If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor

Inhoud

Okay, so at least you're interested enough to pick up this book and look inside. I think you and I are going to get along just fine.
Life is full of choices. Right now, yours is whether or not to buy the autobiography of a mid-grade, kind of hammy actor.
Am I supposed to know this guy? you think to yourself.
No, and that's exactly the point. Bookstores are chock full of household name actors and their high stakes shenanigans. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but we've all been down that road before.
Case in point: look to your left - see that Judy Garland book? You don't need that, you know plenty about her already - great voice, crappy life. Now look to your right at the Charlton Heston book. You don't need to cough up hard-earned dough for that either. You know his story too - great voice, crappy toupee.
The truth is that though you might not have a clue who I am, there are countless working stiffs like me out there, grinding away every day at the wheel of fortune.
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor is my first book, and I invite you to ride with me through the choppy waters of blue collar Hollywood.
Okay, so buy the damned book already and read like the wind!
Best,
Bruce Campbell
P.S. If the book sucks, at least there are gobs of pictures, and they're not crammed in the middle like all those other actor books.

Bespreking

A Groovy ride through the life of a cult icon

The B movie actor Bruce Campbell invites his readers to ride with him through the choppy waters of blue-collar Hollywood. By opening If Chins Could Kill you get exactly what he promises: a glimpse of the crazy world of cinema. Moreover, the centerpiece of the book -and as such of Bruce's "rich" acting career- is the creation of a real low budget cult phenomenon that made the foundations of Hollywood shiver. At the age of 21, Bruce and his friend Sam Raimi started working on their first full-feature movie, assisted by a bunch of naïve, but highly enthusiastic youngsters. That first feature would become know as The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi would turn out to be a really great director who gave birth to films like Spider-man and A Simple Plan. And Bruce? Well, he did what he did best: playing the actor eternally doomed on being on the verge of a major breakthrough... and proud of it!

But Bruce is more than a B-movie actor. He is also a great storyteller. The memoirs he has put down to paper mostly break down to a sum of quite hilarious anecdotes, but at the same time overwhelm you with a feeling of genuineness and admiration for the art of filmmaking. Although quite some of his adventures in that strange celluloid world turn out differently than he had hoped for, Bruce maintains a light-hearted perspective throughout his story. He tells his story in an amusingly self depreciating manner, but never fails to convince the reader that whatever he did, he had an absolutely groovy time!

For everyone who is interested in how movies come to life, If Chins Could Kill is also a very insightful book. But even if the movie business does not tickle your fancy, this book might be one of the funniest autobiographies you'll ever read.