Book Review: Hail to the Chin by Bruce Campbell

Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell with Craig Sanborn

B movie icon Bruce Campbell picks up where he left of in If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. The year is now 1997 and Bruce moves to Oregon to get away from the rat race in Hollywood. The book covers about twenty years, starting with the first (and only) season of Jack of All Trades in 1998 and getting all the way to the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead in 2015. The first part deals with a lot of indie work, including Bubba Hotep, a couple of Syfy channel movies, and My Name Is Bruce. Work became much steadier when Burn Notice took off as a series, leading to a spin-off movie and a good-will tour of Iraqi military bases with series star Jeffery Donovan. After another stint of television pilots and small films, he helped produce the big screen remake of Evil Dead and readily signed up to return to his first big part, Ashley Williams, for TV.

The book is full of many entertaining anecdotes and insider info on Campbell's career. I've followed his career with joy, so it's nice to revisit highlights (I need to watch Bubba Hotep again, shamefully I have not reviewed it, nor the first book). The book is full of little photos either from his life or gags about his experiences (the best was the movie marquee that reads, "APPENDAGE-SEVERING DOUBLE FEATURE: BRUCE CAMPBELL, EVIL DEAD 2; JAMES FRANCO, 127 HOURS"). The book is a quick read and promises a third act but we'll probably have to wait another fifteen or twenty years for that. I'm sure it will be a fun wait.

Highly recommended for fans of Bruce Campbell. If you aren't one, why not? If you aren't, you probably won't enjoy this book much.