5 Most Bad Ass Bruce Campbell Characters

    Bruce Campbell is a bad ass. Always has been, always will be. The first time I saw Bruce Campbell was probably in Evil Dead II as Ash. Evil Dead II was an awesome movie about a guy and his girl friend who get stranded in a creepy cabin out in the woods. Sound lame? Yeah, it's a pretty cliche set up, but Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell pull it off. This wasn't just some slasher movie, it was hilariously funny and still a bit gory. Army of Darkness was the follow up to the Evil Dead movies and, in my opinion, even better. I've enjoyed all of Bruce Campbell's movies and if I could be bothered to read a book, I'd probably enjoy the hell out of his books... but for now I'll stick to the movies.

    So without further ado, here is my list of the top five most bad ass roles as portrayed by Bruce Campbell:

5. William Cole

    In 2005 Bruce Campbell starred in a low budget movie called The Man With the Screaming Brain. In this movie Campbell plays William Cole, a wealthy American industrialist who is working on an infrastructure project in Bulgaria. This is a B-Movie in the truest sense... it even has Stacy Keach playing the part of the mad scientist. Campbell's character killed by a Gypsy seductress who also kills a cab driver. As the title would imply, the brains of these two guys are mashed together which leads to plenty of one-man solo physical comedy. Nothing too crazy, but Americans beating up on Eastern Bloc dirt bags is pretty bad ass in my book, especially if they are have a crazy Frankenstein brain.

4. Jack Stiles the Daring Dragoon

    In the year 2000 Bruce Campbell starred in a short lived made-for-syndication TV series called Jack of All Trades. Campbell played the title role of Jack Stiles, an American spy under the employ of President Thomas Jefferson. The series starts off in 1800 with Bruce Campbell rescuing Jefferson's niece from a bunch of evil French Canadian soldiers who kidnapped her. After promptly nailing Jefferson's niece, Campbell is sent on assignment to an island in the south Pacific where he tries to nail a British secret agent. The rest of the series is about Campbell foiling Napoleon's attempts to conquer the United States. The show is full of historical inaccuracies which are ridiculous and funny. Jack Stiles is a 19th century American James Bond and he beats up on the French, it goes without saying that he's a bad ass.

3. Dylan Reid

   Dylan Reid was the name of the theater manager Campbell played in a cameo in Spider-Man 2. It was a brief appearance but it was bad ass nonetheless... Campbell stops Peter Parker from entering the theater to see Mary Jane's performance which then leads to drama between Parker and Mary Jane. It may not sound like much but look at it this way, Bruce Campbell is effectively the ONLY villain ever to have thwarted Spider-Man. He's so bad ass it only took him like 30 seconds.

2. Ashley J. Williams

   No Bruce Campbell post would be complete without mentioning Ash from the Evil Dead movies. I considered even giving two spots on this list to Ash, that's just how bad ass he is. Not only that, but the Evil Dead II Ash is a bit different than the Army of Darkness Ash. Both are paradigms of how a real man should act/kick ass, but if I had to rank one higher than the other, it'd totally be Army of Darkness Ash.

   So what makes Ash so awesome anyways? Well, in Evil Dead he cuts his own freaking hand off with a chainsaw... that's some pretty bad ass shit. Not quite as bad ass as attaching that chainsaw to your stump and then fighting an army of skeletons though. The best part about Evil Dead and Army of Darkness is that they aren't really horror movies. There is plenty of blood and gore but there is a lot of slapstick and humor as well. Ash could out bad-ass any other character on this list, except for the #1 that is...

1. Brisco County Jr.

    Brisco County Jr. is the Han Solo of science fiction westerns. Campbell's Brisco County Jr. is a bounty hunter/lawyer who teams up with a rival bounty hunter (and sassy black man) Lord Bowler and a dweeb named Socrates that works as a liaison between Brisco and his employer. Brisco starts out on a revenge mission to track down the assholes who killed his Pa. Brisco is so bad ass that his dad is R. Lee Ermey... seriously. So Brisco County Sr. was a U.S. Marshall who was killed in a train wreck when the members of a gang painted a boulder to match the train tracks/background like so much Bugs Bunny Cartoon. Later in the show Brisco has to deal with super villains and a futuristic orb that makes his sweet ivory pistols glow. Remember when I said this show was bad ass?

    Brisco County Jr. was steam punk before steam punk even existed. This show was a spiritual successor to Wild Wild West... the TV show, not the movie. Except it has much more science-fictiony stuff... like the movie, not the TV show. This show was so bad ass there was even a naked chick from the future.

Think I've got it all wrong? Let me hear about it, post a comment below if you think you've got a better list of Bruce Campbell's bad ass roles.