya,  Ted Raimi as Pavel,  Antoinette Byron as Jackie Cole,  Stacy Keach as Dr. Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov,  Vladimir Kolev as Yegor Stragov.

PLOT - William Cole is an arrogant, ruthless businessman currently in Bulgaria on a business trip with his bored and frustrated wife, Jackie. They hire a taxi driven by ex-KGB agent Yegor. They end up in the wrong part of town and have an altercation with Yegor's obssesive and psychotic ex-girlfriend, Tatoya, as well as a group of would be robbers. Seeing Yegor fight off the robbers, William hires him as a chauffeur/bodyguard for the remainder of his trip.

On the other side of town, eccentric scientist Dr Ivanov has perfected a brain transplant procedure where he can fuse parts of two brains together as one functioning entity. His assistant, Pavel, has built an android which also needs a human brain to operate correctly. The two are on the lookout for brain donors for thier respective projects.

William and Yegor have a further encounter with Tatoya, this time they both come off for the worse. William ends up with his head stoved in by a shovel, leaving him brain damaged and Yegor ends up dead - shot to death by Tatoya. Jackie swears vengeance on Tatoya but she too ends up dead at the psychotic gypsy girl's hands.  Dr. Ivanov and Pavel now have thier brain donors...

Jackie's brain ends up in the body of the malfunctioning android, whilst William has part of Yegor's brain fused with his own. William now has the consciousness of two people housed in his brain, his own and that of Yegor  - both vying for control of his body. 

Can the Capitalist and the Communist now occupying the same body overcome thier differences and work together to avenge thier deaths at the hands of Tatoya ? And will William's now robotised wife be a help or a hinderence to them ?

DIALOUGE  -  Dr. Ivanov  - "You realise what this MEANS don't you ? With new drugs brains can be like...what is word for interlocking toys ?"  Pavel - "LEGO'S".

PERFORMANCES  - Bruce Campbell is probably my favourite B-movie actor of the past few decades. From his iconic role as Ash Williams in the Evil Dead movies and TV series, through to his role as an elderly Elvis Presley in Bubba Ho Tep, to his various cameos in Spider Man and Marvel movies, he's always been consistently entertaining. He's an actor that doesn't take himself remotely seriously, he's never afraid to punch himself repeatedly in the face or cover himself in tons of fake blood for our entertainment and he's been doing it for decades. Now in his sixties, Bruce is slowing down a bit these days, having retired from the role of Ash Williams a few years back - a character he'd been playing since his early twenties, but young or old, the mans still a legend and always will be.

Here Bruce portrays William Cole. Cole is not as likeable as Campbell's characters normally tend to be - he's arrogant, dishonest and tries to paper over his marital problems by throwing money at them instead of talking to his wife like an adult. However, Cole does become more likeable as the film progresses - learning how to be a hero from the consciousness of the Russian he now shares his brain with. He also learns to appreciate and love his wife again (even though she's now trapped in the body of a lumbering, malfunctioning android). There are lots of chances for Campbell to engage in his patented physical comedy in this movie. Yegor has control of one half of William's body and the two don't always get along - so expect lots of scenes of Campbell beating himself up as the two opposing united minds vie for control of the body that they now cohabit. Campbell also wrote and directed this film and he does a stand up job of that as well.

The supporting cast all play thier respective parts well too. Tamara Gorski is particularly convincing as the unhinged, psychotic Tatoya. She's a woman who is stunningly attractive but who is constantly getting let down by men. Somewhere along the way this has driven her completely insane and turned her into a killer. Gorski flips from being sad and vulnerable to sexily seductive and then outright murderously unhinged in a very natural and organic way. Its a great performance and she's a great villain.

Antoinette Byron plays William's wife Jackie. Both sexualy and emotionally frustrated at her life with William - she's a woman that has been palmed off for years with gifts and material possessions, when all she wants deep down is for somebody to love her and appreciate her. Byron puts this across well in her scenes and has an authentic love/hate vibe with Campbell onscreen. Don't ask me why she's wearing a really obvious blonde wig in this film though, as I have absolutely no idea.

Ted Raimi is Pavel, Ivanov's assistant. Raimi has appeared alongside Bruce Campbell in many films and TV shows. The two men are good friends in real life and they always spark off one another brilliantly whenever they are onscreen together. They always look like they're having fun in the way that only lifelong friends can, its always nice to see them acting together as a result of this. This film is no exception, although I could have done without Raimi's really bad rapping. Comedy rap music always winds me up for some reason, usually because its never funny and this is no exception.

Vladimir Kolev makes for a likable downtrodden ex-KGB man turned struggling taxi driver. His character seems to be a loveable rogue who can turn on a dime into a clearly well trained fighter should the need arise. Kolev was an ex- boxer turned actor and he brings this sense of physical strength and prowess to the role of Yegor. He's dispatched fairly early but continues the role as a disembodied voice after his brain has been fused with William's. He has some good back and forth dialogue scenes with Campbell as the two hurl insults at one another. Thier verbal sparring is one of the highlights of this film.

Hollywood veteran Stacy Keach plays Dr. Ivanov, he doesn't do much really except spout some technical jargon in an unconvincing Russian accent. Its a typical mad scientist role but he does it well enough for what it is.

SFX - The effects in this film are limited but adequate. The main showpiece is William's post operation scars makeup, which make Campbell's head look like a giant comedy penis...

This is, of course, entirely intentional and is commented upon by several characters in the film. It definitely adds to the comedy seeing Campbell run around the screen looking like a walking gland, especially in the more action packed scenes.

The other main effect is the robot outfit for the robotised Jackie. Lets just say that Robot Jackie most DEFINITELY inhabits the uncanny valley and leave it at that...

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Not a huge amount of either. William gets brained with a shovel, Yegor is shot dead and Jackie pushed down a flight of stairs to her death but its not particularly gory. The main gore is in the brain transplant scene where we get this...

Simple but effective.

RATING  - Man With The Screaming Brain is a fun horror/sci-fi comedy. It's no classic but it achieves what it sets out to do and that's to be an amusing and cheesy slice of schlock. Its always good to see Bruce Campbell in a film and this time is no exception. Not every joke works but there are some great moments and this is well worth a watch. It's not on a par with the Evil Dead trilogy but its a good time all the same.

Overall  - 3 and a half knob headed Campbell's out of 5.