They Call Me Bruce

source: They Call Me Bruce

One of the best comedies I have ever seen - it's very memorable and unique. It's just what you think it might be: A comedy film for those that like that stupid comedies and martial arts. It's a dork's delight. I do not believe that the film in any way tarnishes or makes fun of Bruce Lee - instead it is more a Bruce Lee fan film. So many of us wish we could be the real Bruce Lee but are so much closer to being Johnny Yune's Bruce! Note: You do not have to like Bruce Lee to enjoy this film - you only need to love crazy comedies. I would say this a very good comedy movie to watch on an afternoon that you have some free time and in need of a good laugh. 8.5/10

My brother and I have vivid memories of wandering into the theater in 1982, watching They Call Me Bruce with our mom, and laughing hysterically as only small children best know how to do. Fast forward to 2019, and I can report that perhaps They Call Me Bruce - while retaining some dicey and goofball Reagan-era charm - hasn't quite weathered the storm of time as well as my love of nostalgia may have hoped. They Call Me Bruce is a slapstick-heavy kung fu film spoof; a satire of the heavily-dubbed film imports of the 1970's coming straight out of the Hong Kong film marketplace. At its best, it borrows successfully from the wonderfully inane parody vibes of Zucker and Abrahams' Airplane, Naked Gun, and Top Secret. At its worst, it borrows unsuccessfully from the same places. The story itself plays out like the title directly implies it might: There's a guy running around who "they" call Bruce (Johnny Yune). Because in the distinguished opinions of the mostly white secondary characters, Yune's character looks a lot like Hong Kong-American film star Bruce Lee (he doesn't, which makes it all either more egregious or more rad, viewer-depending). It's a film premise that if it first appeared today wouldn't have to withstand our modern Cancel Culture upon release, because absolutely no studio would have green-lighted its production in the first place. In trying to avoid a constant rekindling of the today-versus-yesterday cultural spat between dismissive GenXers and accusatory Millennials, let's stipulate that there's a lot of stuff we've learned since 1982 that leads to more sensitivity in recent film, while also agreeing that it's tough to take a thing from its original context and solely apply current values to it as if it were conceived today. They Call Me Bruce is gloriously stupid at times, just plain stupid at other times, and will inevitably play out uneasily and as outdated to some, as it does come from a different time and space - a fact which can be used to both arguably defend and legitimately prosecute it. Is it still fun in the end? The answer here is yes, but not without contingencies. Now go find out for yourself.

Some of these people are being way too critical over the quality of the script and social stereotypes. People should take it for what it is...it's a spoof. It's not like they have money to recruit big-name stars. It's a movie that should be enjoyed by the public...it's not an oscar contender. Are the gags mundane? yes. Are there asian stereotypes? Yes. The movie plays on these stereotypes and they know that's how the general public viewed them at the time. Someone commented on how Johnny's acting was bad...but excuse me...there was no royal academy of acting in korea. Like Margaret Cho said, "There was war." And also...where do people get the idea that the character Bruce is Korean? Don't people see the Chinese motif in the story? Chinese flour, Chinese noodles, Chinese food? Marco Polo? The actor is Korean, yes, but they said nothing of Bruce being Korean.

All I can say is that this movie and its sequel "They still call me Bruce" are an integral part of any B grade movie night. Johnny Yune and the rest of the cast pull off classic gags at all too regular intervals. I guarantee that you will be laughing for months.

This is one of the most inept films in terms of craft I've ever seen. It is so poorly filmed that it makes an Ed Wood, Jr. movie or one of Oscar Micheaux's later films that are plagued by continuity problems seem masterpieces of craft in comparison. "They Call Me Bruce?" makes Wood's GLEN OR GLENDA? seem like Eisenstein's POTEMKIN. The acting was atrocious, yet the film was strangely compelling -- as compelling as watching a car crash. I'm not joking. It takes some kind of negative panache to pull off a film that is so GODAWFUL. I just kept watching and watching, appalled yet fascinated. The scene in the Hair Styling salon, where Johnny Yune is wearing a blonde wig and a mumu and is posing as a mannikin (a mafia torpedo, looking for Yune's character in the shop, keeps stabbing the mannikin next to which Yune stands, never once noticing that Yune keeps moving to reposition himself down the line of mannikins to avoid getting stabbed himself; the torpedo's partner, holding a pistol to the shopkeeper's head, never notices the moving "mannikin" either, distracted as they are by the shouting of the clever shopkeeper) is just unbelievable. Talk about suspension of disbelief! The scene that preceded this one, where a group of African Americans hold Yune and his partner at knife point and Yune speaks to them by using a HOW TO TALK JIVE dictionary, is also simply unbelievable. Yune's wooing of the African American "gang-members" with jive, who comport themselves with much eye-rolling, "jive-talking" and "soulful" body movements (imitated by Yune's character) that make the late Stepin Fetchit's shtick seem to ne as dignified as Paul Robeson in comparison, is one of the landmark moments of the cinema in the sense that it likely would wind up in some TV documentary about racism if this movie wasn't so damn obscure! If there ever is a TV doc about Asian-African American racism, this could be exhibit #1!

First, I loved the movie. I thought it was hilarious. But then again, that was MANY years ago when I saw the movie. I miss funny movies from the 1980's, when it was easier to laugh at ourselves. I think the dude who posted the bologna and deli comments missed the point. The movie wasn't meant to poke fun at Asians or Asian Americans. It poked fun at EVERYONE. And more specifically, everyone BUT Asian Americans, who were ignorant of all people of Asian decent. It reminds me of the line Gene Wilder had in " Blazing Saddles. " " They're common people, simple folk, people of the land... ya know? MORONS. " Some people don't get it. Some see it as it is. And some people ( like myself ) just love the movie for nostalgia reasons. It was simple humor and funny. No one in the movie needed to curse like a sailor or shoot and kill people to entertain. TV and Movies NEED that these days. God Bless Johnny Yune wherever he may be... and thank you, sir.

I had read the short review of this movie in "The Video Movie Guide" over and over, thinking it would be bad; but by luck, it was on T.V. one summer afternoon, so I watched it. Well, they were wrong (again). This movie was good. It at least did its job in making me laugh like crazy at times, which is tough for anything coming down the pike these days. Johnny Yune, a now forgotten comedian, plays Bruce, so-called because people mistake him for Bruce Lee (he looks nothing like him). Bruce gets himself involved with the Mafia, who use him and Ralph Mauro as unknowing guinea pigs to deliver "Chinese Flour", which is really cocaine, to various bosses from L.A. to N.Y. When things go sour, the late Margaux Hemmingway tries to off the heroes. The film is very cheap-looking and dark, but there are some absolutely funny lines delivered by Yune. When he's in Las Vegas and he's asked about gambling Bruce: Ah Gambling! In China, I knew a woman who made her husband a millionaire through gambling. Only thing was, he used to be a billionaire. When he's at a black church and asked to testify. Bruce: We were so poor that when a thief broke into our house, we'd rob him! Early in the film, his adventures at a dojo are pure slapstick, as well as a scene where Yune and Mauro are in a Texas jail, and they use the Chinese Flour to cause a jailbreak, then when the cocaine is on the clothes of the prisoners, they start sniffing at the clothes to snort the coke! Hilarious. You won't find this on DVD, but you'll find this hidden gem somewhere in a video store. See it.

The jokes are stupid and Johnny Yune's acting is atrocious, but this is one of the funniest comedies ever made. Best line- "I'm a sex object, when I ask women for sex, they object" Trust me on this one.

if anyone like myself had HBO in the summer of 84 then you saw this film many many times. i have to confess i have have seen this well over 75 times in my life and i still can watch it and laugh at each wonderful joke. It takes me back to a time when watching a film was innocent and the internet wasn't there to poison my opinion and i could watch anything without expectations. This film is in my top 5 because of the time and place it was released. Johnny Yune should have stuck around and made a few more films i think he could have really made something of himself. This movie poster still hangs in my man cave. Somewhat sad that Margaux Hemingway would have not build on this role as she is excellent as Carman and unfortunately would leave this earth much to early.